Jazz Articles
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Lina Nyberg: Anniverse
by Mark Corroto
Vocalist Lina Nyberg takes us through a calendar year with her album Anniverse. Being Swedish, we're talking northern hemisphere when she sings of January and following footsteps in the snow with the sun only barely appearing on the horizon. Dark but not dispirited she intones rising hopes. This recording began with Nyberg's call to her long time collaborators pianist Cecilia Persson, guitarist David Stackenäs, bassist Josef Kallerdahl, and drummer Peter Danemo to send her ten words they associated with a ...
read moreLina Nyberg: The Clouds
by Troy Dostert
In a career spanning almost three decades--her first release, Close (Prophone), with Esbjörn Svensson, dates from 1993-- vocalist, composer and arranger Lina Nyberg has worked with many of the finest musicians in the Swedish jazz scene to create a truly formidable body of work. Nineteen albums later, her creativity shows no signs of abating. In fact, with The Clouds, a project featuring a tentet of first-rank colleagues, Nyberg is poised to reinforce her place at the vanguard of chance-taking European ...
read moreLisen Rylander Löve: Oceans
by Troy Dostert
While up-and-coming Swede Lisen Rylander Löve is a talented tenor saxophonist, demonstrated nicely in the quartet Here's to Us on the undersung gem, Animals, Wild and Tame (Hoob Records, 2018), she is hardly content to limit herself to one instrument--or even one genre, for that matter. In Here's to Us she teams up with trumpeter Susana Santos Silva, bassist Josef Kallerdahl and bass clarinetist Nils Berg to make enchanting avant-chamber jazz. On Oceans, an ambitious solo project, she reveals her ...
read moreLina Nyberg: Terrestrial
by Troy Dostert
Idiosyncratic to the core, ambitious beyond measure, and knowing no idiomatic limitations, since the early 1990s Swedish vocalist and composer Lina Nyberg has captivated and surprised listeners with the astonishing range of her unique artistic vision. She has performed with a “who's who" list of Swedish musicians, from iconic figures like Esbjörn Svensson and Palle Danielsson to out-leaning players like Mattias Ståhl, Magnus Broo, and Torbjörn Zetterberg. Her repertoire and arrangements are consistently imaginative and courageous, and her regular band--pianist ...
read moreMusicMusicMusic: Äventyret
by Troy Dostert
Although they haven't received much attention stateside, the three musicians in MusicMusicMusic have been fixtures in the Swedish jazz scene for years. They've released eight records of their own (all on their Hoob Records label), but they've also made plenty of appearances on others' releases. Pianist Fabian Kallerdahl recently made some fine contributions to vocalist Lisa Björänge's 2017 release Resting Spirit (also on Hoob); and his brother, Josef Kallerdahl, has been a regular member of vocalist Lina Nyberg's band. The ...
read moreLisa Björänge Quintet: Resting Spirit
by Troy Dostert
The subject matter on Swedish vocalist Lisa Björänge's third album, Resting Spirit, is heavy stuff: difficult relationships, poignant memories, and the daily struggle for personal happiness and peace. But fortunately, Björänge's top- notch quintet brings an invigorating purpose and vitality to these eight tunes, leaving one grateful for having plumbed their emotional depths, since a confident sense of triumph and resilience is the ultimate result. On the group's previous record from 2015, Bang! (also on Hoob Records), the ...
read moreLinus Lindblom: Sanctuary
by Budd Kopman
Sanctuary is saxophonist Linus Lindblom's third release for HOOB records, the first two being The Lines (2007) and Objets Trouvés (2012). Much like Skarkali by Ingi Bjarni Skúlason, Lindblom's musical language is very personal, unique and highly emotional, but quite accessible. The band, comprised of pianist Carl Bagge, bassist Par-Ola Landin and drummer Konrad Agnas, most obviously share Lindblom's musical outlook, because they are right with him in arrangements that require a practiced precision with an edge of ...
read moreLina Nyberg: Aerials
by Eyal Hareuveni
There are very few musicians who dare to expand their artistic vision with every new project as Swedish vocalist-songwriter-composer Lina Nyber. Aerials, is the her second installment in a trilogy of albums that offers her unique perspective about the world, the elements and the music itself. Nyberg began the trilogy with the double album The Sirenades (Hoob, 2014), that featured her songs composed for her quintet and the Norrbotten Big Band, sketching poetic images of cyber-seas, monsters and waves. On ...
read moreThe Ordinary Square: When in Paris
by James Pearse
When in Paris (Hoob Records, 2015) is a multifaceted album. The complexity of the French capital is explored with a collection of songs that range from sublime to swinging. The nine original compositions by bassist and bandleader Viktor Skokic provide a platform for the members of this intriguing ensemble to engage in energetic interaction with maximum room for spontaneity and whim.Skokic, who surfaced on the trio album Perfectly Still (Footprint, 2014), wrote the music performed here ...
read moreNils Berg Cinemascope: Vocals
by James Pearse
Swedish reed player Nils Berg scours the online world for unusual and unconventional musical performances to use as a backdrop to his music. He then edits the original down to capture the “essence" of the song and then writes new music on top. Here's where it gets really interesting: the Nils Berg Cinemascope trio then performs the new music live with a YouTube video of the original artist projected as a living backdrop. In this sense, the “guest ...
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