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Arild Andersen: Arild Andersen: Green Into Blue - Early Quartets
Jan Garbarek
saxophoneb.1947
Terje Rypdal
guitarb.1947
Jon Christensen
drums1943 - 2020
Bobo Stenson
pianob.1944
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967
Albert Ayler
saxophone, tenor1936 - 1970
A pity, then, that while most of these albums have been available for many years on CD—Underwear, released only briefly on CD in Japan, is now available from ECM as a digital download—Andersen's first three recordings as a leader, featuring his vital mid-1970s quartet, have never been available on CD.
Until now. As part of ECM's recent Old & New Masters series, Green In Blue collects Clouds In My Head (1975), Shimri (1977) and Green Shading Into Blue (1978) together in one box, giving all of them their first appearance on CD. As classic as so many other ECM titles are from that time, it's difficult to believe that these three albums have remained so largely under the radar—making, as they do, an even stronger case for Andersen's importance in the emergence of Norway as a major contributor to the jazz canon—not just as a bassist, but as a composer and bandleader. These three recordings also introduced a number of players in Andersen's group, one—pianist
Jon Balke
pianob.1955
Music never emerges from a vacuum, and while the "Big Four" seemed to burst onto the scene with their ECM recordings, all of them were busy players on the Norwegian scene in the 1960s. Andersen and Christensen, in particular, were busy guns-for-hire, picking up work with American musicians touring Europe. As a freelancer, Andersen played with artists ranging from saxophonist 
Stan Getz
saxophone, tenor1927 - 1991
Don Cherry
trumpet1936 - 1995
In addition to recruiting a young Balke for Clouds In My Head, Andersen enlisted Knut Rissn?s, a saxophonist who, had the stars aligned more properly, might have become as famous as Garbarek. With a softer tone and less of the lilt that Garbarek would source from Norwegian folk music, while sharing a similar concern for the purity of every note (a perfect fit for ECM's sonic transparency), Rissn?s' playing is part of the collective fire driving Clouds. He delivers a suitably passionate solo on "Outhouse"—a hard-swinging Andersen original with a knotty, stop/start head that remains in the bassist's live repertoire to this day—setting a perfect context for the bassist's own lithely percussive solo. Elsewhere, on the more relaxed melancholy of "305 W 18 St"—a reference to the New York apartment belonging to singer
Sheila Jordan
vocals1928 - 2025
The American tradition remains a fundamental component. "Song For A Sad Day," a haunting, rubato original that, were it not for drummer P?l Thowsen's spare, textural playing and Andersen's supportive yet pliant approach, could be seen reinterpreted with straighter time as a smoky, late-night ballad, is another feature for Rissn?s' ardent tenor, while the equally supple "SIV," with Rissn?s switching again to flute, comfortably straddles the line between poignant form and greater interpretive freedom.
Thowsen is another player who seemed poised for greatness, but for whom the international acclaim of contemporary Jon Christensen seemed elusive. No Time For Time (Sonnet, 1976)—an album co-led with Christensen and also featuring Andersen and Rypdal— suggests that Thowsen was, in fact, one side of an equilateral percussion triangle (the third being Finnish drummer/composer
Edward Vesala
drums1945 - 1999
Andersen has always cited fretless electric bass icon
Jaco Pastorius
bass, electric1951 - 1987
Weather Report
band / ensemble / orchestra
Miroslav Vitous
bassb.1947
With Balke and Rissn?s departing after Clouds, Andersen recruited Finnish saxophonist 
Juhani Aaltonen
saxophoneb.1935
Lars Jansson
pianob.1951
If anything, the more subdued Shimri moved further away from direct American influence and more towards Andersen's increasingly distinctive compositional voice; a reflection, perhaps, of Andersen writing back home in Norway rather than in the hustle and bustle of New York City. Unlike Clouds where Andersen is the sole composer, Shimri features one song by Jansson—the gentle "Vaggvisa F?r Hanna," a duet feature for piano and flute that occupies similar terrain as American pianist
Art Lande
pianoThe rest of the album, written by Andersen, is darker in tone and sparer in content than Clouds—though that doesn't preclude an underlying energy that simmers gently beneath pieces like the opening title track, where pliant time and slowly unfolding changes provide grist for Jansson's more overt classicism. Aaltonen enters with an economic lyricism equal to Garbarek as the piece ebbs and flows, both dynamically and temporally. Switching to soprano for the equally pliant but more harmonically ambiguous "No Tears," Aaltonen and the rest of the quartet continue with a softer-edged approach than on Clouds. Aaltonen turns to flute for "Ways of Days," with Thowsen's occasional snare punctuations alluding to greater energy, while Andersen relies more heavily on his warm, deep tone than any direct virtuosity, for a solo that's brief but compelling.
At nearly 12 minutes, "Dedication" closes the disc, as Thowsen creates a restrained maelstrom beneath Aaltonen's tenor, with Andersen's resonant arco and Jansson's delicate pianism creating paradox on a lengthy intro that finally settles into the most rhythmically straightforward piece on Shimri, with Aaltonen's solo leading the group to some of the disc's most powerful moments. Still, this is controlled energy, with Andersen's solo—accompanied only by Thowsen—a wonderful combination of thematic intent and only the briefest moments of fire shining through. With ECM's seemingly de facto standard of permitting artists to record with the same group for no more than three recordings, what's most remarkable is how, across those three albums, there's a perhaps unintended but still overriding arc. It's Shimri's very restraint that makes it distinct and separate, yet unequivocally of a larger part of the Green In Blue trilogy, with Aaltonen's a capella closing solo on "Dedication" providing the album a rare moment of meticulously nuanced energy.
