Jazz Articles about Lars Jansson

Carlo Bernardinello: Artist´s Dreams

by AAJ Italy Staff
April 28, 2010

Il jazz ha avuto tanti cambiamenti di stile legati ai tempi ed ai luoghi in cui i musicisti si sono trovati ad operare. Basta mettere a confronto, tanto per fare un esempio 'classico,' la nevrosi urbana dei bopper newyorchesi con l'approccio rilassato dei musicisti West Coast. Era così in quel periodo storico come adesso. Prendiamo il gruppo guidato dal batterista Carlo Bernardinello: tutto si svolge con perizia calligrafica, senza neanche troppa tensione interiore, belli ed eleganti, in un idioma che ...

Lars Jansson/Bohusl: Temenos

by Jack Bowers
August 10, 2004

Lars Jansson is what one would call the complete package: a marvelous composer, resourceful arranger and masterful pianist, comfortable in any framework from trio to large ensemble, as he is on this scintillating new release by Sweden's world-class Bohuslän Big Band.

This is Jansson's third recording with the triple-B, and as on the others ( The Blue Pearl; One Poem, One Painting ) he has written and arranged every number, none of which is less than persuasive. As I noted ...

The Lars Jansson Trio: Witnessing

by Jack Bowers
May 2, 2003

Good as this Swedish trio is -- and trust me, it’s very good -- it is pianist Lars Jansson’s exceptional talents as composer / arranger that raise it well above the ordinary. Every song on the album is Jansson’s, and had he misfired, the enterprise could have fallen flat on its face; instead it soars on the wings of his consistently fresh and invigorating melodies. He then ices the cake with thoroughly captivating improvisations, leavening every song with ample measures ...

Lars Jansson: Ballads

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2002

This is basically a trio album, but not completely; comprised of ballads by Swedish piano master Lars Jansson, but not completely. Songs like “The Tree,” “To the Mothers in Brazil” and “Something To Eat” may be ballads in the broadest sense of the word but their brisker tempos belie the image. And the trio becomes a quartet on occasion, then a sextet as horns are added on half a dozen numbers. “Something to Eat” is the only composition that’s not ...

Lars Jansson: Giving Receiving

by Jack Bowers
October 1, 2001

In searching for a word or phrase that best describes this album by Swedish pianist Lars Jansson’s sextet, the best I can come up with is “smooth Jazz with a touch of class.” What I mean is that even though the greater part of what is performed on Giving Receiving would not be in the least out of place on so–called “smooth Jazz” radio, these guys can really play! And Jansson’s compositions and charts, while in most cases smooth as ...