Coco Chatru Quartet's 'Future' was a taste of things to come as this summer, the follow-up album 'Limbokolia' is released!
The album, 'Future' (see review HERE), was a vinyl only release last year but the good news now is it's now available on all the usual streaming platforms as is the new album 'Limbokolia' as well as a vinyl LP.
Not only that there's a continuation of the artwork (by John Anderson), the inspiration of Coco Chatru (a legendary Swedish adventurer), the album and comes with a board game cover insert: the jazz concept album is back!
The Swedish Jazz band consisting of Linus Kåse (alto saxophone), Charlie Malmberg (baritone saxophone), Håkan Trygger (double bass) and Daniel Kåse (drums/vibraphone) are back on form and proof that a jazz quartet does not necessarily need a piano.
That said, 'SPIF' could be proof that the album does need more of Kåse's sensititve vibes; or is it just the case that Kåse (L) and Kåse (D) know how to play to each other's style along with Charlie and Håkan?
And I think we can safely say that, "From Goodman to Shorter, some of the best jazz has carried the sign of four" [Mac Randal, Jazz Times]: Benny Goodman, of course, being the clarinet master known as 'The King Of Swing' and notwithstanding what I've said above about piano, the Coco Chatru 4 swing like a piano-less Dave Brubeck Quartet that with the cool alto sax of a Paul Desmond.
The ten tracks do swing like, or just cool, is there West Coast cool in Sweden for 'Ormen med giget' where all four members are on it particularly the saxes interplay followed by some drum and bass interplay with Håkan and Daniel.
"Klätterträd" (translates as "A Tree For Climbing" - remember that there is a board game that comes with this album and Coco was an explorer) has a strange resonance to 'Mystic Brew' (the Ronnie Foster classic) or is it me? The aforementioned 'SPIF' stands for "Safe Passage Internazionale de Falconetti" and the like the freeform-esque 'Zinkmannenss skafferi' ('The Attic of The Man of Zinc') starts to make sense as it's connected to Coco's trip to Madid and the introduction to "The Man of Zink" [announce out loud in Super Hero voice tones] and finding a map leading to the land of "The Man of Zink", 'Limbokolia' and the journey to find it - Raiders of the Lost Ark and similar.
Surprisingly, no mellow Swedish bossa on the album but you do get a really cool 'Cocos Bolero' (as in 1984 Winner Olympics, Torvill & Dean's 'Bolero' (aka Ravel's Bolero) with a suitable 'climax' ending, 'Waterslide' (perfect for my forthcoming Chilled Cider Festival set this month) and current favourite, 'Trubbel i källaren' (Big Trouble in the Basement).
As I said of 'Future', it would be easy for them to have thrown in a quick/populist cover version, so what do they do? The only cover version is Duke Ellington's 'Melancholia' which you can hardly call 'Sauna' (sorry, Eurovision fans). That would have have stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb as the Coco Chatru's Jazz Adveturers are way cooler than that (again!)to
Remember, do not 'Go straight to Jail' is this game, follow the arrow and proceed directly to LImbokolia!
Release party for the album next Saturday, June 14th, At the record store Djungel & Jazz in Stockholm. https://djungelochjazz.se/
Artist: Coco Chatru Quartet
Title: Limbokolia
Release date: June, 2025
Label: Trygger Music
Catalog Number : TM2
Format : Vinyl LP / Spotify / Tidal
Recorded at the Stockholm Concert Hall, November 23-24, 2024
Recording, mix, master: Linus Kåse
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