Our website has come across more and more, in recent times, to the phenomenal current Scandinavian Jazz scene.
Sweden and Denmark, particularly, seem to be able to keep on producing artists of the finest level, with the innate capability to incorporate in their reading of Contemporary Jazz inspired elements of inventiveness in their compositional approach which, combined with their exceptional many musical talents, make possible for them to deliver records of the highest possible quality.
One of those many gifted artists is most definitely the Danish composer, trumpeter and flugelhorn prodigy Rolf Thofte who, on his debut album freshly released together with his Quintet and called Martha's Dance, gifts the listener with an exquisite and ultra cohesively accomplished body of work that echoes the wittiness of giants of the genre like Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane and even Stan Getz, with Thofte's own musical vision, creativity, spontaneity and soulness.
The pitch perfect interplay among all the musicians part of the Quintet is a privilege and joy to listen to from beginning to end, in Martha's Dance, between Thofte's long time collaborators Henrik Holst (drums) and Jakob Roland (bass) joined by Andreas Toftemark (tenor saxophone) and Rasmus Sørensen (piano).
The 7 pieces part of Martha's Dance are all incredibly exquisitely played; from the enthralling album's title-track, with its hand clapping intro that runs throughout the piece and its uplifting crescendo in tempo, where each element of the Quintet complements Thofte's unstoppable playing style to perfection, travelling swiftly to the record's opener called The Big 5, boasting beautifully dynamism from the getgo, to then conclude this wonderful sonic journey by tiptoeing through the irresistible Bebop flow of Dunkelflaute that closes in bombastic fashion this terrific album, the Rolf Thofte Quintet delivers, undoubtedly, one of the most accomplished Jazz albums of 2025.
Martha's Dance is an astonishing musical debut for a collective that oozes talent from every angle and, if this exquisite record is the shape of things to come, the Rolf Thofte Quartet is going to soar higher and higher in the skies of Jazz for many years to come.
Martha's Dance is out now and it is available to be purchased via Rolf Thofte Quintet Official Bandcamp Page
