Going to sunny Ystad, home of the legendary inspector Wallander, is one of those summer treats I would never give up. This year brought the 15th edition of the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival (YSJF), held from July 31 to August 4. Artistic director Jan Lundgren had worked hard to invite to the various stages in and around Ystad a wide array of renowned and up-and-coming musicians from around the globe. This year there was a special focus on Brazil.
Before presenting his brand-new project (Inner Spirit, release on ACT Music) on the third day of the festival, Jan and Lars Jansson shared the main stage at the picturesque Ystads Teater, a well-preserved 19th century building with 400 seats. When two Steinways stare at each other in a way that would make Mr Bösendorfer a bit jealous, things look all set for a brilliant moment and this was indeed one such. Starting the set with a Lars Jansson original called Grandpa Dancing On The Table, a sort of father-and-son dialogue was initiated. Throughout the gig, the two Swedes shared their love for fancy melodies and swinging rhythms, a trademark of the YSJF. Pretending to leave the stage after the first half of a 90-minute set (as Abdullah Ibrahim did in 2013), the two men actually just switched places to perform a few more standards. The concert would conclude with another Jansson original. This time, the grandpa had written the piece for his grandson who was jealous of his sister, for whom the pianist had already composed a few tunes.
Keeping up with the tradition of ending the first night with an intimate gig at Klosterkyrkan, a 13th century monastery, Jan Lundgren invited the Catalan vocalist and trumpeter Alba Armengou. Just as young as Andrea Motis or Alba Careta, Armengou is a member of the new generation of successful female Spanish trumpeters. Using more her vocal cords than the trumpet, she formed a friendly duet with guitar player Vicente Lopez, as the percussionist could not make it. The duo explored Brazilian rhythms and included a João Bosco tune, a sort of preview of what we were to expect the next day.
The star of the second day was indisputably the famous Brazilian singer-songwriter Bosco himself. Over the years, he has crafted his unique and recognisable style and, together with three of his fellow countrymen, he delivered a patchwork of all his famous songs. The repertoire included Naçao, a song encompassing part of Brazil’s musical heritage with references to Dorival Caymmi, the legendary composer from Bahia, and Silas de Oliveira, a famous samba composer.
Coincidentally or not, Brazil would remain on the agenda when 79-year-old Swedish vocalist Sylvia Vrethammar took the stage at Saltsjöbad, the seaside hotel hosting most of the musicians. Having enjoyed international recognition over a 50-year performing career, the vocalist shared a memory of singing samba tunes with Sivuca and with Toots Thielemans, whose Bluesette featured on the 2024 YSJF poster. It was a perfect introduction for Jobim’s Só Danço Samba. Although Ystad’s beach bears no resemblance to Copacabana, she made us feel we were back in those days when, on a quiet night, Jobim had just written his famous tune Corcovado. After an extensive Jobim section, Sylvia Vrethammar moved on to sing her 2006 Champagne, Champagne original, pouring a glass of water; a sign of the times perhaps. As for a Dom Perignon millésime, time doesn’t seem to have much affected the singer’s voice.
YSJF has already welcomed Vincent Peirani and Emile Parisien on several occasions and in various settings. For the second day’s finale, we were back in Ystads Teater with cellist Vincent Segal and Ballaké Sissoko on the kora. With their first album (Les Égarés) published last year, the newly formed quartet is actually made up of two duos. Segal and Sissoko have played together since 2009. In a constant dialogue based on observation, the four musicians kept the audience focused throughout the gig. There were many grandiose, magical moments where every silence and each note counted. With the exception of Zawinul’s Orient Express, their repertoire was mostly based on original pieces.
Over the years, the YSJF has used various venues in the well-preserved medieval heart of Ystad and for the first time they booked an intimate concert in a private garden. It was such a pleasure to sit there at 11am and listen to the Swedish trio Circle. The band, consisting of Hans Backenroth on bass, Magnus Dölerud on tenor saxophone and Oscar Johansson-Werre on drums, featured music from their debut album released in 2022. With a smile on my face, I left the secluded garden grabbing the final notes of Charlie Chaplin’s Smile.
Close by that garden, the Hos Morten Café’s small stage is the HQ for the Next Generation artists. Among the seven projects selected this year, pianist and vocalist Ebba Dankel’s trio clearly surpassed all expectations. As a potential candidate for the ACT catalogue, the leader of this young band delivered cleverly crafted originals, her fresh voice gently floating above the keyboards. No Steinway there unfortunately. With songs mostly about the sun (at least for the English lyrics, as she also sings in Swedish), the Berklee student forms a very coherent group with Simon Petersson on bass and Amund Kleppan on drums.
