“Scandinavian music is about melody, Jazz
is about rhythm, Træben is where the two connect”
With their first album “Nordic Project”,
Træben has
brought together the rhythmic wealth of modern Jazz with the melodies
of Scandinavian folk songs. Scandinavian music was first introduced
into Jazz when Stan Getz recorded “Dear old
Stockholm” in
the early ‘50s of the last century. Since this first
recording,
Nordic music has been an inspiration to a lot of jazz musicians and has
even become one of the major ingredients of the “European
Jazz”. In the past decades, not only Scandinavian music had
it’s influence on jazz. Grooves from all over the world have
found their way into the genre and rhythms from e.g. African- , South
American- and Pop music are now part of its common language. By fusing
these new rhythmic achievements with the beauty and simplicity of the
Danish, Swedish and Norwegian folk music, Traeben has created a
distinct new and personal interpretation of this repertoire.
Some of the songs on the album are written by Cornelis Vreeswijk. Born
in the Netherlands, Vreeswijk emigrated to Sweden at the age of twelve
and grew up to be a celebrated national poet and composer, but remained
relatively unknown in Holland.