Always interesting when you get a concert and it’s labeled wrong, or at least wrong from your standpoint. Elephant9 are about as Prog as you can imagine. Yet, in some circles they are labeled Jazz, and this runs the risk of ignoring one large audience while raising curious eyebrows in the other.
Elephant9 are a Prog/Neo-Psych trio from Norway – cut from the same cloth as ELP, Caravan, Supersister, Robert Fripp and a whole range of artists and bands that formed and shaped the 70s Progressive Rock movement. Although many of those bands were influenced by Jazz at the time (namely Soft Machine and the Robert Wyatt offshoots), to label them Jazz was something of a misnomer – it wasn’t really until the arrival of John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and the new breed of multi-influenced artists breaking away from formal Jazz settings and lineups that the lines started getting blurred. So in a strange way you could list Elephant9 as Jazz but if you spent any time in the 70s knee-deep in Supersister or PFM you might think otherwise.
That said – Elephant9 (established 2006 in Oslo, Norway) formed in 2006 under the name Storløkken/Eilertsen/Lofthus, for the members of the band, namely Ståle Storløkken (keyboard), Nikolai Eilertsen (bass) and Torstein Lofthus (drums), but changed the name to Elephant9 after the first year together.
Elephant9 released their debut album Dodovoodoo in 2008, and followed up with Walk the Nile in 2010, both on the label Rune Grammofon. Walk the Nile was awarded Spellemannprisen 2010 in the category of Jazz (there goes that confusion again), and drew considerable praise from both the jazz and rock communities worldwide. They appeared at scenes in London with Motorpsycho in 2010.
Their third studio album Atlantis, released in 2012, reinforced by the Swedish prog-rock guitarist veteran Reine Fiske, was accompanied by a series of concert performances at Kongsberg Jazz Festival, and other Norwegian festivals like Vossajazz and Nattjazz, and stages like “Union Scene” and “Victoria, Najonal Jazzscene”.
I know people who would swear on a stack of Union cards they are not Jazz in the purist’s sense – but I also know people who would argue Elephant9 are crossover and are cool with that. Both forms don’t operate in the mainstream so joining forces isn’t such a bad thing – you have to go where the music is honest; doesn’t matter who does it just as long as it’s encouraged and supported and it opens up a few chakras in the process.
So – whether you be Jazz minded or Prog Minded, feast your ears on this gig from Elephant9 at Cafe Wilhelmina in Eindhoven from October first 2012 during their Atlantis tour and preserved for posterity by VPRO in the Netherlands.
Weekends were made for digging and exploring anyway – so have at it.
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