''Floating Islands'' is the third album by Danish jazz saxophonist

Lotte Anker Lotte Anker (born 1958) is a Danish jazz saxophonist, and composer. With pianist Marilyn Crispell, she serves as one of the co-leaders of the Copenhagen Art Ensemble. Musical career Anker was born in Copenhagen and studied music at Copenhagen ...

with her trio with pianist

Craig Taborn Craig Marvin Taborn (; born February 20, 1970) is an American pianist, organist, keyboardist and composer. He works solo and in bands, mostly playing various forms of jazz. He started playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was i ...

and drummer

Gerald Cleaver Gerald Cleaver (born May 4, 1963Adler, David R. (December 13, 2013"Home & Away with Gerald Cleaver" JazzTimes.) is a jazz drummer from Detroit, Michigan. Early life Cleaver's father is drummer John Cleaver Jr., originally from Springfield, Ohio ...

, which was recorded live at the 2008

Copenhagen Jazz Festival Copenhagen Jazz Festival is a jazz event every July in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. Copenhagen Jazz Festival was established in 1979, but beginning in 1964 Tivoli Gardens presented a series of concerts under the name Copenhagen Jazz Festiv ...

and released on the Danish ILK label.''Floating Islands''
at ILK Music

Reception

In his review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, Michael G. Nastos states "This trio has grasped something uniquely subtle and admirably less than the sum of its parts. Not at all a critique, but in a way, admirable that three musicians can reduce their music to smaller pieces in order to expand their horizons." ''The Free Jazz Collectives Stef Gijssels awarded the album a full 5 stars, and wrote: "This album has it all: the mastership, the skills, the balance, the musical baggage to draw from, the musical vision, the coherent delivery, the variation, the adventure, the passion, the discipline, the raw emotional power, the sophistication... Absolutely stunning." Ken Waxman of ''Jazz Word'' stated that the album "demonstrates the cohesive skills of the Anker/Taborn/Cleaver group" as well as "the trio's extrasensory perception." Writing for ''A Jazz Noise'', Dave Foxall commented: "The list of albums out there that could be 'classics' if only they had a wider exposure is probably as long as both of my arms. But. If I were to draw up that long, long list, ''Floating Islands'' might very well find itself near the top."

Track listing

:''All compositions by Anker/Taborn/Cleaver'' # "Floating" – 9:34 # "Ritual" – 16:22 # "Transitory Blossom" – 4:50 # "Backwards River" – 17:52 # "Even Today I'm Still Arriving" – 5:46

Personnel

–

soprano sax The soprano saxophone is a small, high-pitched member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented in the 1840s by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax. Built in B♭ an octave above the tenor saxophone (or rarely, slightly smaller ...

alto sax The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E, smaller th ...

tenor sax The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

, *

–

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

References

{{authority control 2009 live albums Lotte Anker live albums