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Trumpeter Mathias Eick’s Skala (ECM Records, 2011), is an expansive and ambitious album that treads unlikely ground. The album’s production, with tight, punchy drum kit sounds and other studio tricks, is what you might expect to hear on a Steely Dan record. It has a slick 1970s rock quality, but Eick’s compositions and the group’s nuanced playing make it clear that there is more than initially meets the ear.

Eick’s compositions tell a story, and every piece has its own character running a path through various atmospheres. Skala wants to pull on your heartstrings, but without resorting to formulaic pop hooks.

“Oslo” begins with a floating trumpet introduction accompanied by distant, repeating trumpet sounds, like a conversation with a whispered version of itself. As the piano enters, followed by the bass and two drummers, Eick’s band shows its talent for creating enveloping grooves with churning complexity and attention to beautiful timbre. The moment in which the rhythm section settles into the meditative pulse is great listening on its own, but the song continues to grow, introducing new sounds and new turns to the composition with spot-on timing. Narrative scope is the strength of Skala, taking the twisting and turning of poetry and adding explosive improvisation, giving each new moment surprising potential.

Eick is busy in the European jazz scene, playing bass, keyboards, guitar and percussion in addition to trumpet.

He is a member of the Norwegian, nine-member band Jaga Jazzist, an ensemble that has been making many fine rock-infused jazz albums since 1994. Setting out on his own with 2008’s The Door, his first date as a leader on ECM records, Eick shows some similar aesthetic concerns as Jaga Jazzist, including a taste for blending genre. His music, however, has a cleaner, warmer, and more earnest character that leans more towards simple folk melodies rather than rock distortion.

Eick looks for opportunities to show off the full range of his trumpet sound, from his lyrical, breathy soft playing, to a strong upper register that is refreshingly strident and wild. Casting himself as the single melodic voice, with the exception of a few tracks with saxophonist Tore Brunborg, Eick plays the role of a lone narrator against the dramatic backdrop of the rhythm section, though it’s clear that Eick isn’t thinking only of playing melodies.

Eick’s trumpet work on Skala is graceful, expressive and dynamic. Eick thinks as a composer, rather than as just a trumpet player. There is not a moment when the improvisation makes an abrupt stylistic break with the melody. Instead it consistently builds on the foundation of the song. His playing grows naturally from the composition, sounding sometimes like a part of the rhythmic section, rather than a star soloist. Skala is not an album for fans of hard-driving, bebop-based playing, and anyone looking for that will be disappointed here. The record is focused on group interplay, and while there are few traditional jazz solos, the main attraction is a rich ensemble texture created by a highly attuned band. Eick has made an album that toes the line between pop and jazz, (some might say smooth jazz), but a close listening reveals much more, and the pop/jazz dichotomy becomes irrelevant

Release Date:

April 19th, 2011 on ECM Records

Personnel:

• Mathias Eick – Trumpet
• Andreas Ulvo – Piano
• Auden Erlien – Electric Bass
• Torsttein Lofthus – Drums
• Gard Nillsen – Drums
• Morten Qvenild – Keyboards
• Tore Brundberg – Tenor Saxophone
• Sidsel Walstad - Harp

Track List:

1. Skala
2. Edinburgh
3. June
4. Oslo
5. Joni
6. Biermann
7. Day After
8. Epilogue

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