Steve Shark Pimps Out Dept. - Scandinavian Jazz Piano Trio

Eating Sweaty Towel

When it comes to musical world domination [surmises Steve Shark] there's only one contender in the jazz category - the USA.

Europe's classical music legacy is a given, and it could be argued that the UK, in particular, was pretty much in the vanguard of the spread of pop music in the 1960s, although cross pollination with US African-American music and the earlier rock 'n' roll soon created a rock hybrid that thrived equally well on either side of the Atlantic.

However, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the US alone gave jazz to the world, for which the rest of the world was suitably grateful, with Europe in particular long viewed as a more hospitable place to play than the US, until more enlightened times arrived.

France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the Scandinavian countries were all eager markets for jazz, and even more of the continent opened up with the demise of the Iron Curtain. Musicians as diverse as Sidney Bechet and Davis [Miles - Ed.] always received a warm welcome in Europe and some even ended up living there. Incidentally, the same was true of blues artists.

Inevitably, as jazz became popular in Europe, the Europeans started playing it. However, apart from a few notables like Django Reinhardt, George Shearing (who emigrated to the US and found fame) Jan Garbarek, Eberhard Weber, Michael Petrucciani and Francy Boland - with only the first couple being really well-known - the homegrown variety of jazz didn't exactly set the world alight.

OK, I know I've missed some people out, but if the Atlantic was a street, it'd be almost exclusively one way. At one point fairly recently, it seemed as if one European jazz act out of all the others was going to make a global name for itself - the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, or E.S.T. as they came to be known, which was very fortunate for lazy buggers (like me) who couldn't be arsed to write out their full name.

E.S.T consisted of Swedes Esbjörn Svensson (piano/electronic keyboards), Dan Berglund (double bass/bass guitar), and Magnus Öström (drums/percussion). Ostensibly a piano trio, they didn't shy away from the occasional use of multi-tracking and electronic effects, although their last recordings showed a determined move towards the greatly increased use of these.

Relying on group compositions, with only a rare standards cover, E.S.T. built up a huge following in Europe and eventually gained a worldwide release for their fourth album, "From Gagarin's Point of View". It's quite mannered stuff at times, with light touches of ambient and new age music, but it's still jazz - think Keith Jarrett, or even Pat Metheny if he took up the piano, to get a hint of the general flavour. The title track is quite simply beautiful.

Some people may have noticed that I'm referring to E.S.T in the past tense and there's a sad reason for that. In 2008, at the age of 44, Svensson died in a scuba diving accident.

E.S.T were building up a crossover market for their brand of piano trio jazz, with light shows, smoke machines and electronic effects which appealed to rock and jazz fans alike, with neither faction excluded by the seamless marriage of rock elements and jazz sensibilities. The first European jazz act to appear on the cover of "Downbeat" magazine [left - Ed.], they seemed poised to capitalise on their growing popularity in the US and go on to become internationally successful, but we'll never know.

See what you think of E.S.T. from the excellent compilation "Retrospective", curated by the two remaining members. It covers the group from their fourth album right up to "Leucocyte", which was completed shortly before Svensson's death and shows a quite startling move into the use of electronic effects. If you don't like those, there's plenty of straight piano, double bass and drums.