Vincent Nilsson Quartet: Jazz Trombone Spirituals

Vincent Nilsson’s Jazz Trombone Spirituals is devoted to sacred tunes. That’s part of the problem: spirituals have boring lines and monotonous changes. That might explain Nilsson’s lachrymose tone-a sound that finds its best justification in “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” a track on which the only non-Scandinavian, drummer Ed Thigpen, lays down a pleasing three-against-four on brushes. Pianist Jan Lundgren provides some color variety occasionally switching to Fender Rhodes. Highlight is Oliver Nelson’s old chart on “Down By the Riverside.” Elsewhere the material weights everything down. Even the Saints don’t go marching in; they merely saunter.

Originally Published April 1, 2001