Wednesday, January 18, 2006  

Siggi Flosa and Those Reykjavik Blues

Washington Post, Wednesday, January 18, 2006; Page C10

Nordic jazz has been generating some buzz lately because of the quality and diversity of the music, from warm electronic-tinged grooves and rich folk-informed melodies to hot free-blowing improvisation. But the cliches about jazz from that part of the world -- it's cold, distant music with an indifferent relationship to the blues -- were proved true when Icelandic alto saxophonist Sigurdur Flosason brought his band to a half-full Blues Alley on Monday as part of the club's Nordic jazz series. Performing as the Siggi Flosa Quartet, the group played seven airy songs in its early set that sounded like tunes for a university jazz lab, not an urban jazz club.

The academic life is something Flosason is steeped in: He studied at the Reykjavik College of Music and earned a bachelor's and master's at Indiana University. But Flosason, born in 1964, has also made some headway in the "real world" as well: He was a finalist in Europe Jazz Contest 1990.

Flosason's dry, light, vibratoless tone has much in common with the cool school of American jazz, and specifically that of fellow alto player Lee Konitz, whose style has influenced many European musicians. But unlike Konitz, Flosason didn't display the experimental edge that makes Konitz such a compelling player. He and his gently swinging band -- pianist Eythor Gunnarsson, bassist Valdimar K. Sigurjonsson and drummer Petur Ostlund -- played the standard "It Could Happen to You" and six overly polite Flosason originals. Even the song named "The Invasion From Mars" sounded more like a jaunty welcome theme for well-adjusted aliens than a menacing soundtrack for a sci-fi war flick.

Blues Alley's Nordic jazz series continues tonight with the considerably hotter playing of Norwegian saxophonist Kjetil Moster -- one of the country's most exciting young players -- and on Jan. 23, Sweden's rock-and-electronic-steeped E.S.T. --Christopher Porter

Posted by CP | Link |

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