E.S.T. — a Swedish piano trio — have been coming on strong in the jazz press and with audiences for the past few years. At their Scullers show January 24, one young Swedish audience member — a Berklee student — told me that back home they’re famous and tickets to their shows are a hot commodity. They’re still not so big here, but filling Scullers to two-thirds capacity on a Tuesday night isn’t nothing.
E.S.T. — the Esbjörn Svensson Trio, named for their pianist leader — like static harmonies, folkish, “romantic” melodies, the occasional rock beat, and good sound. At Scullers, they deployed electronics subtly. (Everyone played “acoustic” instruments, but modified with various effects, and Svensson credited their sound man in his band introductions.) They’re identified in press releases as “a pop band who play jazz,” and Svensson has said that Radiohead and Wilco have been more of an influence than contemporary jazz on what he does. So it was surprising to hear their first tune, after opening with a folk-like piano melody, slip into Thelonious Monk’s “I Mean You.” Svensson played Monk’s typically angular, rhythmic melody in a smooth legato, but it wasn’t long before he began unleashing hefty, Les McCann–style bluesy cadences.
E.S.T.’s playing — much of it from their new Viaticum (215 Music) — was impeccable. They like setting up propulsive cross-rhythms and pulling off impressive feats of stamina. In one piece, Svensson’s left hand and Dan Berglund’s bass played a very fast six-beat ostinato in precise unison and held it while Svensson played slow-moving figures in his right hand and drummer Magnus Öström kept up a fast, flat patter on his closed hi-hat. Berglund, seated, took an exciting bowed bass solo, modulating dramatically in the E.S.T. fashion, then plucked another solo with some effects so that his bass sounded like a rock guitar. There were occasional free-tempo spacy passages, some whooshing electronic atmospherics, some bongs and bonks on Öström’s pitch-altered small gongs, and even some jazzy piano runs and up-and-down sequences. Every romantic crest was executed with perfect ensemble synchronization. In the end, though, this was “beautiful music,” rich in those atmospherics and admirable in its team play, but a bit bland.
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, Entertainment, Music, Radiohead, Wilco, Jazz and Blues, Thelonious Monk, Esbjorn Svensson Trio, Dan Berglund, Magnus Ostrom, Les McCann, Less 
