Press Text:
Experience the newly gathered trio of ECM-guitarist Jakob Bro with his lifelong friend and musical brother-in-arms Anders Christensen in a new setting with American drum icon Brian Blade, who Jakob Bro describes as a true ‘force of nature’.
Following four nights of recording of their inaugural performances – live on stage at Flagey in Bruxelles, Belgium – Bro/AC/Blade is set for their US premiere in 2024 at the boldly curated Big Ears Festival in Knoxville and a full week at the legendary Village Vanguard in New York, where Jakob Bro has had an annual stint as a leader, starting in 2020 to high praise.
Jakob Bro (1978) is a guitarist, composer and ECM recording artist based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has released 16 records as a bandleader including musicians Lee Konitz, Paul Motian, Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell, Kenny Wheeler, Paul Bley and more, and he is a former member of Paul Motian & The Electric Bebop Band and of Tomasz Stanko Quintet. Jakob Bro’s music and various ensembles are depicted in the film “Music for Black Pigeons” (directed by Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed).
Bass player and composer Anders Christensen (AC), also a former collaborator of Paul Motian, Tomasz Stanko and part of The Raveonettes, has joined forces with Jakob Bro for almost 20 years in various bands including trios with Tom Harrell, Joe Lovano and Lee Konitz and larger groups with Andrew D’Angelo, Chris Cheek, Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossy. He was also part of the acclaimed ECM-tribute to Paul Motian “Once Around The Room” led by Bro and Lovano to festivals and concert halls across Europe as well as Village Vanguard in 2023.
The Louisiana-native Brian Blade established himself as a versatile, accomplished drummer early in his career, appearing on albums by the likes of Joshua Redman, Kenny Garrett, and Bob Dylan. Blade released his first album, Brian Blade Fellowship, at the age of 27 in 1998. Always an in-demand sideman and collaborator, Blade worked with a varied bevy of artists, including Joni Mitchell, Chick Corea, Norah Jones, and Wayne Shorter. Blade continues to record and tour at the vanguard of creative music.
Reviews:
★★★★★ – L’Echo (BE): “The bass runs the store while Bro and Blade weave their web: when Bro goes looking for impossible sounds, Blade throws inextricable rhythms. And it sticks. Often, like Bill Frisell, the guitar evokes the great desert or interstellar spaces, which is a bit the same thing in the end. These are moments in suspension or in weightlessness, that Brian Blade, more percussionist than drummer, integrates perfectly.”
Written in Music (NL): “Bro’s playing is so rich and versatile and his compositions leave so much room for improvisation that as a listener you can only watch and listen breathlessly… Intangibly beautiful.”
Downbeat (US): ”Danish guitarist Jakob Bro creates magical music, impossible to categorize or capture. His songs are best described as jewels revolving in mid-air, reflecting and refracting light”
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Photos: Patrick Van Vlerken, Flagey
