Kollektiv Feat. Jonas Hellborg - 1988 - Kollektiv Feat. Jonas Hellborg

Kollektiv Feat. Jonas Hellborg

1988

Kollektiv Feat. Jonas Hellborg

01. Bold (2:50)
02. Kong for a day (5:06)
03. As times go by (6:39)
04. Electric lady (3:40)
05. Following you (4:39)
06. Go east (5:37)
07. 15 steps to heaven (4:22)
08. Lady B (good) (6:35)
09. Count the blues (2:18)
10. Following me (4:39)

Jochen Schrumpf / guitars
Thomas Bettermann / keyboards, piano (6,10)
Klaus Dapper / soprano (4,6), tenor (2,7) & baritone (3,9) saxes, flute (8, 10)
Jonas Hellborg / bass
Waldo Karpenkiel / drums

There's an old Greg Brown song, "Mose Allison Played Here." It is about a dive bar where everything is terrible. But once, Mose Allison played there, so that makes it cool.

Kollektiv makes me think of that Greg Brown song. It is a 1988 album that absolutely reeks of 1980s production. Rinky-dink keyboards, inorganic tones, silly arrangements, and the works. The instrumentalists are pretty good, and the general groove is mostly straight-forward 80s fusion-jazz, but... Jonas Hellborg played bass. As bass guitarists go, there really aren't many better than Hellborg. He is not just technically far above everyone else, he is creative, unique, immediately identifiable, and he pushes those around him to a level that raises Kollektiv above the limitations of what would otherwise be little more than rote 80s production.

Listen superficially, and this could easily fade into the background, just from the aesthetics. Listen closely, and whether Hellborg is taking the solo, or just propelling everyone else forward, he ensures that the music always has more funk, more creativity and more sophistication than what you would otherwise hear. I am reminded of Lost Tribe-- a similar sounding album that rises above the production because of instrumentalists like David Gilmore (-ore, not -our). Hearing albums like this puts you in a frame of mind, and you have to make a conscious choice. You have to decide, are you willing to listen to dated music?

After all, listen to Blind Blake. Listen to Duke Ellington. This is "dated." Yet, we don't think of it the same way as 80s production. Of course, that's style rather than production, and this speaks to the issue of production choice, but from the listener's perspective, how different is that? I don't know. I just raise it as a question to ask yourself. If you dig old blues or old jazz, how different is that from the dated sounds of 80s production? I'll admit that 80s production bothers me more, but I can't 100% defend that.

But with Jonas Hellborg, I'll overlook it. He's just that good.