Correction - Two Nights in April

Phillip McNally, Cadence Magazine

The French label Ayler has been dedicated for several years to documenting the Scandinavian Jazz scene, and this pair of new issues features some promising Swedes. Correction is a piano trio and on Two Nights in April we get to hear them on two different nights in Sweden. While the liner notes give composing credits to the trio as a whole, I have to say that if these tight intense pieces are group improvisations, then this trio must have been playing with one another since the cradle. There is concision and organization here that belies any hasty improvisation. Perhaps it is Nyberg’s bass playing that does it, for he is a dramatic, driving force out of the William Parker school, creating a tension and direction for the music. Bergstrom’s piano playing recalls Monk through Mengelberg; while he is not afraid of dissonance, he steers a beautiful course avoiding pounded clusters on the one hand and pastel impressionism on the other, making his own voice heard as he always tells a story. Through it all, drummer Astrand-Melin follows the drive of Nyberg’s bass, adding lots of small sounds. Definitely worth a listen.