Biography of Meadow

TORE BRUNBORG saxophones
JOHN TAYLOR piano
THOMAS STRØNEN drums


TORE BRUNBORG
Tenor and soprano saxophones

Tore Brunborg first caught Britain’s ear in the mid-eighties when he toured with bassist Arild Andersen’s Masqualero. His front-line partner then was none other than Nils Petter Molvaer and the way Brunborg’s forthright, robust tenor combined with Molvaer’s more ambient approach still lingers in the memory. Since then, Brunborg has worked with artists as different and distinct in their approaches as Danish bassist-composer Bo Stief, Italian pianist Rita Marcotulli, Norwegian pianist-composer Jon Balke, drummer Billy Cobham, Manu Katche, Tord Gustavsen and master bassists Anders Jormin and Lars Danielsson. Brunborg has also led an outstanding trio with Anders Jormin and drummer Benita Haastrup, as well as his own Tore Brunborg Project again with Anders Jormin on bass, keyboard virtuoso Bugge Wesseltoft and drummer Jon Christensen. As well as playing saxophone with Meadow, Tore Brunborg has composed the majority of the group’s tunes for this session.

JOHN TAYLOR
Piano

If John Taylor’s main influence was Bill Evans, then he absorbed and transcended that influence early in his career. He is one of the most stylish of musicians with an amazing sense of harmony, texture and structure.
Taylor’s piano playing has graced some of the finest jazz records, most notably recordings by Harry Beckett, Alan Skidmore, John Surman, Pete Erskine and Kenny Wheeler. Taylor, his then partner singer Norma Winstone and Kenny Wheeler formed the legendary Azimuth in the early seventies and their influence is still widely felt today. Taylor recorded his first solo record, Pause, And Think Again, in 1971 and it remains one of the classics of the period. The veteran of countless ECM sessions, it was not until Rosslyn in 2003 that Taylor recorded in his own right for the label. That trio set with Joey Barron and Marc Johnson was everything one would have expected from this consummate artist.

THOMAS STRØNEN
Drums

Thomas Strønen is best known in the UK through his involvement with Iain Ballamy in the group Food. Now in their 11th year, the duo have recently celebrated this with the release of Quiet Inlet on ECM records. But Food, however essential to Strønen’s artistic sustenance, is just one aspect of his wide-ranging career to date. His Pohlitz project focuses both on solo percussion work and collaborations with the likes of McFall’s Chamber Quartet, while Humcrush with keyboardist Ståle Storløkken mixes rock, electronica and free jazz to powerful effect. Strønen works with pianists Maria Kannegaard and Bobo Stenson, bassist Mats Eilertsen as well as Nils Petter Molvær, Christian Fennesz and Sidsel Endresen. Meadow, with saxophonist Tore Brunborg and pianist John Taylor adds a fresh and new dimension to this amazing musician’s work.