Stefan Karlsson Trio

Stefan Karlsson Trio: No Place to Go But Up

by Jack Bowers
April 12, 2002

The trick to playing Jazz versions of Kurt Weill’s theatrically imposing songs is to wrestle them assiduously to earth and make them swing. It’s a stratagem not everyone has learned. Stefan Karlsson has, an opinion that is emphatically reinforced by the pianist and his trio on No Place to Go But Up, in which the essence of Weill’s music is tastefully distilled for a romping session that owes as much to the spirit of Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson ...