Marius Neset Quartet, The Edge Arts Centre, Much Wenlock, Shropshire, 03/09/2011

The twenty five year old saxophonist and composer Marius Neset received rave reviews earlier this year for his album “Golden Xplosion” and there was a real buzz on the UK jazz scene about his first British tour. Tonight Edge regulars were privileged to witness a superlative performance from the young Norwegian and his all star Anglo-Scandinavian quartet. Joining Neset were frequent Edge visitors Jasper Hoiby (Denmark, double bass) and Anton Eger (Sweden, drums), a pairing best known for their work as two thirds of Hoiby’s hugely successful trio Phronesis. Completing the line up on piano and electric keyboards was Nick Ramm of Clown Revisited, Fulborn Teversham,Oriole and others, a highly adaptable and versatile musician who I tend to think of as being the F-ire Collective’s house pianist. Ramm was deputising, very ably, for Django Bates who makes a substantial contribution to the success of the “Golden Xplosion” album. 

Originally from Bergen Neset studied with Bates in Copenhagen where the latter is a professor at the Danish capital’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory. Clearly impressed with his young protégée Bates invited Neset to join both his big band StoRMChaser and long running small group Human Chain (replacing Iain Ballamy). Neset subsequently returned the compliment by asking Bates to feature on “Golden Xplosion”. The album, which is reviewed elsewhere on this site, features some inspired playing by Bates and his influence is also readily detectable in Neset’s compositional methods. The music on “Golden Xplosion” is often busy, technically dazzling and full of the dynamic contrasts and sudden changes of direction that have become a Bates trademark. Certainly the spirit of Django loomed large over the first set of this evening’s concert, a complex, attention grabbing affair full of twists and turns and featuring some brilliant playing from all four members of the group. A more lyrical second half saw the quartet visibly relaxing as Neset’s own ideas seemed to come increasingly to the fore. Although frequently mind boggling there was the sense that tonight’s concert was an “event” and several members of the audience (around 100 strong in total I suspect, not quite a full house) rose at the end to give the group a standing ovation. With his blond pop idol looks and formidable technical ability Neset looks to be a star in the making and may not be playing small venues like this for very much longer. 

“Golden Xplosion” contains solo, duo,trio and quartet performances and tonight began with just Neset and Ramm taking to the stage as Neset began to play the solo tenor saxophone composition “Saxophone Intermezzo” with Ramm subsequently adding the backing of his Nord electric keyboard to Neset’s already impressively full sound. Eventually Hoiby and Eger came on, on taking up their positions as the music segued into the thrillingly tricky “City On Fire”. This fiendishly complex piece incorporated volcanic tenor sax soloing, dynamic drumming and a wonderfully percussive piano solo from Ramm who spent much of the evening switching between piano and electric keyboards, sometimes playing both simultaneously in the manner of a 70’s prog rocker. Elsewhere there were dazzling unison passages for sax and keyboards and supercharged bass and drums. At the end of this tour de force both band and audience were simultaneously drained and exhilarated.

The next piece, as yet untitled but scheduled to appear on Neset’s next album, initially promised to cool things down a little beginning as a tenor sax ballad with Eger producing some sensitive brush work to complement his leader’s lyricism. In time Neset switched to soprano, the instrument defiantly emitting a couple of blasts of feedback from the bug mike before Neset sorted things out.
Hoiby and Eger picked out a cerebral, odd meter funk groove which Neset soloed passionately above before a passage of solo piano from Ramm doused the fires with Neset returning to the tenor to bring things full circle with a lyrical coda. This was a good example of the broad scope of Neset’s writing, the strong narrative arc backed up by some great playing. It was unfortunate that the technical problem mid tune rather interrupted the flow.

The solo tenor saxophone piece “Old Poison (XL)” saw Neset using the key pads of his instrument percussively in the manner of his compatriot Hakon Kornstad as he developed a series of interlocking patterns that made it almost appear as if he was duetting with himself. A further passage of solo piano from Ramm provided the segue into another new tune, “Boxing”, a punchy number that lived up to its title as Neset, now on soprano, ducked and dived, bobbed and weaved around Eger’s cowbell enhanced beat. The drummer turned in a virtuoso display on this tune, energetically and colourfully circumnavigating his kit as Neset switched back to tenor for the climax of the piece.

