Description
Magazine Tracklist
Jaga Ist Zu Hause (7:17)
Plym (7:46)
Swedish Take Away (9:20)
Seems To Me (3:22)
Serafin I Jungelen (Jomba Vs. K-Mart & Ravi Mix) (16:12)
About the band Jaga Jazzist
Jazz band Jaga Jazzist is best known for their album A Livingroom Hush (Smalltown Supersound/Ninja Tune), BBC’s best jazz album for 2002. Nevertheless, they are an experimental Norwegian jazz group who brought us the album.
Martin Horntveth and Lars Horntveth are the songwriters for Jaga Jazzist. While still teenagers, the brothers formed Jaga Jazzist with Ivar Christian Johansen back in 1994. The brothers also performed as part of The National Bank.
In 1996, Jaga Jazzist released their first album, Jvla Jazzist Grete Stitz, which featured playful, humorous jazz infused with rap. In 1998, the EP Magazine showed signs of the cinematic style they would later adopt.
Before signing a recording contract with Warner Music of Norway in 2000, the band toured extensively and became known for their fresh musical expressions and energetic live shows.
An acclaimed debut album released by Warner, A Livingroom Hush won the Norwegian Music Award Alarm Prize in 2002 and was named Jazz Album of 2002 by BBC listeners.
A collaboration between Jaga Jazzist and Britten Sinfonia was released on Ninja Tune in May 2013, to a positive critical reception.
Ninja Tune released Jaga Jazzist’s album Starfire in 2015.
Here is part of the BBC Review of Magazine
“Jaga Ist Zu Hause” soars out of the speakers on wings of steel guitar. Indeed, punctuated by clusters of woodwind and propelled by Martin’s imaginatively hyperactive drums.
“Plym”‘s delicate acoustic stirrings feature some of the most heart-rending chords ever plucked and builds to a wild megalomaniac storm of noise.
But it’s “Swedish Takeaway” that indicates what fine straight jazzers these boys were before settling on a more recognizable sound. Recorded at Oslo’s legendary Club Blå, it’s a naggingly lovely two-chord vamp that’s as infectious as it is free, with some very fine trumpet soloing.
With a couple of remixes and the unusually vocal “Seems To Me“, this release still sees itself as much a product of the indie scene as the more monumental heritage of Miles and Coltrane, and that’s why Jaga continue to amaze.
Like many of their fellow countrymen, they refuse to recognize the boundaries. Allegedly their next album throws the prog-rock into the mix. Rest assured, this should be a very good thing indeed… —Chris Jones.
