Gefion
(ECM)
More than most instrumentalists guitarists influence one another across idioms as well as generations. Django Reinhardt, BB King, Paco de Lucia, Chet Atkins and Jimi Hendrix are examples, as, more recently, is Bill Frisell, who has clearly inspired the brilliant Danish guitarist Jacob Bro. It being an influence more of ideas than technique, however, Bro has emerged with his own voice.
Like Frisell he eliminates the concrete in favour of a kind of abstract expressionism, and his compositions create contexts for swirls of sound from which tender melodies emerge; for establishing moods which are intensified or made malleable by improvised interaction. The ultimate master of this approach was drummer Paul Motian, and Bro has chosen Motian’s bassist of choice in his final years, Thomas Morgan, and the other great expressionist drummer of the last four decades, Jon Christensen, as his collaborators. The latter has an exquisite feel for colour and drama, while Morgan makes a magnificent sound and grounds the music emotionally, and Bro maintains a constant dialogue with these twin halves of his conception.
John Shand