Jazz as it stands is an underappreciated art form when it comes to new music. People love the greats like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Art Blakey. But when you ask people about new Jazz, they either say there’s nothing thats attention grabbing or  they don’t bother to look. These were my thoughts until I did some digging and found the self-titled debut album of the Norwegian Jazz trio The Sticks, released June 20 on the independent label Just for the Records.

The Sticks consists of pianist Oscar Grönberg, bassist Aksel Jensen, and drummer Håkon Mjåset Johansen. When listening to this band I would say that their style is inventive and playful, but can get serious in song structure.

The inventive elements come into play when tracks, like “Copenhagen Douche,” go from a minimalistic bass solo which then gets worked into a more light hearted song or when “NSB” starts out with this light streaking of the bass, which builds into an organized bass playing, then breaks into this light pitter-patter of piano keys and drum symbols.

The Playfulness can be made an example in the song “Dr.Pizza,” a song with this positive energy emitted from Grönberg’s piano playing.  The more serious song structure comes out of tracks like “Skjærtorsdagsraggare” where the melody seems somber, and well organized, almost predictable on how the song travels, but still a great song none the less.

The album is only 7 tracks long, running 36 minutes and 26 seconds, at the end you feel as if the band left you enough to digest.