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Jan Johansson

Jan Johansson was a Swedish jazz pianist. He is little known outside Scandinavia, and his records are not widely available, though Jazz pa svenska (Jazz in Swedish) has sold more than a quarter of a million copies, and is the best selling jazz release ever in Sweden.

Johansson was a native of Soderhamn, in the Halsingland province of Sweden. Studying classical piano as a child, he would also go on to master the guitar, organ and accordion, before turning on to swing and bebop as a teenager. He met saxophonist Stan Getz while at university. He abandoned his studies to play jazz full time, and worked with many American jazz musicians, becoming the first European to be invited to join the Jazz at the Philharmonic package.

The years 1961 to 1968 produced a string of classic albums, which would help define his style of re-imagining traditional European folk tunes via jazz and the avant garde. These included Jazz pa svenska and Jazz pa Ryska (Jazz in Russian) which are both available in an expanded form on CD. Jazz pa Ungerska (Jazz in Hungarian) together with Danish Jazz violinist Svend Asmussen is the third album in that series. Jazz in Swedish comprises variations on sixteen Swedish folk songs with Georg Riedel playing acoustic bass. During this period, Johansson also made several recordings with Radiojazzgruppen.

The Grammy award winning albums Musik genom Fyra Sekler (Music from the Past Centuries) builds on traditional Swedish melodies, but this time uses larger groups of musicians, and 300.000. There were also two trio sets, 8 Bitar and Innertrio, which have been reissued as a single CD.

In November 1968 Jan Johansson died in a car crash on his way to a concert in a church in Jonkoping, Sweden. His sons, Anders Johansson and Jens Johansson, run Heptagon Records which keeps their father's recordings available.

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Rethinking Jazz Cultures

Francesco Martinelli: European Jazz - Tales of Etruscan Vases, Arias And Resistance

Read "Francesco Martinelli: European Jazz - Tales of Etruscan Vases, Arias And Resistance" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Few have attempted to tackle the history of European jazz in any meaningful way. That's hardly surprising given the size of the task. How do you address the jazz history of over forty countries in a succinct and logical manner? How do you manage to throw light on all the major personalities at the expense of many lesser known musicans and still retain a balanced narrative? What weight should you give to the geo-political and socio-economic circumstances peculiar ...

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Extended Analysis

Jan Johansson: In Hamburg with Georg Riedel

Read "Jan Johansson: In Hamburg with Georg Riedel" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Jan JohanssonIn Hamburg with Georg RiedelACT Music2011 The small number of posthumous releases in the 42 years since the death of Swedish jazz pianist/composer Jan Johansson at the age of 37 remains something of a mystery. Johansson--who pianist Esbjorn Svensson described as being “a very, very big influence“--has also been an inspiration for pianists Bobo Stenson, Tord Gustavsen, Andreas Ulvo and Jan Lungdren, and Swedish jazz-electronic duo, Koop. Composers/arrangers Bob Brookmeyer and ...

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Album Review

Jan Johansson with Georg Riedel: in Hamburg

Read "in Hamburg" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


Scandinavian jazz? It started with the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, didn't it? Well, no. It goes back many years further. As in Hamburg demonstrates emphatically, two early stars of Swedish jazz, pianist Jan Johansson and bassist Georg Riedel, could cut it with the best of the '60s jazz world, as instrumentalists and as composers. This beautiful album, put together with Riedel's cooperation, consists of recordings made by Johansson and Riedel between 1965-68--as a duo and in partnership with various big bands, ...

1,467
Profile

Jan Johansson: From Small Acorns...

Read "Jan Johansson: From Small Acorns..." reviewed by Ian Patterson


Upon hearing the news and in a state of disbelief, Randi Hultin the legendary Norwegian jazz journalist rang pianist Reinhold Svensson who confirmed the worst: “Yes. Swedish jazz has just died."1 Reinhold's reaction to the death in a car accident of fellow pianist Jan Johansson whilst melodramatic reflected Jan Johansson's importance in the contemporary Swedish jazz scene and the esteem in which he was held by his peers. November 9, 1968 was indeed a black day for Swedish music.

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Extended Analysis

Jan Johansson: Piano / Musik Genom Fyra Sekler

Read "Jan Johansson: Piano / Musik Genom Fyra Sekler" reviewed by Chris Mosey


In 1962, the year the Beatles cut their first record and the Rolling Stones made their debut at London's Marquee Club, a bearded, balding jazz pianist with sad, brooding eyes walked into a recording studio in Stockholm to make an EP of four Swedish folk songs. By 1964 he had recorded eight more, enough for an LP. This was titled Jazz pa Svenska (Jazz in Swedish) . At the height of the rock revolution, with interest in jazz otherwise plummetting, ...

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Björn Meyer
bass, electric
Regnfang
band / ensemble / orchestra
Hallgrim Bratberg
guitar, electric

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

In Hamburg

ACT Music
2011

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Jan Johansson: Piano...

Heptagon Records
2008

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Piano

The ACT Company
2007

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Blues

Megafon
1997

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300.000

Megafon
1995

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Videos

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