Lars Gunnar Lars Gunnar Bodin

Swedish bassist/cellist Lars Danielsson is a master improviser, who completely engages listeners by taking them on journeys of both pleasure and wonder, with themes which are always expressive and song-like. He is far too classy and refined a musician to indulge in superficial virtuosic display. Danielsson's well-honed, naturally lyrical improvisational lines remain at the service of the flow of the music, something particularly noticeable when he steps forward and takes on the role of soloist. These core traits are also there in his extensive and much-praised work as arranger, composer and bandleader.

Lars Gullin - Lars Gullin Swings (1956) {2013 Japan Jazz Best Collection 1000 Series 24bit Remaster WPCR-27282}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 241 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 103 Mb
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© 1956, 2013 East West / Warner Japan / WEA / Rhino | WPCR-27282 | Jazz Best Collection 1000 Series
Jazz / Bop / Cool / Saxophone

Features 24 bit remastering and comes with a mini-description. This is a good introduction to the remarkable Lars Gullin, a masterful baritone sax player, writer, arranger, and a key figure in Sweden's jazz scene. Lars Gullin Swings (East-West, 1958) feature Swedish baritone master Lars Gullin improvising with an all-star cast of jazz compatriots. Whether he is performing in a quartet, quintet, sextet, octet or big band setting, the Mulligan-influenced Gullin wails throughout. Gullin’s tone on the “big horn” is light and agile; his solos flow with a wealth of unending invention. These albums are extremely rare and if you were lucky enough to find them, would carry a very hefty price tag on the collector's market.

Concerto Copenhagen, the Danish National Baroque Orchestra, has developed into one of Scandinavia’s leading Baroque orchestras. The orchestra now turns to Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous Orchestral Suites. Although extensive research has been conducted for many years, it is not known when the suites were composed. Today everything indicates that the suites were written much earlier than is assumed and then merely had to be adapted to Bach’s new Leipzig circumstances. It is therefore not unusual for them to be performed – as on this recording – without timpani and trumpets. Although the especially popular third suite is a ceremonious, sumptuous work, the material contributed by the wind instruments is hardly of considerable significance. The suite enjoys a top ranking on the charts of Bach’s most attractive and best-loved works.

Good things are worth waiting for. Lars Danielsson had recorded just a few tracks for a new Liberetto album in late 2019. So, when a window appeared in September 2020 between the lockdowns across Europe, he seized the opportunity to bring his fellow band-members back to his studio near Gothenburg to finish what they had started.

That the harmonium was not just an instrumental fringe phenomenon or an exotic stylistic device for Franz Liszt is proven by his numerous works expressly (exclusively or alternatively) scored with harmonium. As is well known, he owned several such instruments himself and certainly contributed to their tonal and technical development, as is also and especially true for the piano and the orchestra.

As far as Franz Liszt's compositional output for keyboard instruments is concerned, the virtuoso pianist and later cleric not only considered the piano, but also the organ: in addition to some smaller pieces, a handful of quite larger works exist specifically written for the church organ. A significant number of his late sacred compositions, however, are not conceived for only one particular keyboard instrument, but ‘works‘ - following Liszt's explicit indications - on various instruments: piano, organ or harmonium. These pieces must also be taken into account if one wants to fully penetrate the oeuvre of the master as an interpreter.