by Pico
Last October 20, the up-and-coming violin wizard from Copenhagen Mads Tolling put forth his second CD The Playmaker, a celebration of the kindrid spirit shared by musicians and athletes. Yes, that’s right, the connection between people who make music and people who make plays. As Tolling correctly points out, both achieve success for their band, or team, by facilitating their teammates. It’s in this mindset that Tolling set out to make the sports analogy become a reality.
Our first look at Tolling came a couple of years when sizing up Stanley Clarke’s back-to-the-fusion affair The Toys Of Men. As a member of Clarke’s band, Tolling is out front as one of the soloists, following the footsteps for the pattern for fusion established by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. For The Playmaker, however, Tolling is even less constrained than he was on Clarke’s record.
Tolling’s freewheeling approach to jazz—ignoring boundaries between jazz and rock, funk, and folk—makes for a varied, adventurous and sometimes unpredictable album. But more often than not, Tolling’s rich and aggressive violin style closely resembles Jean-Luc Ponty’s, and indeed the French master violinist has praised his younger Danish counterpart, declaring that Tolling”has the amazing talent and skills that few young musicians can match.”
The album starts out with Tolling’s base configuration of electric violin, guitar (Mike Abraham), bass (George Ban-Weiss), and drums (Eric Garland). The rocking number “Just” is arguably the most straightforward tune of this collection, but this Radiohead cover nonetheless possess many subtleties beneath it’s abrasive veneer. It’s not really jazz, but it’s not entirely rock, either. Tolling succeeds in pulling together elements of both to create impressions of both in the right measures.
Afterwards,Tolling launches into his three-part “Playmaker” suite, beginning with the Tom Brady tribute “The Playmaker.” Tolling, who bears a striking resemblance to the New England Patriots quarterback, set out to make a smooth jazz number out of this song, but with a 7/4 meter and a complex bass groove often found on Ponty tunes, the harmonious composition is simply too discriminating to fall under that category. Russell Ferrante’s sensitive piano work acts as the glue that holds all the other players together. The second leg of this tour through outstanding athletes is the more somber “The Contemplator,” which salutes French soccer player Zinedine Zidanel with a couple of more special guests. Stefon Harris’ meditative tones are complemented by Clarke’s acoustic bowed bass that also works in perfect tandem with Tolling’s long notes. The final segment, “The Risktaker,” tips its hat to Lebron James with some engaging three-way interplay among Tolling, Harris and Ferrante on electric piano, dynamically shifting rhythms and the violin fearlessly soloing over the changes.
Mads also offers up tributes to other musicians, living and deceased. The title “Star-Maker Machinery” might suggest Joni MItchell, but the Indian modal melody and tricky unison lines is Mahavishnu Orchestra all the way. This platform for virtuosic display features Tolling soloing energetically on the slightly heavier viola. “I Skovens Dybe Stille Ro” is a traditional Danish folk song that Toling used to sing every morning as a child, but was inspired to cover it by hearing an unique arrangement of it by the Great Dane jazz bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen. Tollings plays a fast ostinato over which Ban-Weiss gently plucks out the main line with his acoustic bass, then Tolling plays the lyric with his violin. The simple, rural beauty of the tune comes through clearly. Pee Wee Ellis‘s old r&b standby “The Chicken,” (dedicated to Jaco Pastorious) brings some good, old school funk to the undertaking. Tolling plays his violin more like a fiddle…a very funky fiddle at that.
Tolling wraps it up with a couple of standards that couldn’t be any further apart stylistically. A mildly swing rendition version of “Blue Monk” has more akin to the Quintet of the Hot Club of France featuring Django Reinhardt and Stehpane Grappelli than some post-bop combo. Following that is Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog,” ending the album in the hard-rocking style that it started with.
As Major League Baseball just days ago wrapped up, the football season in full stride and the basketball season just getting started, the playmakers have been out in doing their thing on the court, the field and the baseball diamond. But music has no offseason, and the quest for success doesn’t usually culminate in a season-ending performance; it’s an ongoing process to get to the next level. At least, that’s how Mads Tolling approaches it. Playing on a variety of venues and assuming a multitude of positions, Tolling plays a complete game on The Playmaker.
