Daughter Of The Sun

Ever since Jan Garbarek put Norwegian jazz on the map in the late 1980s, and even more so after the international success of his rigorously ascetic Officium in 1994, the music has acquired a reputation for being, if not entirely lacking in passion, then for being, at least, emotionally detached. More recently, with the emergence of a new generation of Norwegian musicians aligned with the electronica movement, the country's jazz has, justly or unjustly, acquired a parallel reputation for being obsessed with technology, clean digital productions and overly self-referential.

Hanna Paulsberg Concept defies the stereotypes. Led by tenor saxophonist and composer Paulsberg, the tradition with which the band most clearly resonates is analogue-era African American jazz. Indeed, "Daughter Of The Sun" chimes strongly with jazz from Africa itself, above all township jazz, the style born in the black townships of apartheid-era South Africa. Consciously or unconsciously, there are recurring suggestions of Chris McGregor's Blue Notes and Abdullah Ibrahim's bands and the kwela music from which their styles in part derived. There are also hints of jazz-inflected West African highlife. The fundamental vibe, as the album title suggests, is a sunny and uplifting one, which is at times also reminiscent of the spiritual jazz of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane. Hanna Paulsberg Concept combines all these resonances with its own musicianship to create a style which is distinctly of itself - and which is also delightfully playful.

"Daughter Of The Sun" - which Paulsberg has dedicated to the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Hatshepsut, and all other women who have had to fight harder for recognition because of their gender - is HPC's fourth album and it follows the critically acclaimed "Eastern Smiles" (2016). The line-up - Paulsberg, double bassist Trygve Waldemar Fiske, drummer Hans Hulbaekmo and pianist Oscar Gronberg - has been together for over eight years and the benefits of such stability are evident in the interplay between the musicians. But longterm familiarity carries a potential downside. "Such closeness can also lead a band into falling into the same patterns," says Paulsberg. "We have been longing for someone to come in and push our boundaries for some time". So, for "Daughter Of The Sun", the group invited Swedish trumpeter Magnus Broo to join them. A generation older than the other musicians, Broo has been a member of the celebrated Norwegian/Swedish band Atomic for almost 20 years and his roots are also in the African American tradition.