Jonas Kullhammar and Fredrik Nordström has a very specific alto saxophone in the hands. They are made of acrylic plastic, of the british firm of Grafton from the 1950s, and about ten years ahead. Any larger model as a tenor or barytonsax, they managed to never get into production because the material was too fragile, and which also have been plagued altversionen, difficult to repair. But just then created, of course, a cult object.
Backed by drummer Fredrik Rundqvist and bassist Arvid Jullander play Kullhammar and Nordstrom music by and/or with previous saxofonister with a Grafton. Generally is without a doubt, Ornette Coleman, the foremost exponent; while many ridiculed him and his ”leksakslur” so it was actually he recorded his classic album ”The shape of jazz to come” in 1959.
But even Charlie Parker, the most iconic of all altsaxofonister, used, at times, a Grafton. It is, perhaps, best documented on the liveinspelningen ”Jazz at Massey Hall” from 1953, but there are also other materials – often recorded in Canada, where Parks were not bound by its agreement with a more traditional instrument makers.
not slavishly to the theme, but circles around essentially the songs that Parker played with his Grafton. They also make ”Congo call” by Prince Lasha and Sonny Simmons, and finishing with a tribute to the Swedish särlingen Bengt Frippe Nordström – not because of the song, but because Nordstrom played on a plastsax.
but all of that is really just a part of the thing with the concert at little Glenn Miller Café. In fact, it means they both saxofonerna a given restriction, which works much like the creative dogma.
the Sound – actually significantly ”plastic” in certain registers and with specific blåstryck – form the framework for a game that seems closest to the freeing of the same. It is light hearted and with a twinkle in his eye, but time after time, it leads to the whims and quirks that leaves the circumstances and the materials far behind.
Read more music reviews by John Cornell, for example, about the eccentric american, Luis Cole, together with the Norrbotten Big Band.
