Strid, Raymond & Roland Keijser

Yellow Bell [3 CD BOX]

Label: Umlaut Records Country: France

"[...] So are the three CDs of improvisations from the well-matched Swedish duo of veteran Roland Keijser playing a variety of conventional and folkloric reeds in conjunction with Raymond Strid's sensitive percussion output. Recorded live in a Stockholm club Yellow Bell offers variety of moods and stratagems. Although Keijser - on piano -and the percussionist conclude with a stately reading of Monk's Mood that's all tremolo key clipping and drum rim smacks, most of the 32 tunes are far from the jazz cannon. Spegelsång for example finds Keijser on stuttering saxophone and Strid's thumping martial beat deconstructing a folk tune as its initial tone rows are played upside down in its second half. On Sohini the reedist's tootles are from trussed metal whistles and Strid's drags and flams could come from a djembe intonation, while Keijser uses a supple South Indian venu flute to play a variant of the Swedish Varför frågar du/Varför svarar du backed by snare shuffles and cynmbal rattles. The most impressive display of this cross-cultural improv is evident on the title tune plus Kvällskvarpa/Dansa med moss. On the former Keijser's Sonny Rollins-like obbligatos transmogrifies an ancient fiddle tune into near-jazz, while the latter is kept linear by Strid's paradiddles and ruffs as mid-range clarinet glissandi diffuse from snake-charmer-like trills to splintered runs. [...]"-Ken Waxman, The Jazz Word