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Bmx

Bass-less trio BMX started in 2006, intended as an one-off. Its line-up initially inspired by the Motian-Frisell-Lovano trio, BMX soon took on a shape of its own. With mostly original material, the group's focus is on developing songs in real-time at every performance, giving the music a beautiful sense of exploration. Now the debut album, featuring the legendary trumpeter and vocalist Per Jørgensen, is here.

"Bergen Open" is the result of the great chemistry shared between these four musicians. Since their initial meeting at the Nattjazz Festival 2007, three tours has followed, leading to a recording date in April 2010. Released as a double disc on the Norwegian NORCD label, "Bergen Open" focus on two different approaches to music making, albeit with many similarities. The first sound check in the studio resulted in a 19-minute spontaneously composed piece, which is featured on the album alongside five of Njål Ølnes' originals. After the initial sound check, levels were set and they were just going to try out the sound a bit more before commencing recording. The result of this second sound check fills all of disc one. A 70-minute take was edited down to 47 minutes of improvised glory - possibly the best performance the group has ever done

Fusing the lines between composition and improvisation is this band's forte. Not eager to replicate more conventional abstract improv, BMX tries to make improvisation sound composed and vice versa. Not to say that abstract language or influences from minimalist music is frown upon - it is warmly welcomed, but only in the same degree as they welcome the influence of rock, 30s swing, West-African, programmed beats... With an insightful text provided by musicologist Erik Steinskog, this is put in a larger context in the accompanying liner notes.

With tons of professional experience between them including over ten years of collaboration in the group Dingobats, Njål Ølnes and Thomas Dahl have developed a deep respect and musical understanding. Add to this up-and-coming drummer Øyvind Skarbø and what you've got is an exiciting mix with 'interplay' as their secret password. Standard forms and traditional roles have been exchanged for open ears and the willingness to take chances.

So far BMX has played gigs all over Norway, including the Nattjazz and Soddjazz Festivals, and also at Reykjavik Jazz Festival in Iceland. Ølnes and Dahl earned their masters degree in jazz at the conservatory in Trondheim and have been using BMX as the basis of their work. This included extensive projects with a.o. Per Jørgensen, Jon Balke, Ingar Zach, Hilmar Jensson, Ståle Storløkken (Supersilent) and Jon Eberson. The collaborations with Jørgensen and Jensson still continues way beyond the initial projects, and there's more activity with both of them on the radar.

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Album Review

BMX: Bergen Open

Read "Bergen Open" reviewed by John Kelman


Tradition, in a living, breathing art form, is something that is continually defined, refined and redefined. When drummer Paul Motian--first coming to fame in pianist Bill Evans' mid-1950s trio--trimmed his quintet of the early 1980s into a bass-less trio featuring then-emergent guitar whiz Bill Frisell and equally on-the-rise saxophonist Joe Lovano, its very first recording, It Should've Happened A Long Time Ago (ECM, 1985), defined a whole new aesthetic, challenging conventional roles and redefining how improvising musicians collaborate. Bergen Open, ...

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