Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (Exit) Knarr's "Breezy"

(Exit) Knarr is the primary compositional outlet for Norwegian bassist extraordinare Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, whose CV from the last 30 years reads like a "who's who" of today's jazz and improvised music. In my neck of the woods, the former Austin resident is best known for his collaboration with Dennis Gonzalez (2012's The Hymn Project), his membership in the Scandinavian free jazz power trio The Thing (whose collaborators have included master improviser Joe McPhee, singer Neneh Cherry, and harmolodic OG James "Blood" Ulmer), and his leadership of the mostly-Texan jazz/hip-hop/metal juggernaut The Young Mothers. (European fans might be more tuned in to outfits like Atomic and The Bridge.) (Exit) Knarr was formed in response to a one-time commission back in 2021, and has continued with some personnel shifts since their debut album. 

Breezy, the band's sophomore effort, is dedicated to the fiery trumpeter-composer Jamie "Breezy" Branch, a friend of Flaten's from the bassist's arrival in Chicago in 2006, who passed away at age 39 in 2022. Rather than serve up a sad requiem, the album endeavors to capture Branch's vibrant and adventurous spirit, beginning with the exuberant release of the opening "Afrotastic," which juxtaposes polyrhythmic urgency with the township lilt of its melodic theme. Trumpeter Erik Kimestad Pedersen leaps right in with a blazing solo, full of staccato notes, before being swept away on a sea of multi-horn polyphony. "Free the Jazz" explodes out of the gate with altoist Mette Rasmussen at her most Dolphic, making wide intervallic leaps and multiphonic squawks over a relentless ostinato. Massed horns set up pianist Oscar Gronberg's obliquely Monkian solo. Finally, the dense blocks of sound wind down to a close.

"Hilma" features both original (Exit) Knarr guitarist Oddrun Lilja Jonsdottir (who plays the hauntingly spectral atmospheric opening) and her replacement, Jonathan F. Horne, who also plays with Flaten in The Young Mothers. The piano and trumpet establish an echolalic theme, gradually taken up by the other instruments. A second, more angular theme emerges over an Elvin groove from drummer Olaf Moses Olsen, giving way to a venturesome solo from Horne that perfectly captures the restless energy and invention he displays in live performance. The guitarist continues burning brightly on the fiercely swinging "Ability," which also features a sinuous solo statement on soprano from Karl Hjalmar Nyberg (who's featured on tenor elsewhere on the disc).

The eponymous title track closes the album, evoking Branch's memory with a soulful, searching trumpet solo, backed by Joakim Rainer Petersen's synth, before the other instruments join in with blazing collective improvisation, commending her to the cosmos with the joy that only comes after pain. Breezy is a worthy tribute to an artist who left to soon, and proof of Ingebrigt Haker Flaten's stature as composer and bandleader.