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ENAR JONSSON QUINTET / SEXTET - Gothenberg 1965-1969

Enar Jonsson Quintet / Sextet - Gothenberg 1965-1969

Listen to an interview with Enar Jonsson on Swedish Radio's P2 "Mitt i Musiken" (IN SWEDISH)

(Enar Jonsson interviewed by Jens Möller, 31 Maj 2005) 

In the period 1967/8 jazz took on a harder edge. The influence of the later John Coltrane recordings, together with the music of Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp began to be heard widely.

In Sweden, American JATP Concerts organized by Norman Granz continued apace, bringing artists like Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald to Stockholm, but now there were also other tours with Ornette Coleman playing his legendary concert at the Golden Circle, Archie Shepp played with Roswell Rudd and his group and Peter Brotzmann paid his earliest visits.

Don Cherry was a resident in Sweden and he too was preaching, through his playing, freedom and multiculturalism in jazz, which included his own learning from the Indian musician Ram Narayan. Terry Riley did his legendary concert at Nacka School which trickled down into the playing of Swedish groups such as the Bengt Enryd Septet and a group led by Bo Anders Persson.  Bengt “Frippe” Nordström was playing his strange brand of free music and Per Henrik Wallin began to demonstrate his piano genius. There was in general a wind of change blowing through Swedish jazz.

The “Moderna” museum, over a period from 1968 to the mid 1970’s, ran concerts which included “Gong” in their first incarnation on a psychedelic weekend in March 1968 which brought together the likes of New Zealand philosopher John Esam and the bizarre Scottish performer Ron Geesin.

Gothenberg was also the scene for new beginnings. The “Kulturhuset” was regularly the venue for visiting post-modern American jazz groups whose music fed down to local jazzmen like Gilbert Holmström, Enar Jonsson, Ove Johansson, Gunnar Lindgren and Thomas Felhing who all began to experiment in free jazz forms.

Enar Jonsson started his first group in 1964 and from 1967 regularly led both a quintet and a sextet until the band folded in 1969. The rewards financially were negligible but musical integrity was at a premium. The musicians wrote their own music and the compositions included extended collective improvisations not dissimilar to some of the playing of Don Cherry with Bernt Rosengren, Tommy Koverhult, Maffy Falay et al in Stockholm.

Anagram CD 9 “Enar Jonsson Quintet & Sextet – Gothenberg 1965-1969”

The tracks on the present CD vary from seven minutes to almost 18 minutes. The music is strong with an “in your face”, no compromise feeling. It is perhaps appropriate that one track is called Malcolm X and another is a tribute to the children of Vietnam. This was musicians creating music of their time, reflecting the events and attitudes of their lives. Le Roi Jones / Amiri Baraka, the African-American poet also sometime record producer and writer on jazz, is often quoted as saying that is how it should be - true jazz music must come from the ethnic, social and economic circumstances of the players.

It is a sad fact that too little of the music made at the time found outlets on record or even survived in archives or collections. Only Gilbert Holmström and his formation from the Gothenberg group of free jazzmen were recorded but thankfully Swedish Radio broadcast live concerts and the music of Enar Jonsson survived the strictures of erasing or over-playing of tapes, common at the time, to be archived.

In this case a veritable treasure of Swedish free jazz was unearthed and it is jazz that age has not withered nor custom staled in its infinite variety. It sounds as fresh as the day it was played. Importantly it is music that is as good as almost anything played at the time. Enar Jonsson leads with fine strong trumpet and flugelhorn and the two saxophonists, Jan Forslund and Ove Johansson play some powerful tenor. Sten Löfman added the extra dimension to the sextet on piano. The bass and drums provided some problems and three drummers play on the various tracks namely Lage Bäcklund, Hans Mattson and Göran Levin. Similarly three bassists were involved, Björn Rabbe, Börje Svensson and Claes Wallin.

Finally there is a bonus track with classical Opera singer Marta Scheele stretching the group with her vocal range. On this track Enar Jonsson plays a homemade instrument called a “Bromton” and Jan Forslund plays alto saxophone and flute.

The final question is what of the musicians today? Well good jazz musicians keep going, driven by some inner force. Sten Löfman recorded not so long ago with a group called “Jazz and Art” and, together with Susanna Lindeborg, Ove Johansson has played with “Mwendo Dawa” since the Seventies and as recently as 2003 they were recorded by the Swedish label LJ Records.

Jan Forsland played on recordings of the Lars Jansson Bohuslän Big Band on the Phono Suecia CD “Pearl Blue” in 1996 and with the same group on Imogea CD “One Painting One Poem” 1998.

As for Enar Jonsson he is still active, playing regularly and has been waiting eagerly for the release of this CD. It is long overdue but after almost 40 years it is a fitting tribute to talented and devoted musicians whose playing as a group was overlooked at the time. Perhaps today with the benefit of hindsight, all jazz lovers will realise that here was Swedish jazz that deserved a better hearing.

Enar Jonsson - trumpet, flugelhorn and bromton (homemade instrument); Jan Forslund - tenor sax, alto sax and flute; Ove Johansson - tenor sax; Lage Bäcklund - drums; Björn Rahbe - bass,  Sten Löfman - piano; Hans Mattson - drums; Börje Svensson - bass; Göran Levin, drums; Märta Scheele, vocals; Claes Wallin, bass

1. The Children 11:20 Listen to extract (.wav)
2. Triana 7:39 Listen to extract (.wav)
3. Fem upplysingar samt en övergång 10:37 Listen to extract (.wav)
4. Malcom X 17:40 Listen to extract (.wav)
5. Svit i folkton 14:50 Listen to extract (.wav)

 

Price: kr150

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