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Kind: News, Opinion Music Genre: Jazz Categories: Entertainment, Arts, Music Published: January 12, 2010

English Breakfast Bridges Pohjola on British Jazz Festival Scene.

By YEVGENY P. LEBEDENKO

Even the English themselves agree that there's something strange, or "wicked", about the British in general. Not sure if it is related to the left-trafficked system, the Royal institution, the wigs at the House of Lords, the overly illustrious and elegant language, or their catastrophic food culture, but it all comes through even on jazz recordings. Just kidding. The only thing that's – positively – odd about Mika Pohjola's live album from 1999, English Breakfast, is his reportedly miraculous sound rescue effort, to include the missing double bass in the final mix; the live recording engineer at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival accidentally forgot to press the on-button of the bass track. Pohjola himself "collected" the crucial frequencies from all other microphones, and was able to produce a more than acceptable bass sound. Although probably not the most unusual procedure in the world of recording restoration, it does lift eyebrows, and many others would surely have agreed that this recording is simply unusable.

Cheltenham is a small town in western England, which alongside the near-by-towns of Bath and Brecon, has featured important festivals in recent decades. The festival is among the most significant on the British scene, where arrangers have successfully mixed American headliners with local talents. English Breakfast features Pohjola's New York based group with St. Louis native saxophonist Chris Cheek. The cover image may be the work of slight sarcasm, English style, as it is predominantly a negative, with the Big Ben being included in the rear in positive exposition. Not sure what this concoction represents, but at least it sprung the line which started this review. Provocative for sure.

Nevertheless, English Breakfast is an all-original 71-minute set by Pohjola. Some of the tracks are also featured on his studio album, Announcement. Pohjola's music is slightly influenced by Wayne Shorter in style, although what makes it even more like Shorter, is the relationship between carefully produced studio productions, as in the case of Announcement, and his live recordings as this album and his excellent Jazz Capital of the World, recorded at the Blue Note jazz club in New York. Similar to Shorter's live performances, all the details which make Pohjola's carefully knitted works so enjoyable, are run over by approximation and sideman-oriented "jazz energy", as if the sidemen were more eager to improvise and rip the music apart than to play the compositions per se. English Breakfast most likely was a more successful concert than it is in the recorded format. As a live document, however, it complements Pohjola's discography, and bridges his first efforts with the more matured productions.

english.bluemusicgroup.com

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