Matthieu Mazué - Cortex

December 28, 2021

Label: Unit Records, 2021

Personnel - Matthieu Mazué: piano; Xaver Rüegg: double bass; Michael Cina: drums.

After playing a few gigs in France, Switzerland and Germany in 2020, the French pianist and composer Matthieu Mazué opted to release a 9-track album - titled Cortex - in the company of his two competent Swiss backers, Xaver Rüegg and Michael Cina on bass and drums, respectively.

The trio opens with the title track, implementing the theme statement with intervallic awe and triggering an arresting motion imbued with accentuation that travels your body with energy. An idea in the form of pedal point interrupts the flux and welcomes clearer bass expressions. And then the piece regains its throbbing heart with rich piano playing, whose attributes include shades of Andrew Hill and Horace Tapscott.

On “Cyborg”, the trio shows its fondness for rhythmic complexity, alluding to the crescent role of machines in our society. The piece starts with a tangling web weaved between bass and drums, and upon which free single-note piano lines are laid down. As the time advances, Mazué instills harmonic solidification, denoting an industrious vibe that often brings Kris Davis’ ostentation pianism to mind.

“Black Cloud” is a haunting ballad sustained by whispering brushes and sparse piano. The wide space created here has a noir-ish Paul Bley/Paul Motian elocution, something we hear once again on “Extended Sharpness”, which, giving a strong impression of intangibility at first, gains palpable traction with time. There’s an alternate take of this piece that brings a pop/rock pulse into play.

Both energetically dispensed, “Forming C” and “Data Are About to Collapse” are in connection with boisterous sounds. The former, propelled by a fine bass groove and nuanced pedals, is reinforced in the lower register by the pianist, who, at some point, causes a polyrhythmic, avant-edged, train-like motion to occur. The latter piece, probably partly inspired by spasmodic electronica and machine language, comes shrouded in an opaque sonic veil before settling in a lurching swing that is held down with vigor until the final theme.

Mazué manages to create a narrative direction while alternating between brisk dynamics and pure reflections. Several interesting moments are drawn from this trio effort.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Cortex ► 02 - Cyborg ► 04- Forming C

Cortex - Legal Tender

January 14, 2021

Label: Clean Feed, 2020

Personnel - Thomas Johansson: trumpet, percussion; Kristoffer Berre Alberts: saxophones, percussion; Ola Høyer: double bass, percussion; Gard Nilssen: drums, percussion.

Cortex, the Norwegian jazz quartet that has been performing athletic avant-garde jazz since 2007, rely on a well-integrated group sound and a chord-less aesthetic that is both resilient and sparkly. Legal Tender, their fourth release on the Clean Feed Records, comprises seven tracks marked by short and simple themes, productive interplay and exciting improvisation. Six of them were penned by trumpeter Thomas Johansson and one by bassist Ola Høyer. The group also features tenor saxophonist Kristoffer Berre Alberts and the illustrious drummer Gard Nilssen, who makes here his last contribution to this quartet in order to focus more on family as well as on his own projects.

“Anthem For the Uneasy” opens the record with epic grandeur, combining bowed bass legato, dexterous mallet activity and poignant melody. The eloquent, supplicant tones are preserved during the time that Alberts blows a strongly-built tenor improv.

If the groovy avant-garde work in “Standby” emerges with a three time feel, a dash of folk incantation and a fluid swinging vibe, then “GTM” is a playful 4/4 collective exertion with room for the soloists’ creativity. Nilssen stands out in a rhythmic dissertation with occasional beat-driven coolness, opportune fragmentations and lots of color.

Høyer’s “10-4” boasts a two-minute intro of trumpet, peculiarly handled by Johansson with extended techniques. After the sumptuous unisons of the theme statement, the tune segues into a more conversational strategy put in practice by the trumpeter and the saxophonist with occasional wily juxtapositions.

The last couple of pieces on the album introduce the blues as a final fling before the conclusion. Totally relaxed in posture, “Blue Bromka” is pushed forward by sluggish ascendant bass movements and expertly polished brushwork, while “Loose Blues” is divided into two parts, which are separated by more than a minute of silence. Following Nilssen’s introductory mallet drum work and subsequent collective pastoralism, comes a galvanizing and propulsive Afro groove in six over which a fertile trumpet diction unfolds.

Although not consistently meeting the joy and energy of Cortex's predecessor album, Avant-Garde Party Music (Clean Feed, 2017), Legal Tender won’t have any trouble to connect with seekers of creative music.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Anthem For the Uneasy ► 03 - GTM ► 07 - Loose Blues

Cortex - Avant Garde Party Music

December 1, 2017

Label/Year: Clean Feed, 2017

Lineup - Thomas Johansson: trumpet; Kristoffer Alberts: saxophones; Ola Høyer: bass; Gard Nilssen: drums.

Cortex (not to be mistaken with the French jazz fusion band from the 70s) is a creative Scandinavian quartet - Thomas Johansson on trumpet, Kristoffer Alberts on saxophones, Ola Høyer on bass, and Gard Nilssen on drums - capable of reviving the decorous avant-jazz current with fierce determination by conjugating several elements from the past with a contemporary attitude.

Avant Garde Party Music, the fifth album of their career and the third for the Clean Feed Records, follows a pair of live records, unmistakably entitled Live! and Live in New York, released in 2014 and 2016, respectively.

“Grinder” is a tempting opener, boasting a straightforward statement that has some familiarity with the works of Don Cherry during the 60s, whether with Ornette Coleman, Pharaoh Sanders, or Gato Barbieri. The improvisations are linked by a brief unison passage over a nice groove. This creative section starts with Alberts, who constructs slowly, resolutely, and sometimes furiously, and ends with Johansson, whose vibrancy and force are eminent regardless the register he chooses to operate. Still, the high-pitched notes have an impactful reverberation that comes naturally from the trumpet sound.

With “Chaos” we feel invited to their party. The danceable head of the song, possibly inspired by electronic music, leads us to cackles, shrieks, and screams vociferated by Johansson, which, subsequently, pushes us to a distended solo by Alberts, who romps in a frenetic language filled with impetuous timbral variations and passionate rhythmic ideas.

Don’t expect a 3/4 tempo on “Waltz” because this piece, exhibiting a traditional AABA structure, swings with a 6/4 time signature on the A section and veers to 5/4 on the B. It features Alberts playing the soprano sax with utter enthusiasm.

One of the most gratifying tunes is “(If you where) Mac Davis”, a virulent exercise that immediately gains a statute of rebelliousness. The initial prayerful fervency, typical of David S. Ware, is deflected to an animated, powerful rock mode on top of which we can hear an expressive muted trumpet solo.

Brimming with exotic Latin pulses, “Disturbance” has timely snare drum hits working together with regular cymbal chatters. The purpose is to guide throughout the undeviating route, which finishes in playful counterpoint.

After the shifting “Obverse/Reverse”, where the band members transfigure from typical avant-garders to groove-oriented disciples of the cool, the record offers up the electrifying “Off Course”, featuring Nilssen’s gnarly preamble, which accommodates powerful drum rolls and tom-tom altercations, and another muscular saxophone bustle crammed with lively grit and optimum technique.

Cortex’s music brings a blithe humor attached, feeling solidly compact rather than frivolously cathartic. The like-minded quartet, constantly varying between the taut and the groovy, also found a laudable balance between the puissant unisons and the individual creativity.

Favorite Tracks:
02 – Chaos ► 04 - “(If you where) Mac Davis ► 08 – Off Course