Despite the lineup remaining intact on Green Shading Into Blue, expectations of more of the same would be a mistake. From the opening moments of "Sole," it's clear that Andersen was aiming for a more direct approach. The time is more decidedly defined, with Thowsen's pulse persistent throughout. It's still a largely acoustic group, though Jansson does introduce synthesizer to the mix, but it's clear that the groove- centricity taking place across the Atlantic was impacting the way the bassist was writing—and the way his quartet was approaching the material. Still, any suggestions of the "F" word would be misplaced, as the quartet remains a model of lyricism and improvisational restraint—not constraint, as it's clear that, while there may be structure driving the soloists on this album of five Andersen originals and two Jansson pieces, freedom is still the order of the day, as Aaltonen delivers a solo more fiery than all his work on Shimri combined, his gritty tenor approaching that of his work with Vesala.
By the time this album was recorded in the spring of 1978, Weather Report had become fusion superstars and Jaco Pastorius an electric bass deity who had supplanted almost all the electric players who came before him as the instrument's primary innovative mover and shaker. Despite playing an acoustic instrument, it's possible to detect traces of Pastorius' impact on Andersen in his rhythm section work on "Sole." Still, while Pastorius was demonstrating his own kind of lyricism on tracks like Weather Report keyboardist/co-founder
Joe Zawinul
keyboards1932 - 2007
In some ways, Green Shading Into Blue consolidates the successes of both Clouds In My Head and Shimri, combining the former's stronger predilection to pulse with the latter's temporal pliancy. Jansson's "Anima" keeps one foot in minor keyed melancholy, but with a major key optimism that provides a suitably ambiguous context for Aaltonen's solo, where the saxophonist winds his way through the changes with a thematic focus while viscerally plunging into the tenor's lowest registers at times, and soaring elsewhere towards its greatest heights. The pianist's "Terhi," in contrast, returns to the Red Lanta territory of Shimri's "Vaggvisa F?r Hanna"—another duet, but, this time featuring Aaltonen on tenor.
Andersen's title track, with Jansson's synth creating a textural wash new to his music, takes nearly a third of its nine minutes to find its way to the appealing pulse that drives Aaltonen's gradually building solo. It's got a funky backbone, yet with Andersen's rhythmically knotty score and large spatial gaps, it's a completely different kind of funk; one rooted, again, in the pliancy that underlies so much of the bassist's music. Yes, the time is clearly defined; but with Andersen and Thowsen's less direct approach, it's more akin to a rhythmic house of cards, so carefully yet spontaneously constructed that, when the bassist and drummer periodically lock together, it creates an understated sense of release.
"Jana," which closes the disc, is driven by Thowsen, whose alternating between backbeat and quarter-note pulse creates a shifting foundation for the song's serpentine melody and a bass solo that returns to Andersen's more overt virtuosity of Clouds In My Head. Jansson's occasional synth pads once again create a more contemporary vibe, and yet, much like German bassist and fellow ECM artist
Eberhard Weber
bassb.1940
While Andersen's more cosmopolitan jazz roots differentiate him from some of his label contemporaries, the music on Green In Blue provides clear evidence that the bassist's own music was as much on the forefront of asserting a European personality—and, perhaps even more importantly, a new kind of Nordic aesthetic—as any of those around him. Andersen would subsequently pursue more eclectic settings for the label, from his combination of traditional Norwegian folk songs and modal jazz improvisations on Sagn (1991) and the gentle setting of
Ralph Towner
guitarb.1940
Nana Vasconcelos
percussion1944 - 2016
Tracks: CD1 (Clouds In My Head): 305 W 18 St; Last Song; Outhouse; Song For A Sad Day; Clouds In My Head; Cycles; Siv; The Sword Under His Wings. CD2 (Shimri): Shimri; No Tears; Ways of Days; Wood Song; Vaggvisa F?r Hanna; Dedication. CD3 (Green Shading Into Blue): Sole; The Guitarist; Anima; Radka's Samba; Terhi; Green Shading Into Blue; Jana.
Personnel: Arild Andersen: double-bass; P?l Thowsen: drums, percussion (CD2, CD3); Jon Balke: piano (CD1); Knut Rissn?s: tenor and soprano saxophones (CD1), flute (CD1); Juhani Aaltonen: tenor and soprano saxophones (CD2, CD3), flutes (CD2, CD3), percussion (CD2); Lars Jansson: piano (CD2, CD3), synthesizers (CD3). ">
Track Listing
Personnel
Arild Andersen
bass, acoustic
Album information
Title: Arild Andersen: Green Into Blue - Early Quartets | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: ECM Records
Tags
Arild Andersen
Extended Analysis
John Kelman
ECM Records
Jan Garbarek
Terje Rypdal
Jon Christensen
Bobo Stenson
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Albert Ayler
Jon Balke
Stan Getz
Don Cherry
Sheila Jordan
Edward Vesala
Jaco Pastorius
Weather Report
Miroslav Vitous
Juhani Aaltonen
Lars Jansson
Art Lande
Joe Zawinul
Eberhard Weber
Ralph Towner
Nana Vasconcelos
Arild Andersen: Green Into Blue - Early Quartets
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