Politiken
5 hjerter
Musikken var på en gang storladen og skrøbelig. Akkurat som kloden
Ligesom kærligheden, hvis man skal tro titlen på en gammel film med Jennifer Jones og William Holden, er også jazzen en omfattende og udefinerbar størrelse.

Dertil også et fænomen i stadig forandring. Og det beviste koncerten med trompetisten Jakob Buchanan i musikkonservatoriets vidunderligt smukke koncertsal. I selskab med percussionisten Marilyn Mazur, Aarhus Jazzorkester og – fandeme så – Københavns Drengekoret opførte han sin egen komposition ’Song & Wind’, en æterisk suite med tekst af forfatteren Iain S. Thomas om naturens elementer og menneskene i dem. Lyrisk og symfonisk musik af en tilslibning, som man ikke umiddelbart vil omfatte med begreber som swingende eller jazzet. Men smuk, spirituel, kompleks og udfordrende, ja, faktisk krævende. Til gengæld også ekstremt givende, tankevækkende og berigende.

Indhyllet blev man, så man ikke kunne mærke sig selv i den lille time stykket varede. Og det er dog noget, der almindeligvis kræver stærkere stoffer end metalblæsere og drengestemmer
For selv om man ikke sad og vuggede taktfast eller vippede med foden i Ecco-skoen, blev man alligevel transporteret et andet sted hen af musikkens bølgende bevægelser og dens altomsluttende tætte klang, der som en tung sky af toner svævede i rummet. Indhyllet blev man, så man ikke kunne mærke sig selv i den lille time, stykket varede. Og det er dog noget, der almindeligvis kræver stærkere stoffer end metalblæsere og drengestemmer.

Buchanan omtaler selv sin musik som elegisk. Det er måske en kende uden for nummer, al den stund at smerten og klagen ikke var den følelse, man først og fremmest fornam ved musikken. Snarere var det en stemning af søgen og melankoli, måske også længsel, der prægede udtrykket. Og de bluesrødder, der almindeligvis anvendes i jazzen, når savn eller tab skal formuleres, var vi meget, meget langt fra.
Det skal ikke forstås som en nedvurdering. For Buchanans tonedigteri besidder en stor skønhed. Den ejer bare ikke den udprægede kropslighed, der ofte er en del af jazzens udtryk. Sanseligheden er imidlertid til stede i musikken. Ikke mindst manifesteret ved Marilyn Mazurs rent ud sagt fantastiske rumsteren med sit enorme udvalg af instrumenter fra hele verden: gonger, lerkrukketrommer, klokker, bækkener og snurrepiberier, der supplerede den, undskyld udtrykket, ordinære trommeslagers arbejde bag sættet.

Smukt, mens det varede
Som instrumentalist er Jakob Buchanan karakteriseret ved en let og klar tone, der sender tankerne lidt i retning af Palle Mikkelborg. Hans spil er stræbende og elegant, og han formår at skifte intensitet fra det blidt drømmende til det knaldende skarpe på et splitsekund. Og Aarhus Jazz Orchestra skabte en flot baggrund, som han kunne folde sig ud på.

De klare og sarte drengestemmer fungerede udsøgt i en sammenhæng, der skulle skildre natur
Københavns Drengekor er ej heller et ensemble, man sætter i forbindelse med jazz. Født af den laub-nielsenske musiktradition og med et standardrepertoire, der primært er hentet i den barokke og wienerklassiske kirkemusik. Men akkurat som en del af Buchanans egenartede, ECM-agtige fusionsmusikalske suite var drengene perfekte. De klare og sarte drengestemmer fungerede udsøgt i en sammenhæng, der skulle skildre natur. Den spontane uspolerethed over for civilisationens messingblæsende orkestrering af lyd. Dygtigt ledet af en dansant Carsten Seyer-Hansen, der for nylig har taget over som kapelmester for Københavns Drengekor efter Ebbe Munk.



