Quotes - Søren Nørbo Trio
”Their interplay is closely and dependently linked as listeners as much as players. Whether presenting each other open doors for various tempo changes, harmonic expansions, or modal explorations of themes, a continuous sense of dissection and evolution is maintained from one tune to the next.” Laurence Donahue-Green, AllAboutJazz, New York
”With tonal finesse and interactive mobility, he shows melodic fantasy and a rather amusing sense for trio playing. His qualities as an instrumentalist, both rhythmic and harmonic are impressive and are always available for the best of the collective. It is hard to believe that France can resist a talent like this for much longer!” Thierry Quénum, Jazz Magazine
”This splashy, exultant piano trio from Denmark are characterised by quick wits and keen ears. As in free jazz, there's no gap between thought and response, but the mood is less driven by angst than irrepressible, bubbling high spirits.
The star turn, however, is the new professor at Copenhagen's Rhythmic Music Conservatory. Django Bates, for it is he, who plays french horn with astonishing agility, and consistently pushes the music beyond the bounds of respectability. It's seriously funny and funnily serious by turn” Alan Brownlee, Manchester Evening News
”Their music flowed in exciting patterns with many traversing and implicitly melodious lines. Søren Nørbo, who set the agenda with brilliant and imaginative playing, seasoning jazz creativity with romanticism and atonality, was also responsible for most of the compositions.” Kjeld Frandsen, Berlingske
”It is nearly impossible not to be humbly charmed and generously entangled by this enticing album. Nørbo is reputed to be quite a darling of the critics and this album is no exception. He is assisted by his usual line-up but this time including the Englishman Django Bates. This album has been recorded live at the Copenhagen JazzHouse and the Holbæk Jazz Club, which (naturally) supplies that characteristic touch of wonderful abandonment so essential to Nørbos material. May Søren Nørbo keep on debating for many years to come, hopefully under enticing and chaotically soaring skies” Jakob Østergaard Nielsen, Jazz Special
”The group opened with free improv emerging imperceptibly from the tune-up, swung briefly, and became a bantering exchange between Bates and Norbo. Bates explored gurgling electronic textures with bluesy twists on a piece obscurely related to Walt Disney, and a graceful slow ballad turned into a sardonic account of Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight. An uptempo piece passing from free-improv bleeps through slamming Bad Plus-funk and into lounge-jazz confirmed how distinctively Norbo's group crosses idioms. You can hear exactly why Django Bates has dropped right into this eight-year-old band as if it were just waiting for him” John Fordham, The Guardian
”The audience arrived at the CBSO Centre in Birmingham, England, already fans of Django Bates. I think it's safe to assume they left fans of Denmark's Soren Norbo Trio, too. It was clear from the first tune, Tu-whoo – To You, and again in the later Saxo Meets Jessica, that pianist Norbo has a lot in common with Bates as a composer. He writes catchy fragments of melody which are then repeated and developed in a rolling, quite African manner. And the whole band, especially drummer Kresten Osgood, shares Bates's sense of humour, Osgood reminded me of John Belushi – a big man, but light on his feet (and with his hands) and harbouring a hint of dangerous unpredictability beneath the clown's mask. In a jazz world over-endowed with good piano trios, I hope the Soren Norbo Trio become etter known. They certainly deserve it. Peter Bacon, The Jazz Breakfast