Carsten Dahl - A Beautiful Blue Moment

2022 CD release.

The Danish piano auteur Carsten Dahl and the dynamic American trumpetist Tim Hagans meet the acclaimed Swedish double bass player Johnny Åman and the Finnish master drummer Jukkis Uotila on the new album A Beautiful Blue Moment.

Actually, this rare quartet had never played together, before they gathered at the scene of the historic jazz club Montmartre in Copenhagen and played the music of the moment at three sold out evenings in August 2021. Quite the moment indeed!

The quartet mainly played free music with an original searching idea of being composing musicians and playing composers, who constantly found new horizontal and vertical directions in music. The original idea for the quartet arose, when Dahl and Hagans taught together at a jazz college in 2019, and realized that they shared musical understanding, humour, fervour and curiosity, when it comes to exploring the essence of music creation. They have been close friends ever since.

Dahl, Uotila and Åman had their very first musical encounter at Montmartre, but it turned out to be a truly magical and flying journey. The combination of the four musicians is simply an explosive, poetic and ground-breaking meeting, where their common breathing in music is free, effortless and at the same time linked to their great habitus in tradition and in the many expressions of jazz music.

After three great evenings, where musical sparks flew in abundance, the four musicians went directly in the studio for a 6 hours spontaneous recording session. The result is a once in a lifetime jazz voyage, so fasten your seatbelt and get ready for a ride!

Anchorman Carsten Dahl is a bona fide creative multi talent, besides being one of the most innovative and brilliant improvising jazz artists around, he is also a skilled painter and poet. Dahl appears on more than 300 albums, and he is the recipient of multiple important music awards, including the Ben Webster Prize and several Danish Music Awards. Three times Grammy nominee, trumpeter Tim Hagans’ merits as a musician, arranger and composer are widely known and highly appraised, including his tenure with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, and
touring and recording with the likes of Dexter Gordon, Thad Jones, Joe Lovano and Bob Belden.

Johnny Åman is one of the busiest double bass players in Sweden, having toured extensively all over the world. Åman takes an active part in many musical constellations, including Cennet Jönssons Triple Bass Fantasy, and he has recorded and toured with the likes of Jerry Bergonzi, Dave Liebman and Marcus Strickland and so many others. Finnish drummer Jukkis Uotila is quite possibly the most respected Finnish jazz artist ever. His versatile musicianship is characterized by subtle, but explosive drumming and wide stylistic adaptability. Uotila has worked with giants like Toots Thielemans, Chet Baker and Bob Brookmeyer among others