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Friends & Neighbors
Friends & Neighbors: The Earth Is #
by Mark Corroto
The importance of choosing a name for your jazz band is often underestimated. Take the quintet Friends & Family for instance. When it was formed in 2008, it wasn't dubbed the André Roligheten Quintet or the Oscar Grönberg Band. No. From its beginnings, the quintet shared composing duties among its members as well as dutiful deference to each musician's sound. Proof of this friendship among neighbors (all live in Norway) is a string of excellent releases. The Earth Is # ...
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by John Sharpe
With its fourth release, the Scandinavian quintet Friends & Neighbors, whose moniker references Ornette Coleman's album of near enough the same name, continues to find fertile soil in the American free jazz furrow. This time out the unchanged quintet of trumpeter Thomas Johansson, reedman André Roligheten, pianist Oscar Grönberg, bassist Jon Rune Strøm and percussionist Tollef Østvang looks both further forward in its untethered rhythms, and back in a nod to hard bop, than its source inspiration. ...
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by Alberto Bazzurro
Giunto al suo quarto album (dal 2011), il quintetto norvegese Friends & Neighbors conferma la propria predilezione per un discorso corale, fortemente condiviso, pur aprendo ovviamente i dovuti spazi agli spunti del singolo. Nonostante la presenza del pianoforte (e se vogliamo del sax tenore al posto del contralto), il referente più palpabile appare lo storico quartetto di Ornette Coleman, con infiltrazioni di un altro glorioso quartetto, quello americano di Keith Jarrett (del resto fra le due entità ...
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by John Sharpe
Norwegian quintet Friends & Neighbors' third CD presents a line up unchanged sinceNo Beat Policy(Øra Grammofon, 2011) and Hymn For A Hungry Nation (Clean Feed, 2014). The moniker gives a clue as to their inspiration, referencing one of Ornette Coleman's less well known albums recorded live at his Prince Street loft and featuring a chorus of exactly what the title suggests alongside his regular quartet of the time (Flying Dutchman, 1970). But the reality goes way beyond imitation or homage. ...
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by Glenn Astarita
This Norwegian band derives its moniker from one of saxophonist Ornette Coleman's slightly overlooked units Friends and Neighbors, culminating in the 1970 release Live At Prince Street on the Flying Dutchman label. But the impetus for the ensemble's doctrine resides in the expressive 60s era where Coleman, and other like-minded pioneers often ravaged conventional sensibilities of the jazz vernacular. Here, the good news is that these musicians do not simply rehash the paths previously traversed but provide a dynamic incursion, ...
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