Album review: Cornelia Nilsson - Where do You go? (Stunt Records)

Cornelia Nilsson (drums); Daniel Franck (bass); + Aaron Parks (piano on tks 1,2,4,6,8,9); Gabor Bolla (tenor sax on tks 3,5,7,10)

I posted a clip of this fine album back in March with the promise of a 'proper' review to follow and then one thing led to another ad it slipped my mind which is unforgivable as it really is worth checking out. So, only one month after its March release date, here it is.

It gets off to a flying start with Bud Powell's John's Abbey. Parks almost outdoing Bud and being driven along by Nilsson with Franck doing what bass players are paid to do which is to keep the harmonic structure in place.

Ninni/Motions is dedicated to her mother and the trio do her mum justice.

As you will have gathered from the personnel listed above, this is a tale of two trios. The first, with Aaron Parks, is a swinging, relatively straight forward one (and nothing wrong with that) whilst the second, recorded a year later has Hungarian tenor player Bolla replacing Parks transforming it into a chordless trio (and nothing wrong with that!) 

This second trio make their first appearance on Ornette Coleman's The Sphynx. Needless to say, this is a wilder affair with Cornelia going for broke and Bolla doing likewise.

Where do You go? was the clip I originally posted and can be heard HERE. Like any Alec Wilder song, it's beautiful with piano, bass (especially bass) and drums showing their respect.

Back to the sax trio with a long cadenza by Bolla leading into East of the Sun. He's currently resident in Copenhagen and, as such, adding to the long tradition of tenor players who have found inspiration in the Danish capital.

The Wanderer, another original by Cornelia (Connie!) kept together by Frank whilst Parks and Connie, as she is affectionately known, 'wander' along paths that only cross occasionally but when they do, it's like Stanley meeting Livingstone - or so I presume.

Monk's Ugly Beauty isn't ugly at all but very beautiful in the hands of Bolla.

An explorative drum solo  brings in piano and bass on her own meditative melody For a Father. The trio are laid back setting the scene for Krzysztof Komeda's Dirge For Europe to briefly take it out.  

Another one of the leader's originals, That Was Recording Right?, sees the piano  trio returning to their swinging ways. Franck, Connie and Aaron all contribute with the leader well featured.

Saturn's Return brings the disc to a close with Bolla running the full gamet of the tenor's range. When Connie composed this, had she been listening to Sun Ra? The title and the cosmic feel to the solos suggest maybe she had which isn't a bad idea - Saturn moves faster than the Earth does!

Well worth checking out on BANDCAMP. Lance