Bengt "Frippe" Nordström: Vinyl Box

Sometimes an artist can tilt the axis of a genre. Tilt it by just a degree or two. The effects might not be felt as such in the moment, but after decades their imprint is profound. Peter Brötzmann was one example, as was Derek Bailey. Add to that list, the Swedish saxophonist Bengt Nordstrom (1936 to 2000). As a musician born into a family with wealth, he was spared the necessity of playing gigs to earn his livelihood. In the 1950s though, he did study jazz in school and play in a Dixieland ensemble. Like his contemporary Brötzmann in postwar Germany, Nordström's foray into traditional music was merely a launching pad for the creation of his own unique sound. But where the German moved into more communal activity, Nordström retreated into solo practice and experimentation.

Nordström purchased professional recording equipment for his own use and also had the ability to cut records, which he did in batches as few a five or ten discs. Famously he recorded Albert Ayler's first LP Something Different!!!!!! which he released on his Bird Notes label in 1963 in an edition of 200. His encounter with Ayler in Sweden and subsequent meetings with Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman certainly must have reinforced his confidence that his musical experiments were legitimate. Unsurprisingly, none of that validation was coming from his local scene.

He cut discs in small batches, like the EP included here from 1962, a recording of Nordström playing along with Ornette Coleman's "When Will The Blues Leave?" from his LP Something Else!!!! (Contemporary, 1958). He chose to use the same Grafton plastic alto saxophone Coleman utilized, starting and stopping the LP while following along with the quintet and injecting his own language into the mix. Other musicians of the day were certainly using this technique of practicing along with LPs, here we get the privilege, by way of this EP, of witnessing Nordström's creative process.

We have Mats Gustafsson, the self proclaimed "discaholic," to thank for this project. The founding member of The Thing, AALY trio, and his own Fire! Orchestra, Gustafsson has researched Nordström, hunting down his small batch releases, and preparing a complete discography (included here) of Nordström's Bird Notes label. He along with Thomas Millroth put this boxset together with essays by Millroth and John Corbett.

1964's Drastic Plastic is a 12" with one side comprising of "Corsica 1," "Corsica 2" and "Corsica 3," and the other the 14 minute title track. Each track is evidence of the saxophonist working and reworking phrases on his plastic alto. Bursts of sounds are balanced by pauses for effect, or maybe just inspiration. His upper register tone may remind you of Ivo Perelman, but he tends more towards a blues feel with his ghost—like folk music making appearances.

We can leave the debate as to whether Nordström or Anthony Braxton was the first to record an album of solo saxophone improvisations to the academics, but Reality recorded in 1965 and 1969 finds the saxophonist solo with his tenor. The music is ruminative and a bit nostalgic. Equal parts Ayler (if he had ever produced a solo effort) and Joe McPhee's Tenor
Natural Music from 1967 and 1968 includes two tracks. "Bird Notes And Folk Tunes" is the only track included here that Nordström performs with another musician. Here he plays his Grafton alto along with Sven Hessle on acoustic bass. The bassist is content to follow Nordström in parallel lines mimicking his playful gambol of sound creation. The second cut, "Spontaneous Creation" is a muscular tenor attack, again dotted with pauses and throat clearings. Nordström pushes his saxophone from its upper to lower register, overblowing into an imagined gale force wind.

Någonting from 1968, finds the saxophonist performing two lengthy tracks on soprano saxophone. The rough hewn tone sounds something like a very impatient Evan Parker might have made in the same decade. Where Nordström is comfortable with his tenor and alto, he is continually scuffling with the straight horn. The tension and struggle is palpable, and maybe that is the saxophonist's purpose here.

Included in the box is the 10" inch To Bengt with brief solo performances by Isak Hedtjärn (clarinet), Dror Feiler (alto saxophone), Jörgen Adolfsson (contrabass clarinet), Anna Hogberg (alto saxophone), Mats Gustafsson (alto saxophone), and Sven Åke Johansson (tenor saxophone, snare drum & vocals). Each track (with the exception of Johansson's) is performed in what we may call the "Nordström style," with solitary sounds seemingly made for an audience of none. Johansson, the only musician to have recorded with the saxophonist, blows a bit of saxophone before working his brushes on his snare drum and singing a Swedish folk tune.

This collection of rough cut gems is a fitting homage to a musician who shifted the direction of improvised music by just a few degrees. But like that proverbial butterfly that flaps its wings in Sweden, Bengt "Frippe" Nordström did cause a hurricane in the lives of many a creative musician.

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