E.S.T. - Esbjörn Svensson Trio: Good Morning Susie Soho (2LP)

E.S.T. - Esbjörn Svensson Trio: Good Morning Susie Soho (180g) (Limited Edition) (Transparent Yellow Vinyl). The Esbjörn Svensson Trio prefers to be addressed by its abbreviation, thus signaling its self-image as a compact unit, a band as if from a single mold, in which the leader no longer plays the main role. The Bandidee is more reminiscent of a rock/pop band than a jazz piano trio. It involves a collective way of working and a collective sound. It can be catchy and comprehensible, without becoming flat and superficial. The E. S.T. has no fear of contact with the popular. For this it became from the insider tip to the firm size on the European scene. Its success exceeds that of average jazz acts, and yet it also has hard jazz fans and the critics' guild on its side. Above all, it has - what jazz combo can claim that today? - a young audience. No wonder with a band that has already released a remarkable Monk album (E. S.T. Plays Monk, BMG, 1997), but when asked about their favorites, they don't list relevant jazz greats, but name Björk. The '99 album "From Gagarin's Point of View" (ACT 9005-2) was promoted in Sweden like a pop production - with single, video and everything that goes with it. It promptly placed in the pop charts. As a jazz record, mind you. But E.S.T.'s affinity for pop also leaves its mark on the music, even if only as a winking reference. Thus, the current album "Good Morning Susie Soho" also offers what almost belongs on today's pop albums: the obligatory "Hidden Track" with gloomy, ambient-like chords from the Fender Rhodes. Elsewhere, the E. S.T. presents funky grooves that would have suited the popular Ramsey Lewis Trio of the 60s well, and links them with sibilant sounds and the rhythm conception of drum'n'bass, with dry snare and wah-wah bass. That's where Svensson's very earliest playing adventures with drummer Magnus Öström come to mind : "We lived on the same street as kids," Svensson reveals. "Magnus' father was a house painter, and Magnus played on his paint pots, i strummed on the guitar. At some point he got a drum set, and I tried my hand at Mother's piano - with one finger. We learned everything together and showed each other what we could already do. Most of all, we learned to play together." As teenagers, they played in garage bands, Svensson acting as a singer and electric guitarist. At 15, he decided to take up the piano, reflecting on the music in his parents' home. His mother had played Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Liszt, his father had listened to Monk and Ellington. From all this, the son wanted to develop something of his own. In the mid-1980s he went to Stockholm, studied classical piano, and at 19 joined a hard-bop combo. When Öström followed to Stockholm, both founded the E. S.T. in 1990, to which Dan Berglund also belongs since 1993. A short time later, they recorded their first album. Since then, the trio has played its way to the top of the younger Scandinavian scene; Svensson was twice named Jazz Musician of the Year in Sweden, once Composer of the Year; for the album "Winter in Venice" (ACT 9007-2) he received the Swedish Grammy. In E. S.T. he combines the catchy and the sophisticated so coherently that even listeners who don't really like jazz will get their money's worth. The E. S.T. is responsible for the compositions, not he alone. They are created in collective playing, as Svensson practiced with Öström from an early age. "Music is first listening, then playing," is the motto, and it applies to the interaction in the trio as well as to the development of new compositions - sound- and melody-conscious pieces with a gripping groove, occasionally enriched with sparse programming. "The music has to come across to the people. In jazz, you hear a lot of things that don't come across the ramp. I try to play complex things in a way that appeals. People like energy in music - maybe some kind of rock 'n' roll energy."