Confucius once wrote “Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.” With these wise words in mind, I entered one of Sweden’s most gorgeous churches, Sta Maria Kyrka. The 13th century church was certainly the best host for Andy Sheppard’s first ever concert in Ystad. The British saxophonist’s constellation features two other exceptional European musicians, namely Rita Marcotulli on piano and Michel Benita on bass. Sheppard’s divine melodies were enhanced by the church’s natural acoustics, the sunlight beaming on the saxophonist’s face as if blessed by God.
14 June 2008 was a sad day for many jazz fans for that is when Esbjörn Svensson left us. His death preceded the creation of the festival and it is only now, thanks to the recent release of the E.S.T. 30 album project, that his music can be properly celebrated in Ystads Teater. As Magnus Öström recalls, there are many anecdotes around the celebrated trio’s tunes. If Öström and Berglund had not insisted, the 1999 album From Gagarin’s Point Of View might have remained in Svensson’s bottom drawer forever.
The rest is history and, as the drummer explained, it feels great to play all these tunes more than 15 years later. The cast was different from the album, involving Fredrik Ljungkvist on saxophone, Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Ulf Wakenius on guitar and lastly Joel Lyssarides on piano; the two original E.S.T. members thought this extension would add more colours to the music. With Good Morning Susie Soho, a piece Svensson wrote after a gig at Soho’s Pizza Express, the music entered another dimension, the horns literally exploding on stage.
If E.S.T. was a discovery for Belgium when they performed their first gig outside Sweden at the 1993 Gaume Jazz Festival, the same effect could apply to the Danish chromatic harmonica player, Mathias Heise, playing his first gig in Sweden since his Action 4’s band was set up in 2023. It was for me the best discovery in this Ystad line-up. The young band involved another Dane, Rasmus Sørensen, on piano and the already famous Anton Eger on drums and Conor Chaplin on bass. The band’s compositions are a clever mix of modern jazz, fusion and hip-hop. It’s great to observe the players, notably Anton Eger and his new Björn Borg look.
Going back to the Brazilian theme, Jan Lundgren’s brand-new duo with Brazilian seven-string guitar virtuoso Yamandu Costa proved to be one of the essential gigs of the festival. As it so happens, the two musicians met in Ystad in 2021 when Costa did a solo performance. Recorded six months ago, their upcoming release mainly features original compositions which they played live here for the first time. Starting the gig with Lundgren’s originals dedicated to his Mare Nostrum partners, Richard Galliano and Paolo Fresu, the duo moved on with Costa’s compositions. As his guitar needed some tuning before playing a homage he wrote for Michel Legrand, Jan Lundgren joked about the fact that a piano has more strings and still it’s perfectly tuned. They carried on with Lundgren’s Summer Kind Of Love, and it seemed all the songs they played had been carved for a relaxed Scandinavian summer night where one would be sitting on the dock of Ystad’s bay, watching the ferry sail away…
When you think of pianist and vocalist Sarah McKenzie, you don’t necessarily see a Brazilian connection. But since the Aussie L.A. resident is quite fond of bossa nova, she brought her recently published Jobim repertoire featured on her Without You CD. There were some great moments, notably her duo with Ulf Wakenius when they performed Jobim’s Once I Loved and allowed us to forget her rather strange arrangement of Girl From Ipanema.
Departing the shores of Brazil, Billy Cobham, who was last seen here 10 years ago, came with a top-notch band consisting of Gary Husband on keys, Rocco Zifarelli on guitar, Michael Mondesir on bass and, last but not least, Marco Lobo on percussion. There could not be a better finale for the YSJF (not counting the Sunday gigs at Charlottenlund) than Cobham’s Time Machine. Digging through his extensive repertoire, the 80-year-old drummer delivered an impeccable set which we all wished would never stop. Every member had his moment to shine, with the percussionist even performing a shamanic dance in the midst of the performance.
he Leaving Ystad is difficult but since there are more summer jazz festivals to attend, I guess I had no choice but to fly back home. As for the wild geese flying over the old town, it seems they had decided to stay a bit longer. Good for them.
Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival, 31 July – 4 August 2024
