BOOKING : J.A.W FAMILY
www.jawfamily.com/petter-eldhs-koma-saxo
2021
18th Aug – Oslo Jazz Festival, NO
4th September – Cologne Jazz Week, DE
6th September – Zurich, TBA, CH
26th September – Jelenia Gora, TBA, PL
16th October – Salzburg Jazz Festival, AU
18th October – Stockholm, TBA, SWE
28th October – Bimhuis, Amsterdam, NL
29th October – Deutsches Jazz Festival, Frankfurt
30th October – TBA, DE
5th November – Berlin, TBA, DE
9th November – JazzDor, Strasbourg, FR
10th November – TBA
11th November – TBA
12th November – TBA
13th November – Le Guess Who, Tilburg, FR
17th November – Warsaw, PL
18th November – JazzTopad, Wroclaw, PL
2nd December – Tampere, TBA, FI
3rd December – We Jazz Festival, Helsinki, FI
2022
Release tour 17th – 31st of March
Koma Saxo is a highly potent new five-piece produced by the visionary Berlin-based Swedish bassist-producer Petter Eldh.
The lineup brings together five heavy jazz names on the Berlin–Nordics axis, including Eldh on bass, Christian Lillinger on drums and the frontline of three saxes: Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar and Mikko Innanen. Despite the top-billing names, make no mistake: this is not just another “supergroup”, but a real working band with their own sound and musical trajectory.
Eldh’s vision for the Koma Saxo sound is one step ahead of what groovy avantgarde jazz could sound like in 2021, involving postproduction work with the raw material recorded in Helsinki in connection to Koma Saxo’s successful debut at the We Jazz Festival. Both studio and live tapes exist side by side, and Eldh goes deep in molding the final music to be heard on the upcoming Koma Saxo releases.
The Koma Saxo debut LP on We Jazz Records is a revelation for anyone seeking contemporary jazz music with edge and vision. From the opener, the brief but fiery “Kali Koma”, right into the pastoral finale, “Så Rinner Tiden Bort”, Eldh & co are on it, like a tightly-knitted posse of jazz assassins on the run. At times, the pieces fall gloriously apart, just enough in order to be ripe to put back together again. Take “Ostron Koma” for example. From the intense opening seconds full of suspension, the track moves forward with breathtaking swing, then onto full-on free breakout, to be born anew.
In addition to scorching originals by all members of the band, Koma Saxo tackle a handful of carefully-picked and highly inspirational borrowed tunes from Finnish legends Matti Oiling, Edward Vesala and the Swedish composer Olle Adolphson. Even at their most freeform, Koma Saxo have an underlying “threat” of swinging hard. At their most peaceful, their hymns are full of genuine serenity and charisma, enabling them to never fall into easy sentimentality.
The latest release, “LIVE”, gives you the band in their rawest form!
In November they will release their 3rd album, this time featuring the amazing vocalist Sofia Jernberg.
Whatever the mood, Koma Saxo are like lightning in a box, yearning to be set free.