Jazz Articles

Ronny Johansson: Japanese Blue

by Jack Bowers
January 15, 2015

Abandoning for the moment his usual piano-bass-drums format, Swedish pianist Ronny Johansson has the stage to himself on Japanese Blue, an album whose name and spirit epitomize a country in which Johansson has spent many pleasurable moments. Aside from pointing out the obvious --that Johansson's harmonic figures are engaging and his technique flawless --a number of salient qualities should be noted at the outset. First, the album has been wonderfully recorded, mixed and mastered by Lars Nilsson; ...

Tobias Grim: Brazil Lines

by Edward Blanco
December 25, 2014

Young Swedish-born guitarist Tobias Grim announces his debut album with Brazil Lines, a light Brazilian-styled vocal project featuring singer Karolina Vucidolac, one of Sweden's finest interpreters of the genre. Originally from Linkoping, Sweden, Grim began his musical career performing Rock and Funk music, moved to London for a while, encountered the blues and was introduced to the jazz idiom through jazz fusion. Along with bassist Magnus Bergstrom and drummer Anders Kjellberg--who form the Grim trio--the band and vocalist Vucidolac, have ...

Sandviken Big Band: In the Name of Freedom

by Jack Bowers
July 22, 2013

This admirably performed two-CD set by Sweden's celebrated Sandviken Big Band, recorded live in 2009 and comprised for the most part of music composed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, isn't without its ambiguous aspects. First, there's the title: while anyone who produces an album is free to assign any name that seems appropriate, In the Name of Freedom is indeed puzzling, as it appears to have little if anything to do with what is being presented (and no explanation ...

Emma Larsson: Let It Go

by C. Michael Bailey
April 23, 2010

Among the many sub-genres of jazz, none is more congested than that of female vocalists. So clotted is this particular marketplace that it is almost impossible to separate the signal (exceptional releases) from the noise (everything else). There are precious few ways for an artist to set herself apart from the merely good vocalists as a truly great one. Standards collections are no vehicle. Anyone and everyone can release a disc of standards. Only the very best singers can draw ...

Svend Asmussen: Fiddling Around

by Chris Mosey
April 18, 2008

While striving to avoid clichés like the plague, there seems only one way to describe Danish jazz violinist Svend Asmussen: he is still going strong. At the age of 92, “the fiddling Viking" is embarking on a 2008 tour of Scandinavia. Fiddling Around, recorded when he was a mere slip of a lad, age 77, has been re-released by the small Gothenburg label Imogena to mark the event. Listening to it, it seems such a drag that Asmussen turned down ...

Sounds Of Eternity: Part One

by Glenn Astarita
October 29, 2007

The title of this album projects existential or perhaps biblical connotations. Yet this Swedish quintet evens out the glorious melodies with a contemporary jazz methodology, topped-off with a distinct edge. They render a balancing act of sorts, where improvisation attains a hearty coexistence with Linnea Olsson's angelic vocals and textural cello work to complement an easy to grasp, ensemble-based jazz vibe.

Trumpeter Fredrik Davidsson serves as the primary soloist here as these works are largely constructed upon memorably ...

Fredrik Lindborg: The General

by Victor Verney
December 3, 2006

There are those who insist that jazz musicians are born, not made. Swedish saxophonist Fredrik Lindborg makes an interesting exhibit in this “nature versus nurture" argument. He was determined from a very young age to become a jazz musician, and he credits this to the fact that his father began playing Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday records for him from the moment he came home from the hospital.

Born in 1979, Lindborg's formative musical exposure consisted of a decidedly older ...

BarT: BarT Featuring Jim Beard

by Mark Sabbatini
June 1, 2006

Sweden has always seemed like the mellow sibling of Scandinavia. Nestled between the fjords of Norway, party-hearty Denmark and the Soviet/European culture clash of Finland, Swedes maintain a squeaky clean country while talking in a soft language featuring lots of “mmm," “rrr" and other smooth sounds.

So perhaps it's not surprising the Göteborg trio BarT, which occasionally teams up with keyboardist Jim Beard on this self-titled album, sounds a lot like a trip to the LA coast. Some ...

Bjorn Samuelsson: Jazz Formation: A Letter To Ake Persson

by Ken Kase
May 9, 2006

Trombone enthusiasts can rejoice at the arrival of a new voice on an instrument which has been unjustly under-represented in the jazz canon. Regardless of Björn Samuelsson's considerable technique, fine intonation and improvisational prowess, the arrival of his debut disc featuring a quartet with trombone out front is likely to raise a few eyebrows.Jazz Formation pays tribute to Swedish trombonist Åke Persson, a talent whose name might be unfamiliar to many jazz fans but whose reputation in European ...

Bjorn Samuelsson: Jazz Formation: A Letter to Ake Persson

by Jack Bowers
March 1, 2006

Åke Persson (1932-75), widely known as “the Comet, is arguably the greatest jazz trombonist ever to come out of Sweden (certainly the best-known), a truly remarkable innovator who performed with a galaxy of American stars and was a mainstay in the legendary Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, as well as Germany's RIAS Big Band. Björn Samuelsson was born in 1976, one year after Persson drove his car into Stockholm's Djurgården canal, either accidentally or on purpose, and drowned there, so ...