Tarantella is a quietly eloquent album that reveals new layers with each listening and is a worthy addition to the growing canon of great European jazz recordings
Swedish bassist, cellist,composer and arranger Lars Danielsson is emerging as a key figures in European jazz.
In 2007 Danielsson released the duo album Pasodoble which paired him with Polish pianist Leszek Mozdzer. The record was a critical and commercial success and Tarantella can be seen as a development of the ideas explored on Pasodoble.
This time Danielsson has widened his instrumental palette by expanding the line up to a quintet. Mozdzer remains on piano (he also contributes celesta and harpsichord) and a truly international line up is completed by Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick, British guitarist John Parricelli and American drummer/percussionist Eric Harland. Its good to see a British musician getting some international exposure in such exalted company.
Tarantella consists of thirteen relatively short pieces that somehow manage to combine an almost classical structure and discipline with space for improvisation and individual impression. Despite the international line up there is still something inescapably Nordic about much of the record. Much of this is due not only to Danielssons writing style but also to the sound of Eicks trumpet. The opening Pegasus features his breathy, lyrical sound above Parricellis gently circling guitar, Danielssons melancholy cello and Harlands percussion shadings. Its highly atmospheric and conjures up images of vast open spaces.
1. Pegasus
2. Melody on Wood
3. Traveller's Wife
4. Traveller's Defense
5. 1000 Ways
6. Ballet
7. Across the Sun
8. Introitus
9. Fiojo
10. Tarantella
11. Ballerina
12. The Madonna
13. Postludium