Tuesday 26 November 2024, 7.30pm
Hugely excited to welcome the legendary David Murrary to OTO for two nights alongside the powerhouse rhythm section of Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums). In 2019 they toured Europe twice, using older and brand new compositions by Murray, and also artists like Yusef Lateef, Butch Morris and even Aretha Franklin, as starting points of ferocious improvisations.
David Murray has perfected an instantly recognizable approach to improvisation that even in its freest flights acknowledges the gravity of a tradition he honors more than most.
Paal Nilssen-Love and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, best know from The Thing, have played together since 1992 and have become known as Norway’s heaviest rhythm-section.
“Hearing the two Norwegians in a more or less straight jazz setting like this, is rare, and wonderful. They forge ahead like a fully tuned and prepped racing car engine, out on the sharpest runway circuit, with a swing technique and control of pitch and speed that is out of this world. They do it without letting go of a single millimetre of the peculiarities we know them for. The peculiarities for which we return to their concerts, again and again. The contributions of both Håker Flaten and Nilssen-Love belong in the history books of music. (…)
It feels so good to once again hear the David Murray we fell for, around forty years ago. The raw, hard-hitting style of playing, where you never doubt its foundation: in the blues. A sound that breathes the raw music from New York we once came to love so deeply.” – Johan Hauknes, Salt Peanuts
Since he arrived in NY in 1975, David Murray established himself as one of the prominent saxophone players and leaders of jazz. He has released over 200 albums under his own name, working with the likes of Max Roach, Randy Weston, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Taj Mahal, Mal Waldron, Amiri Baraka, Jerry Garcia, Doudou N’daye Rose, Cassandra Wilson, Jason Moran, Macy Gray, Omara Portuando, Saul Williams, Vijay Iyer, Quest Love, Black Thought, and Gregory Porter to name a few. He is also a founding member of the groundbreaking World Saxophone Quartet which toured and recorded for 40 years.
As well as being a well known bandleader, he is a noteworthy composer and arranger providing memorable melodies and harmonies. His approach to improvisation is instantly recognizable. Even in its freest flights, he acknowledges the gravity of a tradition he honors more than most, combining all the influences he grew out of: gospel, jazz, free/avant-garde jazz, rhythm’n blues, R&B and, in his associations with writers, poetry. The great Cecil Taylor compared him to his greatest predecessors who had signature sounds: “You stick your ear in the door, you know it’s David!’’
His most recent trio, The Brave New World Trio, released an album May 2022 after touring for 2 years. The critics unanimously agree that he is at the top of his game! “The concept of freedom expressed here involves drawing freely from myriad styles, minting them into music that is both uncompromisingly rigorous and directly communicative.” (Downbeat, July 2022)
David Murray goes down as a worthy successor for some of the biggest names in jazz, and he is now contributing to the rise of many young talents acclaimed by the critics.
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (b. 1971) — The award winning Norwegian bassist, improviser, composer and bandleader Ingebrigt Håker Flaten has been at the forefront of modern creative music both in his native country Norway and internationally since the early 1990s. Perhaps best known as a founding member of the Scandinavian super group Atomic, Håker Flaten has merged post-free jazz explorations and experimentation with skillful use of attributes from many other idioms in countless collaborations, bands and projects.
An innovative practitioner of both the double bass and electric bass, Håker Flaten studied at the highly respected jazz program “Jazzlinja” at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Early on, he gained attention as part of the groups The Source and Element, the latter formed with fellow students and life-long collaborators Paal Nilssen-Love and Håvard Wiik. Both Nilssen-Love and Wiik would later join Håker Flaten in Atomic, which the three Norwegians formed together with the two Swedes Magnus Broo and Fredrik Ljungkvist. Making their recorded debut in 2001, Atomic has since been celebrated and treasured by jazz enthusiasts and critics alike, and won many accolades along the way...[more]
Nilssen-Love has, during the last couple of years, established himself on the international scene as a powerful drummer with high energy and creativity. In 2002 he was "Artist in Residence" at Molde International Jazz Festival, a title Chick Corea and Pat Metheny held in previous years. After 7 days and 9 concerts at the festival, Down Beat stated, "His week at Molde proved a revelation: Nilssen-Love is one of the most innovative, dynamic and versatile drummers in jazz."
