Christina Dahl Quartet English

My quartet consist of the guitarist Niclas Knudsen who with his enormous musical personality plays with abandon and a freely expressed lyricism, Jesper Lundgaard who is internationally renowned for his virtuoso bass playing and Espen Laub von Lilienskjold who is a superbly talented drummer who adds dynamicism and a dedicated energy to the music.

Christina Dahl is one of the most respected Danish saxophone players. She is a band leader and composes music for small and large ensembles. She has performed in countless constellations and is known by her unique soul-tingled sound and her lyrical interpretations that go straight to the heart.

Her playing varies from the most intimate and understated to the the explosive.

Jesper Lundgaard is one of the most respected Danish bass players in Denmark and abroad. He has toured all over the world with virtually all the big names in jazz – among others with Michel Petrucciani, John Scofield, Thad Jones, Benny Carter, Ed Thigpen, Tommy Flanagan, Dexter Gordon and Svend Asmussen. He has played on more than 500 records – of which he has been a producer of 50.

Espen Laub von Lilienskjold on drums is one of the most talented musicians in Denmark at the present. His playfulness and special way of complementing the totality of the music helps to create a totally unique expression. His playing is refined, dynamic and always extremely musical.

Niclas Knudsen is without any doubt one of the best guitarists in Denmark. He plays within several genres and has a fantastic capacity for melodic expression and a unique and varied way of coloring his sound. Apart from working with his own projects, like Ibrahim Electric etc, he has, among others, played with Adam Nussbaum, Tom Jones, John Tchicai, Dave Liebman, Ray Anderson and Billy Preston.

Every musician within the quartet has the role of being a lead soloist in a united playful free musical communication with great personal originality. The quartet plays with a freedom and dynacism that results in music of a playful and airy quality. The repertoire consist of original compositions by Christina Dahl. Within these compositions lie stories that have symbolic meaning compared to life and it’s richness of all colors.

Her latest CD is from 2014, entitled Life’s Carousel. It is the 8th cd with Christina Dahl as a leader. Jesper Lundgaard has received the Danish award Bent Jædigs Hæderspris in 2010. Christina Dahl received the same in 2010. She has also received an award from the Composer’s Union DJBFA in 2011 and the award Walther Klæbels Mindelegat in 2012.

Christina Dahl has composed completely new music to the quartet. The music is recorded in Jesper Lundgaard’s summer house and will be released in March 2017 on Storyville Records and celebrated with a tour in Norway and Denmark in March/April 2017. Lately the quartet has played a number of exclusive concerts in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Lately the quartet har played a number of exclusive concerts in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Their music har been received with an overwhelmingly positive feedback: Henrik Jöhnemark from Jazz i Malmø writes on Facebook: ”Thanks for a fantastical concert!”. Pjotr Egholm from Giant Steps writes: Great concert! The best concert I’ve been to in a long time!”.

Kjeld Lauritsen writes:

Wonderful concert with Christina Dahl and her orchestra. Extremely jazzy, even the ”free” compositions showed all the signs of a long life lived with the experience of this mode of expression”.

Bengt Asplund from Floda:

Thank you so much for the incredible music in Floda yesterday evening. What a lovely tone and technique and what flow and great band playing. The best I’ve heard in a long while – maybe the best I’ve ever heard?”.

Svend Bjerstedt in Kristianstadsbladet: “Beautiful and pleasant. This is jazz that never succumbs to being showy, based on the old and tried standard repertoire, or a swing party or full of cliché filled gestures! Here stories are told of personal involvment, new stories with considerable spirituality and sensuousness and with a great openess to lyrical changes of mood. It’s beautiful and well played together. The music captures you with its seriouness and empathy. The playing together is very alert, the arrangments rich and the solos spiky. Dahl has a mature full blown tone in her tenor sax and a real authority in the whole register. Niclas Knudsen is a very sound-conscious electric guitar player, Jesper Lundgaard is phenomal at making the contra bass sing with a clean, sonorous tones. The drummer Espen Laub von Lillienskjold excells at quiet brush cascades”.

Christian Munch-Hansen writes in Politiken:

…There was …strong musical expressions from the saxophonist Christina Dahl and her quartet.

And the evening was based on the repertoire from the group’s marvellous cd ”Life’s Carousel” from 2014 but there were several surprises that show that Christina Dahl still is developing further as an jazz artist.. (and) won’t settle but keeps on creating new material of high artisitic quality.

It was melodical inticing music played with both edge and finesse.

..the group has its own recognizable sound that makes it one of later years most personal Danish jazz groups.”

…Christina Dahl is an amazone with a saxophone.

…With her compositions the group is working with a music that has a free but always strong melodic sense and a steady formal lifeline.

It is an explosive recipe that goes a long way.