Nypan - Big City '2018

Tracks list

Tracklist
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01. The Greeting
02. You Old Tasmanian Devil You
03. Close To The Sun
04. Come What May
05. Kung Kong
06. Shallow Water
07. Starfall
08. Grasstopper

A Dream Come True: Obvious question: How did this record come about? Answer:
Because the Norwegian guitarist Øyvind Nypan had for a long time nourished
what he calls «a dream project», and finally got around to make it happen
for real. 

Nypan’s dream? Travel to New York City, gather four of his favourite
musicians and record his own music. 

Main problems: Funding the project. Establishing contact with the musicians,
finding the right studio and setting a date for the session. 

– When I finally started to pull the strings, things turned out to be
less complicated than expected, says Nypan. He had never met or even spoken with
any of the musicians before. The first one that he contacted by was the pianist
Taylor Eigsti. 

– Pianos are next to impossible to move, so I wanted to know which were
his preferred studios in New York, says Nypan. That question answered, Nypan
went on to contact bassist Joe Martin, drummer Justin Faulkner and saxophonist
Ben Wendel, asking if they were available for studio work, enclosing a few files
with music from his earlier albums as examples of his playing. The three, who
like Eigsti are highly respected and highly-in- demand New York-musicians,
accepted the request, and in January 2017 met their Norwegian colleague for the
recording session. 

– Some of the tunes I had sent them in advance, others I brought with me,
but basically they played everything right off the cuff. Which was fine with me,
I knew that these guys are very busy professionals who don’t have too
much time for preparation. In my e-mails, I had emphasized that I intended to
bring along some fairly uncomplicated compositions, and that I hoped for a
blowing session with five guys really playing together rather than a record
session with five guys standing around trying to learn and handle intricate
melodies. A blowing session is what I got, but even if these tunes are not very
complicated, I am really impressed by how fast and how well Ben, Taylor, Joe and
Justin found their way into what was presented to them on paper. Although they
had never played together as a foursome, and of course none of them had played
with me, I think we managed to get a certain band-feeling going, which was what
I hoped for. We cut ten songs in the five hours that we had at our disposal on
that day, and my reason for dropping two songs from the album has nothing to do
with quality, they just didn’t fit in stylistically. Maybe eventually
I’ll release them as bonus tracks but I have to say that I am very happy
with this album as it is.

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