Marius Neset, the Scandinavian Michael Brecker, is known to be a saxophonist in a class of his own. As a composer, as we know, he also likes to go all out and writes for big band, symphony orchestra or three ensembles at once. In the spring he released his new album "Cabaret", which he recorded with a quintet - with two pianists in the band. One, Magnus Hjorth, plays the piano, the other, Elliot Galvin, has to replace an entire orchestra with the help of electronics. Tonight, the ensemble will perform as a quartet, with Elliot Galvin taking over both instruments. The quintet or quartet format may seem modest by Neset's standards, but his music certainly isn't. The album title "Cabaret" gives him the fool's freedom to stage a mega music circus, a surreal, frenetically over-the-top eclecticism bombast. The rhythms and tempos tumble over each other, musical layers of events are stacked, the stylistic quotations are stirred wildly – all this hyper-nervous and over-the-top. Nothing is predictable here. His music is peppered with quotes and allusions that are reminiscent of Joe Zawinul's world music fusion, Chick Corea's band "Return To Forever" as well as phrases by Frank Zappa and, of course, phrases and forms of circus and cabaret music. With his immense range of expression and nuance on tenor and soprano saxophone as well as an electronic wind instrument (EWI), Neset always finds a suitable emotional nuance, ranging from the traditional, warm tone on the tenor saxophone to eruptic bursts of sound, shimmering passages and electronic sounds of the EWI.

Link to audio sample