I reviewed Lindborg’s Spirit Of Sweden: The Music Of Lars Gullin, his concert from the 2020 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival which, shrouded as the times were by Covid, was streamed online. I recommended the concert and accompanying CD release – A Swedish Portrait – in the strongest possible terms. I’m happy to say that Brian Morton’s subsequent review of the CD was equally enthusiastic.
If you substitute legendary Swedish bassist Georg Riedel’s name for that of Lars Gullin you’ll have a fair idea of what to expect from this follow-up disc from the excellent Lindborg (born 1979) and his splendid cohorts. With the exception of Amalie Stalheim (clo) whose place at the 2020 concert was taken by Sabine Sandra Olsson, the personnel here played the 2020 concert.
They perform the genre-blending-and-stretching music to perfection. Hear, for example, the striking bowed cello meditation that is the opening Stalheim; the confluence of meditative strings and now musing, now bustling authority from Lindborg on the following Gullinarium, or the gravely beautiful and concluding Canticle. Riedel composed eight pieces for the album, with Gullinarium and Stilleben extending the Gullin connection: in addition, every band member – and Riedel himself, who has a short pizzicato solo feature – created a musical fragment based on one of these pieces.
So there are 16 diversely turned gems to enjoy here, seasoning classic post-bop cool jazz with both folk and blues overtones and the meditative depths of classical sensibilities and sonorities. And there are some really delicious driving passages. Check out, especially, the riffing and shape-shifting of Channanukka and the folkish rock ’n’ roll spark of the engaging I’m Just Kidding.
Unreservedly recommended: for further detail on Riedel see my post on his duo concert with Jan Lundgren (p) at the 2021 Ystad festival.
Discography
Stalheim; Gullinarium; Migdal; Channanukka; Sjöstedt; Conclusion; Riedel*; I’m Lazy; Zilliacus; Jingle; Daniel; Stilleben; Lindborg; I’m Just Kidding; Naimark; Meyers; Canticle (49.10)
Lindborg (bar, ts, ss); Martin Sjöstedt (b); Daniel Fredriksson (d); Daniel Mogdal (vn); Henrik Naimark Meyers (vn); Yivali Zilliacus; (vla); Amalie Stalheim (clo); Georg Riedel (b on *). Stockholm, 13 & 14 January 2020.
Imogena IGCD 264
