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Goran Kajfes
Awards
Swedish Jazz Grammy Awards winner 2003, 2005. Winner Nordic Music Prize 2011.
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Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra: Family
by Mark Corroto
Why can't all music be supersonic? That does not mean supersonic as in a speed exceeding that of sound, but sound that is sonically superlative. Drummer, composer, and bandleader Gard Nilssen's music is seemingly always sonically superb. His 17-piece Supersonic Orchestra was captured in 2022 at the Mondriaan Jazz Festival in Den Haag, Netherlands, for Family, his follow-up to If You Listen Carefully The Music Is Yours (Odin 2020). The Supersonic Orchestra is made up of seven saxophones ...
read moreAngles: A Muted Reality
by Mark Corroto
For Swedish saxophonist Martin Küchen, all music is folk music. Proof of that statement is the Angles' release A Muted Reality. Whether he is referencing Balkan, African, Swedish, American jazz or Spanish dialects, he is drawing on kindred spirits in his music. With the various editions of his Angles projects, from trios to 10-piece small big bands, he releases music of the people, i.e. people music. This version of Küchen's Angles is an octet and the eleventh in a continuous ...
read moreWójciński-Szmańda Quartet, Dustin Laurenzi and More
by Maurice Hogue
The underlying theme in this episode appears to be ensembles of varying sizes and styles. From Sweden, trumpeter Goran Kajfeš' quartet Tropique blends elements of groove, trance, improv, African with a Don Cherry on top in the new Into The Wild, while another quartet, the Wójciński/Szmańda Quartet from Poland, knocks down the walls of same-same with power balanced with spacy contemplation. You'll also hear trios of different plateaus: bassist Stephan Crump, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and pianist Cory Smythe, Wojciech Jachna-Grzegorz ...
read moreGoran Kajfes Tropiques: Enso
by Mark Corroto
In the 1970s, along with the rise in FM radio and stereo sound, a phenomena called “headphones-only album rock" was devised. A DJ might play all 26 minutes of Pink Floyd's “Shine on You Crazy Diamond" or John Coltrane's version of “My Favorite Things," at 42 minutes. In the same spirit we find Swedish trumpeter Goran Kajfes Tropiques' song “Enso" from the album of the same name, which clocks in at just over 50 minutes. It is not ...
read moreGoran Kajfes: X/Y
by Chris May
Goran KajfešX/YHeadspin Recordings2011 Best known for his work with the timewarp friendly Swedish band Oddjob, Croatian-born trumpeter Goran Kajfeš has released two solo albums during the last decade--on each of which he too has had one foot planted in retro ground and the other in more modern and electronica informed territory. Elements of Home (EMI Svenska, 2001) and Headspin (Headspin, 2005)--together with Oddjob's Ennio Morricone and Lalo Schrifin inspired Clint (ACT, ...
read moreThe Independent (UK) 5/5 "a total work of art"
the Milk Factory (UK) 4.8/5 "a very unique record"
AllAboutJazz (UK) "by a country mile, Kajfeš' most ambitious recording to date"
Rock-a-Rolla (UK) "the packaging is as inspired and arresting as the album itself"
The Jazz Mann (UK) 4/5 "Kajfes orchestration brings out the vivid colours of his ensemble with effective restraint"
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From: X/YBy Goran Kajfes
