feature photo: Ryo Mitamura/ECM Records
The atmospheric guitarist from Denmark Jakob Bro has been leading dates since the middle Aughts (Daydreamer, 2003, to be precise) but became better known for his notable sideman roles with some jazz legends until he began a recording stint with ECM Records in 2015. Since then, the Downbeat‘s Annual Critics Poll 2018 “Rising Star Guitar” winner has quickly become one of the storied label’s headline acts, and his latest entry Uma Elmo will surely only further that status.
To those new to him, Jakob Bro compares very closely to Bill Frisell such that neither seems to think in terms of whether they’re comping or leading, they are so focused on making the melody as alluring as possible, and can do so with as little notes as possible. The strategy might be similar but Bro’s guitar sounds very different, too. Still, there are precious few other guitarist with that mindset and that mindset is the driving force behind Uma Elmo.
For the new album, Bro put together a new, pan-European trio: Spanish longtime Brad Mehldau/Chris Cheek drummer Jorge Rossy and Norwegian trumpet player Arve Henriksen. From the opening moments you know this is an ECM record: that solemnity, the silence used as an instrument and the faultless production with each instrument easily isolated from another, captured with a shimmering echo. Henriksen’s trumpet is remindful of bit of another Norwegian ECM trumpeter Mathias Eick but no one can make that brass instrument resemble a Japanese flute like he can. All these features are prominent on the opening track “Reconstructing A Dream”
Bro was featured on Tomas Stanko’s Dark Eyes album and Bro remembers the great Polish trumpet icon with “To Stanko,” a song that’s melancholy, fragile and possessing a lot of soul; Bro sketches out that sorrowful strain with his lonely articulation. Rossy’s brushes provide just enough energy to propel forward the enigmatic “Beautiful Day” as Bro’s effects serve as an effective ambient backdrop to Henriksen’s searching horn.
The pure, soft resonance of Bro’s guitar on “Morning Song” seems just the right companion for watching the sun rise. “Housework” is deceptive in its simplicity as it stays on one chord; it’s about Bro and Henriksen squeezing out all the mysterious beauty from that. Henriksen’s lead voice on “Sound Flower” is gorgeous, but also bolstered greatly by Bro’s generous showering of layered effects that throw off a celestial and slightly alien vibe.
Rossy was tabbed for this record for a reason, and it’s his rare ability to make his drums effectively ‘sing,’ giving this trio a third melodicist much like Bro’s old band leader Paul Motian. You hear it at the outset of “Music For Black Pigeons,” where even no actual notes are played until Bro and Henriksen enter a little later, Rossy is already strongly suggesting what they’ll play ahead of time.
There’s nothing loud or audacious on Jakob Bro’s Uma Elmo because it doesn’t have to in order to leave an impact. Through subtlety comes sublimity.
Uma Elmo is now out, by ECM Records.
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