The music featured nightly at the Lutheran Church of the
Reformation on Chestnut Street as part of XRIJF’s “Nordic Jazz Now” series is
perfect for the contemplative listener. The Scandinavian artists who perform
there tend to have a more cerebral approach to the art form of jazz-less
demonstrative or overtly showy and more nuanced and dedicated to layers of
subtlety.
The Swedish quartet known as The Splendor (a brilliant
moniker) — saxophonist and bass clarinetist Lisen Rylander Löve, bassist Josef Kallerdahl, drummer Lars Källfelt,
and pianist Fabian Kallerdahl — creates a mood more
than it plays a tune, and explores timbre and textures more than it lays down
straightforward grooves.
And yet, on Saturday, the band delivered plenty of beautiful
melodies — fluid and vaguely melancholic that kept the music from slipping into
the inaccessibly esoteric. The majority of these melodies came via the rich,
warm, and soulful tone of Löve’s saxophone, which was
able to luxuriate in Fabian Kallerdahl’s dark and
elegant chordal vocabulary in the piano.
The band’s 9:45 p.m. set focused primarily on selections from
its latest release, the 2014 double album, “Forest.” Highlights included “The
Riddle,” a slowly unfolding song that began with crystalline, harp-like
twinkling from Löve’s synthesizer, before she
eventually accompanied herself with a gorgeous Björk-like
vocalise.
Later on, the music became suddenly raucous with “Trains,” as
Löve’s soprano sax wailed over a bed of shifting
piano harmonies, appropriately detached percussion, and bass patterns that were
clearly felt but barely heard.
In “Templehof Story,” the
vertiginous melody line shared by the tenor saxophone, piano, and bass, as well
as the band’s detailed attention to timbre approximated a contemporary
classical music style, but things never got too heady, thanks to Löve’s deliciously romantic saxophone solos.
Löve is clearly the soul of the
band, but Josef Kallerdahl is the spine, softly and
insistently providing the music with the indispensable rhythmic alignment it
needs to move forward. Otherwise, The Splendor’s atmospheric and ethereal brand
of jazz would become a mere formless soundscape. Meanwhile, Källfelt’s
drum sound possessed an ever-present cool, not unlike the slightly
impressionistic style of drummer Jerry Granelli of
the Vince Guaraldi Trio.
For more on The Splendor, you can visit the band’s website at
thesplendor.nu.
Saturday’s festival attendees more interested in
front-and-center grooves and punchy brass timbres were in luck, care of a free
concert from classic rock and jazz outfit Blood, Sweat & Tears. And
though the group’s 60’s-era vocalist David Clayton-Thomas no longer sings with
the group, the band — fronted by former American Idol runner-up Bo Bice — didn’t miss a beat. A packed outdoor audience filled
the intersection of East and Chestnut and thrilled to such hits as “Spinning
Wheel” and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.” These kinds of XRIJF concerts feel
much more about soaking in the fun festival vibe than delving into deep
listening, but that doesn’t necessarily make them any less valuable.
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2015.
