via Financial Times
The band’s third Blue Note release delivers edgy dynamics and mixed emotional shades
Renee Rosnes assembled the all-women band Artemis in 2016 for a European tour to mark International Women’s Day. Nine years on, the band’s third Blue Note release, Arboresque, finds Artemis stripped back to a core quintet and playing with the collective strength of an established working band. Saxophonist Nicole Glover joined Artemis for 2023’s well-received second album, In Real Time, but the other members were in on the project from the start.
The set begins with the prowling noirish moods of “The Smile of the Snake”, written by one-time Art Blakey pianist Donald Brown and one of three covers arranged by Rosnes, the band’s prime mover and a technically astute pianist. As the theme slithers over sparse double bass, Glover and trumpeter Ingrid Jensen harmonise moodily and solos sustain the theme’s emotional tension. Later in the set, Rosnes’s subtle arrangement and the strength of Noriko Ueda’s double bass refresh the late Wayne Shorter’s oft-played “Footprints.” Equally appealing is the lilting cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s waltz “What the World Needs Now Is Love”.