SVERRE SÆBØ QUINTET - If, However, You Have Not Lost Your Self Control

Just two years after graduating from the prestigious Grieg Academy (University of Bergen, Norway) in 2023, Sverre S. Sæbø makes his debut with an album that looks both to the past (Charles Mingus, Don Cherry) and to the future of the exciting new Scandinavian scene, “If, However, You Have Not Lost Your Self Control”.

The young Norwegian double bassist cut his teeth playing in the Midtnorsk Ungdomsstorband (“Climbing To The Moon”, 2021) and on the early Avian Art EPs (“Hagelaget”, 2021; “Tedans”, 2021) before putting together his own quintet with saxophonist and clarinettist Heidi Kvelvane (NH3 and Vestnorsk Jazzensemble), saxophonist and clarinettist Aksel Røed (Other Aspects, Lyder Røed Quintet, Michael Barnes Octet, Toivo Quintet, Treverket, Whatever Happens Don’t Be Yourself), trumpeter Andreas H. Hatzikiriakidis (Aksel Røed’s Other Aspects, Toivo Quintet, Treverket, Water Music) and drummer and percussionist Amund Nordstrøm (Cort Piil, Datadyr, Mø:San, Thomas Lossius Septet, Kryptograf). After a couple of years spent playing around Norway, the band finally shut themselves away in a recording studio in Bergen, the sumptuous Grieghallen.

The phrase “If, however, you have not lost your self control”, which gives the title to the debut album by Sverre S. Sæbø's quintet, was taken from a famous letter Khrushchev wrote to Kennedy on 26 October 1962 to avert war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. A warning for our own dark times, and the pretext for diving into music steeped in the atmospheres of the late 1950s and early 1960s: from the exuberant choral introduction of “Buffalo Jump”, with the horns trading brief but effective solos over a lethal groove, to the ballad “Sleep Marching”, which almost feels like a tribute to the golden age of cool jazz.

All nine tracks on the album were written by Sverre S. Sæbø for his quintet. “En Form For Dans” carries the group's sound to stellar standards, thanks to the skills of its leader, who besides being an excellent musician also works as a sound engineer for concert halls, jazz clubs and recording studios. A highlight of this parallel career is his recording and mixing in Dolby Atmos of Mahler's Eighth Symphony performed by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.

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01/07/2025