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| 4.426 Ft
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| 1. | Fifth Corner
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| 2. | Encounter
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| 3. | Independent Blues
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| 4. | East by Northwest
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| 5. | On the Move
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| 6. | Olga's Dream
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| 7. | Watch Out
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| 8. | Homage
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| 9. | Northern Crossing
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Jazz / Jazz Instrument, Piano Jazz
Alan Bates Executive Producer
Jojo Mayer Drums
Jon Allum Photography
Manfred Knoop Engineer
Nieves Pascua-Bates Design, Photography
Ole Mathisen Sax (Tenor), Sax (Soprano), Producer
Olga Konkova Piano
Peter Dowdell Engineer
This CD is the product of many years hard work by pianist Olga Konkova and bassist Per Mathisen. For some time, they wanted to play with Ole, Per's brother, who lives in New York but due to Olga and Per living in Oslo, the opportunity was rare. The chance eventually arrived and they booked into Knoop Studio in River Edge, N.J. and invited the great Jojo Mayer to play drums. There is quite a contrast between the most energetic "out front" material and the softest and from the traditional swinging to the more modern funky, but it is intentional in order to avoid being put into one special category of jazz.
Many of the tunes in this collection from 2001 are first takes, the entire session being recorded direct to DAT, to achieve the best and most spontaneous "live" feeling.
Although Northern Crossings, Olga Konkova's second Candid date as a leader, was recorded in New Jersey in 1997, all of the players were born in Europe. This CD finds the Russian pianist (who now lives in Oslo, Norway) forming a quartet with two Norwegians (soprano and tenor saxman Ole Mathisen and his brother, bassist Per Mathisen) and Swiss drummer Jojo Mayer. And Candid, the label they recorded Northern Crossings for, is British. While Konkova's first Candid release, Her Point of View, contained a lot of standards, Northern Crossings focuses on songs that were written by Per Mathisen (who is Konkova's husband and the session's co-leader) and Konkova herself. This is a very cerebral post-bop album; Konkova and the Mathisen brothers aren't afraid to be abstract and complex, and they are as uncompromising on the more aggressive material ("On the Move," "Independent Blues") as they are on something as relaxed as the pensive "Olga's Dream." But while Northern Crossings doesn't go out of its way to be accessible, the CD is enjoyable if you can accept Konkova on her own terms. Like a lot of the more intellectual post-bop, Northern Crossings isn't easy to absorb on the first listen. But the more you play it, the more you find to admire. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
Olga Konkova
Active Decades: '90s and '00s
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Jazz Instrument, Piano Jazz
Born and raised in Moscow, Russia, and based in Oslo, Norway, Olga Konkova is an acoustic post-bop pianist/composer whose influences range from Herbie Hancock and John Lewis to Bill Evans, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett. Konkova, who favors a very clean and crystalline style of pianism, is also comparable to Ahmad Jamal and the underrated Walter Norris. Like Norris, Konkova is known for taking major liberties with familiar melodies -- while other jazz musicians don't really start to improvise until after they play the melody/theme (or "head," in jazz terminology), Konkova starts to seriously improvise the minute her fingers touch the keyboard. Consequently, she can make even the most familiar standards sound fresh. Konkova, who started taking piano lessons at the age of seven, wasn't always a full-time jazz musician; growing up in Moscow, she played mostly classical piano. Konkova studied classical piano and composition at the Russian Academy of Music, graduating in 1993. But not long after that, she moved to Boston to study jazz for two semesters at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Then, in the mid-'90s, Konkova left the U.S. and moved to Oslo (where she married Norwegian bassist Per Mathisen, the brother of saxophonist Ole Mathisen). In the late '90s, Konkova recorded two albums for the British Candid label: Her Point of View (the pianist's first release) and Northern Crossings. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide |
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