At the break a breathless audience raved about what they’d seen and the second half was, if anything, to be even better. “Golden Xplosion” itself was introduced by busily percolating tenor sax and keyboards as Eger coaxed an exotic array of sounds from his kit, at one point using a stick which brought to mind the phrase “do you want bells on it?!”
Ramm soloed on piano before exchanging phrases with Neset above a backdrop of hyperactive drums and bass. It was perhaps a wise decision not to try to reproduce Bates’ astonishing synthesiser solo on the record.

The ballad “Sane” acted as the starting point for an astonishing segue that made up the rest of the set. Neset on tenor and Ramm provided real lyricism against a background of Eger’s gentle mallet rumbles. Hoiby’s bass solo exhibited sensitivity, depth and resonance before Neset took over again with subtle live looping allowing him to layer his sound, again in the manner of Hakon Kornstad, to me a more obvious Norwegian influence on Neset than the more frequently cited Jan Garbarek. A lengthy dialogue between Neset and Eger, the latter still wielding soft head mallets followed before the music took a more boppish turn as the piece climaxed with a torrential solo from Ramm, the pianist really enjoying the opportunity to cut loose and really show off his virtuosity.

After this an encore was inevitable and the group returned to play the lengthy “Angel of The North”, arguably the centrepiece of the “Golden Xplosion” album. On record the piece is much influenced by the episodic, large scale group writing of guitarist Pat Metheny. In a live context the Metheny-isms seemed less obvious as Neset switched from tenor to soprano and back again, once more enhancing his sound with live looping, particularly on the atmospheric coda. The sheer lyricism of this piece impressed many listeners, not least promoter Alison Vermee. It represented a considerable coup for her to get this rising star of the jazz firmament to The Edge and Neset and his band didn’t disappoint with the dynamic Eger, something of a showman himself, also winning many plaudits. Hoiby impressed as ever with his phenomenal rhythmic drive and agile soloing and Ramm also impressed with his adaptability and musical intelligence. However much as I enjoyed Ramm’s contribution the presence of Bates would have been the cherry on the cake with his tenor horn adding to an already almost impossibly rich mix of ingredients. Bates remains a long term hero of mine dating right back to the Loose Tubes days and it would have been great to have seen him at The Edge. Another time, perhaps?

I spoke to Hoiby, Neset and Ramm afterwards, top guys all. The Edge was the second date of a tour which had begun at a sold out Pizza Express in London with virtually all the UK’s jazz media present. It was a nervous night for the band but the reviews I’ve seen suggest that they triumphed brilliantly. The London show was recorded by Jazz On 3 and is due to be transmitted on September 19th. Hoiby and Neset felt that they’d actually played better at The Edge where they felt more relaxed so we were honoured indeed.

Neset’s thoughts are already on the next album, which won’t include Bates as he’s trying to get away from the comparisons/influences. Given the scope exhibited by such compositions as “Angel Of The North” it also came as no surprise to learn that he’s also writing for a large ensemble based in Trondheim where the city’s conservatoire is something of a hot bed of Norwegian jazz.

“Golden Xplosion” is already a huge success and this UK tour is shaping up to be a further triumph. Marius Neset looks set to become one of the major figures of European jazz in the coming years.

Remaining tour dates are listed below, make sure you don’t miss this band!

All dates with Nick Ramm, Jasper Hoiby and Anton Eger unless otherwise stated)

6th Sept - MARIUS NESET - The Earlsdon Cottage Inn, Coventry, UK
7th Sept - MARIUS NESET - South Park Hill, Bracknell, UK
8th Sept - MARIUS NESET - Dempseys, Cardiff, UK
9th Sept - MARIUS NESET - Matt & Phreds, Manchester, UK
10th Sept - MARIUS NESET - Kings Place, London, UK (Part of Edition Records Festival 11)
29th Sept - MARIUS NESET - Dunkers Kulturhus, Sweden
27th Oct - MARIUS NESET - Nasjonal Jazz Scene, Oslo, Norway (w/ Martin France, Nick Ramm and Petter Eldh)
28th Oct - MARIUS NESET - Ume? Jazz Festival, Ume?, Sweden (w/ France, Ramm and Petter Eldh)
30th Oct - MARIUS NESET - Cork Jazz Festival, Cork, Ireland (w/ France, Ramm and Phil Donkin)
2012:
11th January 2012 - MARIUS NESET - De Bijlole, Gent, Belgium
14th January 2012 - MARIUS NESET - Hallsberg Jazz Club, Hallsberg, Sweden