Artist: Uffe Krokfors
Album: The Incense of All Our Prayers
Year: 2007
Line-up: Uffe Krokfors – double
bass
Label: no label
Here we have a real aural obscurity if
I have ever seen one. When you think about albums consisting purely
of solo instrument performance – that is that there is one and only
one instrument and performer playing the music – you might think of
such as instruments as the piano and the guitar with which both the
melody and the accompaniment can be performed simultaneously. For
some of you, The Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello might come to
mind. But what about solo double bass? It might seem that creating an
interesting piece around solo bass let alone a whole album could
almost be an impossible task. There is one solo performance on
fretless electric bass on Jaco Pastorious' self titled album called
Portrait of Tracy and the British double bass maestro Dave Holland
has actually released an entire album of solo bass music entitled
Emerald Tears on ECM in 1977 which is another aural obscurity itself.
However, on this occasion I will introduce to you a rarer album by an
extraordinary bass player named Uffe Krokfors named The Incense of
All Our Prayers.
Uffe Krokfors (born 1966) is a Finnish
Swede who begun his career as a bass player with the composer and
trumpeter Otto Donner's quintet in the mid 1980's. Krofors quickly
established himself as a household name playing with legendary
Finnish percussionist Edward Vesala in his group called Sound and
Fury and in Krakatau of guitarist Raoul Björkenheim recording with
both for ECM records. Since then he has become one the most in-demand
bass players in Finland playing along side with the most important
Finnish jazz figures in. Lately Krokfors has increasingly focused on
his own music and compositions which have been featured on his
collaborative albums as well as on his own records. As a bass player
Krokfors is known for his clarity, purity, sensitivity to listen and
to react to the playing of other musicians and ability to play
melodious and coherent bass solos – and this is what his first
completely solo album, The Incense of All Our Prayers, is about.
The album consists of nine pieces, five
of which are completely improvised. The booklet informs us that three
of these improvisations draw their inspiration from the poems of one
of the most important pioneers of Finnish poetry, Eino Leino. The
four remaining tracks are compositions by Krokfors. It should be
noted that the album has no overdubs or effects apart from the final
track baring the name of the album. The music you hear is all
acoustic double bass and oddly the sounds of breathing and panting by
Krokfors. The bass playing here is phenomenal: clear and accurate as
one could expect of such virtuoso of one's instrument. The majority
of the featured tracks are played with fingers except for two
exceptions where we can here Krokfors' skills with the bow. As
compositions, these tracks are not as perfect as the playing of
Krokfors. One obvious factor is the fact that the majority of the
music here is improvised and one can only wonder what were the
reasons behind these choices. Nevertheless, the music is still very
intriguing and requires the full attention of the listener to be
truly appreciated. The definite highlight is the last track which
uses overdubs and creates a truly mysterious and captivating
atmosphere. Let us hope that Krokfors records a new solo album in the
future which features more of this kind of material. Until then The
Incense of All Our Prayers is a must for all bass players and musical
connoisseurs.
Take a peak of the skills of Krokfors
on the solo bass in this short clip:
Written
by Παναγιωτιης
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