Swedish Jazz History

Hugely acclaimed for his remarkable grasp of melody, harmony and interpretation, Bill Evans has earned his reputation as one of the most influential pianists and composers in jazz history. Classically trained from an early age, Evans initially made a name for himself working with other famous figures of the jazz genre, including George Russell, Cannonball Adderley, Chet Baker and Miles Davis, and his playing was a key feature on the latter s legendary Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959). By the early 1960s, Bill Evans began focussing on leading his own groups, primarily trios. Over the rest of his career, he put out a staggering body of work, including the classic albums Sunday At The Village Vanguard and Waltz For Debby (both Riverside, 1961). He received 31 Grammy nominations during his lifetime, taking away nine awards in total, and earned himself a place in the Down Beat Jazz Hall Of Fame.

Iiro Rantala takes us through a kaleidoscope of different sound worlds, bringing a virtuoso sense of flow, melodic richness, drama and wide-screen technicolor emotion: "Veneziana" is an enlivening and highly distinctive portrait of a city. One might call it programme music, but it is of a kind that only Iiro Rantala can write…where the listener, as in the winding streets of Venice, will find a new surprise behind every musical corner.

Bernd Lhotzky has been Germany’s most important exponent of classic jazz piano for the past three decades. However, his approach to music from the early days of jazz on his new solo album ‘Rag Bag’ is anything but museum-like. He says: ‘What fascinates me in music, art and life in general are the contradictions and contrasts, the syncopations, the cracks in time.’ ‘Rag Bag’ is a journey between times and worlds, a patchwork of the most diverse motifs, styles and associations. The nucleus of the album's music is Ragtime, one of the earliest forms of jazz. Lhotzky says: ‘To this day, what I love about this music is that it is so warm, life-affirming and undisguised and simply bursts with vitality and honest joy.’

Jazz on life and death! In There Is No Future, Swedish jazz singer Sara Aldén makes her album debut with self-written music and arranged jazz standards with a focus on grand crescendos and vulnerable intimacy. She creates jazz as if her life depended on it where the question of the end of everything is allowed to exist, the small endings and the big ones. Sara Aldén and her trio present a musical sinkhole in the ongoing history of jazz, where doom-filled and intimate compositions alternate with dizzying arpeggios and dystopian and lyrical sound worlds.