Swedish reeds player Fredrik Nordström present a new band, the Dolores quartet, and a new label, Bluenord, titled after his favorite studio, but goes deeper into the bare, lyrical and even the melancholic atmosphere of his last album «Svensk Standards» (El Dingo, 2019, with double bass master Palle Danielsson and drummer Fredrik Rundqvist), that offered his interpretations of songs from the Swedish jazz and folk music heritage.
The new drummer-less Dolores is inspired by folk music, perhaps mainly from Scandinavia and from North America. The quartet features Nordström on tenor and baritone saxes and clarinet; trumpeter Staffan Svensson, who collaborated before with Nordström on the album «VIBB» (Moserobie, 2007); and young Swede-Greek guitarist Andreas Hourdakis, who dedicated recently an album to the songwriting of Bob Dylan (Andreas Hourdakis Trio, «Señor», Brus & Knaster, 2017); and Italian, Stockholm-based double bass player Ilaria Capalbo, co-leader of the trio Kósmos and the duo Invisible Atlas, who did the design of «Svensk Standards».
Nordström composed seven pieces and complemented «Dolores: One» with a freely improvised interpretation of John Coltrane’s classic «Central Park West». Hourdakis’ leisured, Bill Frisell-ian, country-ish guitar lines introduce the gentle and melodic, opening piece «Algorithm Changes», and together with Svensson, Capalbo and Nordström set a chamber, almost ethereal, and conversational dynamics. This kind of open, patient and democratic interplay frames the soulful melodic themes as layered and nuanced stories, as Dolores explores on «Signpost» and «19 Southbound».
The fragile, melancholic side of Dolores is explored beautifully on the ballads «Way Up North» and «Turns», both highlight the natural, expressive interplay of the quartet, and on the heartfelt cover of «Central Park West», which recreates the magic of Coltrane. Dolores also searches for free and more abstract sonic territories on the shorter pieces «Rise» and «The Big Question».
«Dolores: One» is a beautiful and moving album.
Eyal Hareuveni
Fredrik Nordström (ts, bs, cl), Staffan Svensson (tp), Andreas Hourdakis (g), Ilaria Capalbo (b)
