Customer Reviews

Waves

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This came out in '78 and pretty much left everything Rypdal had done previously in the dust. Before Waves, Rypdal had spent a few years fine-tuning Miles Davis'jazzfunkfusion legacy (albeit with a pronounced Scandinavian flavor), but Waves is a BIG leap forward, with a truly original & fresh feel & approach. On this record Rypdal's stellar guitar often takes a back seat while trumpet wunderkind Palle Mikkelborg establishes the melodies (Per Ulv and The Dain Curse are a couple of the catchiest melodies in Rypdal's career as a composer)and blows at length. the moody & atmospheric Rypdal we all know & love is here too (Karusell & Charisma)- this record has it all! Jon Christensen on drums is easily up to the challenge throughout. Sveinung Hovensjo on bass is the invisible man here, prefiguring the bass-less lineup on Rypdal's follow up to Waves, Descendre.This record is criminally unknown $ unsung. In my perfect Alternate Universe Terje Rypdal, along with the likes of Frank Zappa and Ralph Towner,is properly acknowledged and revered as the towering guitar master & composer which he truly is in this deeply flawed universe...

The summer I found Rypdal I was also dancing to disco and Sex Pistols, and, yes, it all made sense, while leaving the aformentioned sort of...well, in the dust.

Rypdal's searing Hendrix-esque guitar combined with his tireless, whiplash jazz men was like nothing I had ever heard (and little has matched it since). He had brought the jazz fusion experiments of Miles Davis's electroyears into focus and wedded it to his peculiar Scando-psychedelic world view. "Per Ulv" has a refrain that plays weekly in my head 30 odd years later.

Classic work.

This album along with Descendre are two Rypdal albums that feature Trumpet player Palle Mikkelborg. Mikkelborg is perhaps the most diversified and accomplished trumpet player out there. He is truly a musician first and his trumpet playing only serves the goal of creating beautiful and haunting music. Together with Rypdal and the drummer on this album they create some of the most memorable impressionistic music ever recorded. This album is extremely underrated and will live as a lasting legacy of Rypdals unique, powerful and expressive guitar playing and composing. Definately something worth owning.

An interesting and refreshing album by this amazingmusician. You will not find here the power of "Blue" or"Chaser" (two of my favourites CD's) but it helps as aslowdown-break between them. And it works.

We are often wedded more to an album than a person, since the album can be all that is immediately, and give you that for the rest of your life.
This album is one of those for me, tho After the Rain is perhaps even closer to my heart.
A few thoughts, since I agree and can't better Chris Juergens review.
The thoughts:
I love the unexpectedly strange, what's next, and meditative vastness or longing of this ECM style. Some won't, like existentialism, you either get it, or you don't. Once you sign on to the majesty and singular individual solo voice of the music, you feel/see the vast emotional imagination of it all, and yet, hey, it's just guys playing in a studio with alot of echo.
Therein lies the second thought. Excellence of ideas, and the continuing flow of almost totally non-black, non-funky interplay. The groove is more metronomic than dance. This is jazz that is nordic, thus, to me, highly capable, highly inventive, but oddly rhythmic and black keyed. Ultimately, as with most ECM (to its credit!) This is solitary music.
Ice instead of steam, or sweat. Maybe I'm just laying on the Norgasm... The close, intense yet somehow cold coming and fulfilment.
Each tune is so different on this album.
Per Ulv - as the other reviewer said, it sticks to your head. And Christensen's drumming, man, if you can drum this good, you are tasty.
Karusell- OK, the ride with the horses? Man, it must be the one in the middle of nowhere. But it's a waltz in the middle, yes?
Stenskoven - makes a Berlin/BrechtWeil noise to me. I love this one.
Waves - the horizon made like a fast video, with the wavs being sky to me.
The Dain Curse - some kinda lope bass with a wildness that never gives up.
Charisma - the OM run of the set, this one is pretty damn cosmic while keeping the guitar bluesey enough to bring you back down from any trip you might have taken.

For advanced heads, and those who love Nordic ECM jazz, a classic of the genre. For those who want to hear how music can never get old, this is a good choice.
For those who want a party, check out The Hot Club of France.

Den NC USA

2 1/2


Atmosphere defeats substance in middling late seventies fusion, which at best evokes a mild Miles.