John Lindberg

DIGIPACK EDITION

John Lindberg is known for two particularities: he’s one of the most exquisite double bassists around for some decades already and each one of his projects, be it a studio recording or a concert, is a meticulous and wonderfully sustained concept, always with a motto or a theme transcending musical subjects, generally concerning nature or the human condition. His brand new “Born in an Urban Ruin” belongs to this last category: the mentioned «urban ruin» is the Detroit Osteopathic Hospital, where he was born in 1959. You can’t get more symbolic than with this combination of two opposed factors, “birth” and “decadence." If there’s in this collection of compositions a «post-industrial rust belt aesthetic», to use Lindberg’s own words, the perspective is positive and full of hope – the music is all about survival, «it’s endurance, it’s the spirit emerging forever triumphant». You can resurrect on a ruin, and when this idea is staged by someone like John Lindberg, with the help of clarinetist Wendell Harrison and of vibraphonist and percussionist Kevin Norton, that process can only be a beautiful one. A tribute in three parts to the late Roy Campbell is included, because the great jazz trumpeter is still among us and, after all, this CD is an ode to life.

PERSONNEL:

WENDELL HARRISON, clarinet, bass clarinet
JOHN LINBERG, bass
KEVIN NORTON, vibes, percussion

Kalamazoo. Michigan, on May 17, 2016

TRACKS:

01. Swooping deep (clarinet version)
02. Vermont Roadside Family
03. The Left Wrist (For Roy Campbell, in memoriam) Part I.
04. Part II.
05. Part III.
06. The Excavation
07. Swooping deep
08. Devastation of Vegetation
09. Born in an Urban Rui
10. Swooping deep (bass version)