Text by Dawoud Kringle
Photo by Helge Øverås
“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” Thus spoke Frank Zappa.
According to Nielson’s 2014 Year End Report (thejazzline.com/news/2015/03/jazz-least-popular-music-genre/), jazz & classical combined accounts for 1.4% of music consumed in the US.
Artist: Nils Wogram Root 70 With Strings
Title: riomar
Label: nWog Records
Genre: jazz with strings
CD Review by Matt Cole
When last we heard from German-born trombonist Nils Wogram, he was leading a lively septet consisting of six horns and a drummer. This time around, on riomar, he uses an entirely different band, with his quartet Root 70, consisting of himself, Hayden Chisholm on alto sax, Matt Penman on bass, and Jochen Rueckert on drums; joined by a string section with Gerdur Gunnarsdottir on violin, Gareth Lubbe on viola, and Adrian Brendel on cello. riomar is just as creative as Complete Soul, while covering different (though overlapping) sonic space; and while just as energetic, is a bit gentler than Wogram’s all-but-one horn septet, as might be expected.
