AMALIE DAHL'S DAFNIE W/ LISA ULLEN - LIVE AT KAFÉ HÆRVERK (CD)

"Since dropping the debut album with her stellar quintet Dafnie in 2022, Danish saxophonist and composer Dahl has enjoyed a meteoric rise, both in terms of acclaim and ambition. This new live album, taped at one of Oslo's most beloved venues in March of 2025, is a coming together of Amalie Dahl's Dafnie quintet with Lisa Ullén, the Swedish pianist that planted the seed for the project. Live at Kafé Hærverk beautifully captures the fiery blend of the reedist's agile quintet Dafnie and Ullen's galvanic playing on a variety of revamped Dafnie favorites along with a new tune. Dahl, who's also become an invaluable part of Håker Flaten's great (Exit) Knarr, first met Ullén when they were both participating in the 2024 edition of Share Impro in Aarhus, Denmark. The saxophonist felt an immediate kinship and after discussing a desire to join forces, Dahl began looking for gigs. Koen Vandenhoudt, one of the organizers of Antwerp's Summer Bummer Festival not only embraced her proposal, but suggested that she go bigger, leading first to the release of Dafnie EXTENDED-Live at Molde Jazz (Sonic Transmission Records). But Dahl never surrendered the desire to work more closely with Ullén, so she organized a Dafnie tour with the pianist as a guest. As one can hear, Ullén became part of the band, both on fresh revamps of Dafnie favorites along with a new tune. The Mingus-grade ebullience and muscle of her Dafnie_trombonist Jorgen Bjelkerud, trumpeter Oscar Andreas Haug, double bassist Nicolas Leirtro, and drummer Patrycja Wybranczyk, deftly subbing on the tour for the band's regular drummer Veslemoy Narvesen_digs deep into the leader's earthy yet sophisticated tunes, erasing any divide between post-bop classicism and free jazz, all of which vanishes within the rigor, tunefulness, and soul of the compositions. Ullén's forceful, sinewy lines consistently fill out the band's sound, with blocky left-handed tremors, fleet, stabbing accents, and galvanic solos that penetrate the essence of Dahl's writing with almost telepathic understanding. Rather than altering the band's searing dynamic, the pianist pushes it, making it deeper and more open. As usual, Dahl inhabits her own compositions with stunning elasticity and narrative drive, trusting in her bandmates to support her most outward sallies. Whether the fierce gallop of the new piece "Wavelet" or the devastatingly version of "Eco-Echoes," the instant classic from Dafnie's second album Står op med Solen, the music captures the full range of Dahl's broad compositional palette, and the partnership with Ullén makes it even more profound." (label info)