| Strange News from Mars | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 13, 2007 | |||
| Recorded | March 12 – 16, 2007 | |||
| Studio | Cookie Factory, Oslo, Norway; Lotek Studio, Mar Vista, Los Angeles, California | |||
| Genre | Jazz, rock | |||
| Length | 42:05 | |||
| Label | Zonic Entertainment | |||
| Producer | Jon Larsen | |||
| Jon Larsen chronology | ||||
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Strange News from Mars is an album by Norwegian guitarist Jon Larsen. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [1] |
| Verdens Gang | [2] |
Larsen is a Norwegian string swing guitar virtuoso, and not the one we would suspect to record music inspired by Frank Zappa. This production is noteworthy for the way it accurately resembles the more jazzy excursions of Zappa, as well as for the fact that former Mothers of Invention members Tommy Mars, Bruce Fowler, Arthur Barrow and Jimmy Carl Black appear on it. In fact, Barrow engineered the recording and Mars plays keyboards throughout, with Fowler adding some delicious trombone. Black primarily provides humorous interludes (like the «First Indian on Mars»), but the most interesting is how Larsen's core band including Ole Morten Vågan (bass), Håkon Mjåset Johansen (drums), Knut Reiersrud (guitar), and Rob Waring (marimba), are effectively referencing from and building on the Zappa oeuvre. Tracks like "Mutant Fromage", "The Secret Word for Today", "Conceptual Continuity on the Red Planet", to name some, share more than bizarre titles with the work of Zappa. Surprising time changes, strange changes, extended vamps, jumpy bursts of marimba, comedic interjections and Zappa-inspired textures will be familiar to those who recall the late composer's less-prickly (though no less creative) side. Tracks like "A Windy Day on Mars" and the reggae-tinged "Capt. Zurcon's Cranberry Cocktail" feature Larsen attempting to merge his Django-influenced guitar style with Zappa's modal blues improvisational guitar sound with brilliant results. [1] [2] [3] [4] [6]
The review by the Allmusic.com awarded the album 3.5 stars, [1] and the review by the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang awarded the album 5 stars (dice). [2]
James Inkanish, Jr., known professionally as Jimmy Carl Black, was a drummer and vocalist for the Mothers of Invention.
Tommy Mars is an American keyboard player known for his work with Frank Zappa.
Jon Larsen is a gypsy jazz guitarist, record producer, painter, and amateur scientific researcher. He is the founder of the group Hot Club de Norvège. In 2007 he received the Buddy Award for his lifelong contribution to jazz.
Hot Club Records is a jazz record label established 1982, by guitarist Jon Larsen in Oslo, Norway. The label has released over 350 CDs, DVDs and books, mostly jazz related.
Vigleik Storaas is a Norwegian jazz pianist and composer, and the younger brother of composer and bassist Gaute Storaas. He is known from a series of album releases and collaborations with jazz musicians such as Norma Winstone, Karin Krog, Terje Rypdal, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Chet Baker, Jack DeJohnette and Warne Marsh.
Håvard Skarpnes Wiik is a Norwegian jazz pianist and composer, known from a number of recordings with bands like Atomic, and performances with musicians like Petter Wettre, Ola Kvernberg and Stian Carstensen.
Ola Kvernberg is a Norwegian jazz musician known for his virtuosic string swing violin playing and his international performances. He is the son of traditional musicians Liv Rypdal Kvernberg and Torbjørn Kvernberg, and the brother of traditional musicians Kari Kvernberg Dajani and fiddler Jorun Marie Kvernberg, and grandson of the fiddler and traditional music composer Peter L. Rypdal. Kvernberg studied classical violin from the age of nine, and won 3rd prize in a great classical violin competition in Italy when he was fourteen.
Ole Morten Vågan is a Norwegian jazz musician and composer, and the older brother of guitarist Petter Vågan. He is known from several recordings and is currently acting as artistic director for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. Vågan is also known from cooperating with some of the most influential musicians and composers internationally and has released eight albums as a leader, recently with the TJO, as well as six albums with his group Motif and one with the group The Deciders.
Håkon Mjåset Johansen is a Norwegian jazz drummer and composer, known from playing with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra featuring Chick Corea at Moldejazz 2000, cooperations with Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conceptions of Jazz, Ole Morten Vågan's Motif, Siri Gjære's Cricket Club and the Ola Kvernberg Trio. He has also contributed to releases with Jon Larsen, the Atle Nymo/Frode Nymo Quartet and Jan Garbarek.
Motif is an experimental jazz band, still polishing the personal sound they have been meticulously shaping since the beginning, with a Frank Zappa influence all around it, a sound labeled as "a remarkable combination of powerful writing, simpatico free play, and stylistic cross-pollination". The musicians unite from bands such as Bugge Wesseltoft’s New Conceptions of Jazz, Atomic, Free Fall, Christian Wallumrød Ensemble, Motorpsycho, Generator X, Maria Kannegaard Trio and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, and are known from appearances with jazz artists such as Joshua Redman, John Scofield, Lee Konitz, Chick Corea, Jan Garbarek, Joe Lovano and Kenny Wheeler, and are all key players at the young European improvising scene.
Atle Nymo is a Norwegian jazz musician, and the younger brother of Jazz saxophonist Frode Nymo. He is known for his contributions with the orchestras Motif, one of his main projects, and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra in which he has worked with Jazz greats like Pat Metheny and Chick Corea.
Urban Connection is a jazz album by the Norwegian jazz band Urban Connection.
UC 3 is a Jazz album by the Norwegian Jazz band Urban Connection.
Rob Waring is an American-Norwegian Contemporary music composer and performer, commonly associated with symphony orchestras and jazz ensembles.
The Jimmy Carl Black Story is an album by Norwegian guitarist Jon Larsen.
A Portrait of Jon Larsen is a compilation album by Norwegian jazz guitarist Jon Larsen that was released on his label, Hot Club Records.
Norsk Jazzforum or The Norwegian Jazz Forum is a member and interest organization that gathers the Norwegian jazz community, and works to promote the Norwegian jazz in terms of cultural policy and the arts.
Steinar Sønk Nickelsen is a Norwegian jazz musician from Bærum, known from several bands and album releases.