Musikken var på én gang storladen og skrøbelig. Akkurat som kloden, og måske lå det elegiske i netop det forhold: At det menneskelige mirakel – som også musikken er et sublimt udtryk for – også er det fatale vilkår. Det hører op, alting. Også musikken. Men det var smukt, meget endda, mens det varede. Og resten er tavshed for nu at bruge Hamlets ord. Henrik Palle 03.07.2023

Google translation:

Politiken (Danish Newspaper) 5 hearts

The music was at once grand and fragile. Just like the globe

Like love, if the title of an old film with Jennifer Jones and William Holden is to be believed, jazz is also an extensive and indefinable quantity.

In addition, a phenomenon that is constantly changing. And that was proven by the concert with trumpeter Jakob Buchanan in the music conservatory's wonderfully beautiful concert hall. In the company of the percussionist Marilyn Mazur, the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra and - damn it - the Copenhagen Boys' Choir, he performed his own composition 'Song & Wind', an ethereal suite with text by the author Iain S. Thomas about the elements of nature and the people in them. Lyrical and symphonic music of a refinement that you would not immediately include with concepts such as swinging or jazzy. But beautiful, spiritual, complex and challenging, yes, actually demanding. On the other hand, also extremely rewarding, thought-provoking and enriching.

You were enveloped so that you could not feel yourself for the short hour the play lasted. And it's something that generally requires stronger drugs than metal brass and boys' voices.

Because even if you didn't sit and rock to the beat or wiggle your foot in the Ecco shoe, you were still transported to another place by the undulating movements of the music and its all-encompassing dense sound that floated in the room like a heavy cloud of notes. You were enveloped so that you could not feel yourself for the short hour the play lasted. And it's something that generally requires stronger drugs than metal brass and boys' voices.

Buchanan himself refers to his music as elegiac. It is perhaps an acquaintance outside the number, all the while that the pain and the complaint were not the feeling that you first of all felt in the music. Rather, it was a mood of search and melancholy, perhaps also longing, that characterized the expression. And we were very, very far from the blues roots that are commonly used in jazz when missing or loss has to be formulated.
It should not be understood as a downgrade. For Buchanan's tone poetry possesses a great beauty. It just doesn't have the distinct physicality that is often part of jazz's expression. However, the sensuality is present in the music. Not least manifested by Marilyn Mazur's downright fantastic roomster with his huge selection of instruments from all over the world: gongs, clay pot drums, bells, cymbals and snare pipes that complemented the, pardon the expression, ordinary drummer's work behind the kit.

Beautiful while it lasted
As an instrumentalist, Jakob Buchanan is characterized by a light and clear tone that sends the mind a little in the direction of Palle Mikkelborg. His playing is striving and elegant, and he manages to change intensity from the gently dreamy to the cracking sharp in a split second. And the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra created a beautiful background on which he could unfold.

The clear and delicate boys' voices functioned exquisitely in a context that had to depict nature

Nor is Copenhagen's Boys' Choir an ensemble you associate with jazz. Born from the Laub-Nielsen music tradition and with a standard repertoire that is primarily drawn from Baroque and Viennese classical church music. But just as part of Buchanan's idiosyncratic, ECM-esque fusion musical suite, the boys were perfect. The clear and delicate boys' voices functioned exquisitely in a context that had to depict nature. The spontaneous unspoiledness in the face of civilization's brass-blowing orchestration of sound. Capably led by conductor Carsten Seyer-Hansen, who has recently taken over as Kapellmeister for the Copenhagen Boys' Choir after Ebbe Munk.


The music was at once grand and fragile. Just like the globe, and perhaps the elegiac lay in precisely that relationship: That the human miracle – of which music is also a sublime expression – is also the fatal condition. It stops, everything. Also the music. But it was beautiful, very beautiful even, while it lasted. And the rest is silence, to use Hamlet's words. Henrik Palle 03/07/2023