Dragon Recor

Domnérus Arne & Rolf Ericson: Arne Domnerus &... [CD]

Jederby Thore: Jazz Groups 1940-48 [CD]

Wallin Per Henrik Trio: Where is Spring [CD]

Lindberg Nils: Symfoni No 1 [CD]

Domnérus Arne: Favourite Groups [CD]

Here we get one of the greatest in Swedish jazz of all time: trumpeter Gösta Törner. When other Swedes imitated the Americans' ideas and then played them according to the ruler, the game naturally flowed out of Törner. He was almost the only one who played jazz without breaking the hambo. Here he is together with the pianist Bob Laine, who moved to the USA as early as 1929 and did not come home for a long time. He struts like an elephant, it must have been hopeless for Thore Jederby's bass and Bertil Frylmark's drums to be run over by a piano. But there is a frown to the crowd in Laine's game. Åke Hasselgård's clarinet chirps like a bird, he was soon to go to the USA to play Benny Goodman. From this far away you can hear how short and pointed the rhythm was in Swedish jazz fifty years ago.

For the third of five Lars Gullin albums compiled and released by Dragon in the mid-1980s, the classic baritonist is heard in an unusual setting on five numbers (plus an alternate take), being joined by a 16-voice choir group. The music, meant to be an extension on Charlie Parker's "Bird With Strings," has its interesting moments, but is not too essential. Otherwise, Gullin is heard on baritone and piano with a 1956 sextet and on two previously unreleased alternate takes from other sessions. All of the entries in this series are recommended to 1950s jazz collectors.