Marius Neset

“Golden Xplosion”

(Edition Records EDN 1027)

“Golden Xplosion” represents the third classic release from Edition Records in only the first quarter of 2011. Hot on the heels of Meadow’s “Blissful Ignorance” and Kairos 4tet’s “Statement Of Intent” comes this remarkable album from the young Norwegian saxophonist and composer Marius Neset.

The 25 year old from Bergen moved to Copenhagen in 2003 to study at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory under the tutelage of the UK’s own Django Bates. Neset subsequently became a member of Bates’ StoRMChaser big band and later replaced Iain Ballamy in Bates’ small group Human Chain. Django returns the compliment on “Golden Xplosion” making substantial contributions on piano, keyboards, trumpet and e flat peckhorn. Something of an Anglo-Scandinavian supergroup is completed by the Phronesis rhythm pairing of Jasper Hoiby (Denmark, bass) and Anton Eger (Sweden,drums).

The prodigiously talented Neset has also studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston and released his début album “Suite for the Seven Mountains” in 2008. He acknowledges a wide range of influences including saxophonists Michael Brecker, Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson plus composers from Django Bates, Pat Metheny and Frank Zappa through to Stravinsky and Shostakovich. He has worked with the bands JazzKamikaze and People Are Machines and has already built up a following in Scandinavia and beyond. His ambitious début for Edition should further enhance his reputation and help to establish him in the UK. It’s an album with a broad scope that embraces Neset’s numerous interests and encompasses quartet, trio, duo and solo performances in a wide ranging programme.

The album opens with the contrapuntal exchanges of Neset on tenor sax and Bates on trumpet in “Introducing;Golden Explosion”, a kind of prelude to the title track itself. Here Bates switches to electric keyboards for a busy piece full of ferociously tricky time signature changes that wouldn’t be out of place on a Human Chain album. Bates turns back the clock with a stunning keyboard solo and also features on e flat peckhorn. Neset, doubling on tenor and soprano keeps a relatively low profile here, the piece is essentially a showcase for Bates, but Hoiby and Eger bring their Phronesis honed flexibility and intelligence to bear as they respond with aplomb to Bates’ headlong trajectories.

The following “City On Fire” is hardly any less frenetic with more dazzling, superfast unison passages plus bravura soling from Neset on tenor and Bates on keyboards. Hoiby and Eger are supremely propulsive in even the oddest of meters, a sublime alliance of power and intelligence. Sure, there is the occasional pause for breath but such is Neset’s restlessness of spirit that nothing stays still for very long.

“Sane”, however proves that Golden Xplosion (it’s also the name of the band) do have a sensitive side. Neset’s brooding, long lined tenor combines beautifully with Bates’ lyrical acoustic piano and ethereal keyboard washes on this wonderfully haunting ballad. There’s also a feature for Hoiby’s deeply resonant bass and tastefully sympathetic brushwork from the adaptable Eger.

“Old Poison (XL)” is the first of the solo saxophone pieces. Played by Neset entirely on tenor saxophone with no overdubs it’s an astonishing example of his remarkable technical facility. He almost appears to be duetting with himself.

“Shame Us” features Neset in saxophone trio mode with just Hoiby and Eger for company. It’s an energetic workout for Neset’s slippery but powerful tenor sax, Hoiby’s huge toned bass and Eger’s crisp, energetic drumming. There are hints of Sonny Rollins’ classic saxophone trio sound but the trio also bring something very modern to the proceedings with Eger and Hoiby’s use of contemporary grooves.

Three solo saxophone pieces follow, all featuring Neset on tenor. “Saxophone Intermezzo” is a reminder that Neset is an heir to the Norwegian saxophone dynasty founded by Jan Garbarek. Here layered saxophone sounds create something almost hymnal. It’s one of the few times on the album when Neset sounds anything like Garbarek, a point emphasised by the following “The Real YSJ” where Neset blows in almost r’n'b/soul jazz style above hip hop grooves created by his own looped slap tongue percussion. The pastoral “Saxophone Intermezzo II” adds an element of symmetry to this trilogy of engaging saxophone vignettes.

“Angel Of The North” is again recorded by the trio but here Neset overdubs himself on piano, harmonica and keyboards in addition to tenor and soprano saxes. It’s the most ambitious cut on the album, a narrative piece, epic in scope, and clearly inspired by the “orchestral jazz” sound of the Pat Metheny group. Neset’s harmonica work recalls Toots Thielemans’ and Gregoire Maret’s contributions to the Metheny group and there are also telling solos from Hoiby on bass and the leader on on both tenor and soprano saxophones. Neset’s keyboard work is essentially textural but he’s clearly no slouch as a pianist either. If Metheny played saxophone his bands may have sounded something like this; any Pat fans reading this are encouraged to check Neset out for themselves.

The anthemic climax of “Angel Of The North” leads seamlessly into the solo saxophone coda of “Epilogue” featuring Neset on overdubbed tenor and soprano saxophones. Again there’s an element of that church like Garbarek sound plus a folksong element about the melody.

“Golden Xplosion” is a highly promising album from a musician with awesome technical abilities plus the ambition as a composer to make them count. One could carp that the quartet pieces sound too much like Human Chain and that Metheny’s influence on “Angel Of The North” is a little too obvious but I’d far rather see a young musician using Bates and Metheny as role models rather than churning out the same tired old standards. Neset is a young musician with lofty ambitions, he aims high and subsequent recordings will invariably bear even more of his own individual stamp. “Golden Xplosion” is an impressive piece of work in its own right with some great playing all round but one still senses that the best of Marius Neset (hell, he’s only twenty five) is still to come.

Nevertheless this represents a great start, “Golden Xplosion” received a rare five star review from John Fordham in The Guardian and one senses that Neset is something of a star in the making. Let’s hope Edition can persuade him to come and play some gigs in the UK.

COMMENTS

A glance at the Edition Records website http://www.editionrecords.com  reveals that Neset is due to play at Manchester Jazz Festival on 28th July 2011. It’s his only scheduled UK date at present, a double bill at the Band On The Wall with the Dave Stapleton Quintet as part of an Edition Records showcase.
Ian. 27/04/2011.         

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