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Cortex: Legal Tender

By Mark Corroto
July 8, 2021
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The Norwegian quartet Cortex answers the question, what would have happened if the

Wynton Marsalis

trumpet
b.1961

" data-original-title="" title="">Wynton Marsalis and

" data-original-title="" title="">Branford Marsalis, had advanced the jazz canon instead of looking backwards for inspiration. Remember when the two young lions burst onto the scene in the 1980s with their self-righteous mission to save jazz? They did so by stuffing it, much like a taxidermist, to preserve an endangered species. Their neocon approach actually can make us grateful for bands like Cortex with their inclinations to push jazz forward into the 21st century.

Legal Tender is the band's sixth disc, with the last four released on Clean Feed Records. It follows Avant-Garde Party Music (2017) and Live In New York (2016). Like the previous discs, Cortex is on a mission to entertain and engage listeners. Like their other releases, trumpeter

Thomas Johansson

trumpet
b.1983

" data-original-title="" title="">Thomas Johansson (

Paal Nilssen-Love

drums
b.1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, Friends & Neighbors, Jon Rune Str?m Quintet) has written most of the compositions heard here. The opener, "Anthem For The Uneasy," recalls not

Ornette Coleman

saxophone, alto
1930 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Ornette Coleman's quartet but its offspring, Old And New Dreams with

Don Cherry

trumpet
1936 - 1995

" data-original-title="" title="">Don Cherry,

Dewey Redman

saxophone, tenor
b.1931

" data-original-title="" title="">Dewey Redman,

Charlie Haden

bass, acoustic
1937 - 2014

" data-original-title="" title="">Charlie Haden, and

Ed Blackwell

drums
1929 - 1992

" data-original-title="" title="">Ed Blackwell. The ceremonial two horn lineup, Johansson plus saxophonist

Kristoffer Berre Alberts

saxophone

" data-original-title="" title="">Kristoffer Berre Alberts (PNL Large Unit, Saka, Snik) blow forth a ceremonious entrance procession over the formal mallet pulse of

Gard Nilssen

drums
b.1983

" data-original-title="" title="">Gard Nilssen's (Bushman's Revenge) drums.

The music is both urbane and tuneful. "GTM" swirls speedy bebop, drunk dancing a with unlaced shoes, while "I-95" marches, all-business, until Johansson tears into a muscular solo. A much different solo from the extended technique he displays on bassist Ola H?yer's (The Way Ahead) composition "10-4." His scuffing/scraping overblown trumpet pairs with the tumbling and endlessly falling gravitation of the piece. It is H?yer that opens the sly "Blue Gromka," which produces a noirish gambit under his beefy pulse that snowballs into a musical colossus. Cortex retains memories of Ornette Coleman,

Sonny Rollins

saxophone
b.1930

" data-original-title="" title="">Sonny Rollins, and

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus, while speaking a language of the future.

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Track Listing

Anthem For The Uneasy; Standby; GTM; I-95; 10-4; Blue Gromka; Loose Blues.

Personnel

Thomas Johansson

trumpet

Kristoffer Berre Alberts

saxophone

Ola H?yer

bass, acoustic

Gard Nilssen

drums

Album information

Title: Legal Tender | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: Clean Feed Records

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