Hans Ulrik, Steve Swallow, Jonas Johansen - Tin Pan Aliens

Stunt 05022

I got into jazz via bebop, and got hooked on its harmonic restlessness – those daisychains of two-fives perpetually tugging downwards. Ultimately jazz moved in the direction of more harmonically suspensive or ambiguous approaches, a reorientation which has its pros and cons (slower harmonic movement can lead to preciousness or oversolemnity, and it’s amazing the number of recent jazz discs out there trapped within the harmonic languages of Hancock and Shorter circa 1965). But here’s a lovely, exuberant trio disc from a couple fine young Danish musicians plus a wise-old-owl American that gets back to the loopdeloop sound of tunes like “Crazeology” and “Giant Steps” – though Steve Swallow’s growling bass guitar also gives the music a little rock’n’roll power. Tenor saxophonist Hans Ulrik plays with a joyriding brio that can often suggest the Sonny Rollins of “It’s All Right with Me” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business” on Worktime – indeed, there’s even a little Rollinsish calypso on “It Will All Get Better.” He doesn’t try to fox you with the kind of evasive-action lines some saxophonists cultivate: rather, it’s as if he’s facing you squarely and frankly, so that the many small inflections, nuances and waverings which give the improvisations weight and flavour can register more fully. The disc’s title is a clunker of a pun and the packaging’s stark black-and-white photos are offputtingly dour – they make the bassist look like a death’s-head next to Ulrik and Johansen – but the music speaks for itself: the tunes (by all three hands) are as fresh, tart and uncomplicated as a newly peeled apple, and the trio’s stripped-down momentum carries you along irresistably without seeming glib or frictionless – in part because of the slight tug between the bright, unambiguous feel of the younger guys’ work and Swallow’s guile, deadpan humour and gravitas.