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Like a typical Norwegian music career, «Uppercase» kicks off with a drum march, gliding into a mysterious quasi-symphonic world and from there to moody melodic thoughtfulness - until «Sweet Martina» takes off in catchy latin swing with a rocky backbeat under Erik's brilliant and warm trumpet solo. All delicately wrapped in a mix of distant flutes, harmon muted trumpets and a groovy rhythm section. This «reduced big band» sound also tells the story of Erik's lifelong collaboration with Sandvika Big Band and the inspiring milieu it after 45 most active years still represents. Sax and flute player Rune Nicolaysen shares this background and contributes powerful solos with stylistic references to Knut Riisnæs as well as Dexter Gordon. And his hommage to the bandleader «E.T.H.» is simply touching in its beauty and thoughtfulness. Pianist Freddy Hoel Nilsen is any band's eternal «groover», always raising the temperature - as here with his own Xmas blues stretched from 12 to 16 bars, and with the brilliant idea of putting Johnny Mandel into a bossa bag. Bass players Sture Janson from Bodø (newly retired from the Oslo Opera Orchestra) - and Danish-born Andreas Dreier represent two generations with the same ideal: Deep listening drive. Whereas big band drummers Erik Jøkling and Lars Erik Norum share the rare ability of swinging softly - with energy. The standards as well as the musicians are all challenged by arrangements taking us into both 5/4 and 6/4 time («Love For Sale»), straight and double time and surprising moods. I'm sure both Cole Porter and Horace Silver would have loved these versions of their songs. And for an old bebop'er like myself it's great for the first time in 2015 to hear a genuine new bop theme that even Bird himself would have accepted - Erik Thormod Halvorsen's «Kari i Nice». Wow! Uppercase! Erling

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