“Soft Summer Breeze”
Jan Lundgren,
piano/ Jesper Lundgaard, bass/ Alex Riel, drums
Marshmallow
Records
Recorded
September 2007 at Sugito Theatre, Yokohama, Japan
When in the early
90´s, we first got acquainted with Jan Lundgren in Copenhagen
we used to call him “The Tommy Flanagan of Malmö”….We
still call him The Tommy Flanagan of Malmö, this title is
nothing but a title of honour. Not by adding more edges to his
playing, but by refining his initial expression to a degree that can
be described as nothing else but sublime. Lundgren has convinced all
of us, also his sceptics, what jazz is all about.
This is his 9th
recording for Marshmallow – the 9th
recording on which he is exploring The Great American Songbook….
The two great Danes, virtuoso and rock steady bassist Jesper
Lundgaard and ever vivid and crisp drummer Alex Riel, have been
Lundgren´s partners on most of his Marshmallow recordings. When
you consider the quality, the extension, and the consistency of this
rare Japanese/Scandinavian jazz cooperation I dare say you´re
left with a fine supplement to the most famous, almost legendary
cooperation in the same field – the one between Jarrett/ Peacock/
DeJohnette and ECM´s Manfred Eicher….
Nowhere else among
musicians born and raised outside the US do you witness such mastery
of musical language that is so American in its core – the one that
combines naturally swinging mainstream jazz with the great writing
tradition of Gershwin, Kern, Young, and Mandel or – as in this case
– also Ellington, Monk, Al Cohn, Cole Porter and Jimmy van Heusen.
Add to this the almost imperceptible tone of Scandinavian melancholy
and you have what we Scandinavians see before us when we imagine
Eddie Heywood´s title tune, Soft Summer Breeze….
(Peter
H. Larsen
Jazz broadcaster,
Danish Broadcasting Corp.)
