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Per Henrik Wallin
Per Henrik Wallin: The Stockholm Tapes, Burning in Stockholm, Mandelstam & Velodromer
by AAJ Staff
The late pianist Per Henrik Wallin's music, though heralded in Europe, is a barely known entity to jazz fans in the US. Wallin passed away in June at 58, but his playing and reputation went well beyond his years--the Swedish pianist was widely considered one of Europe's finest of the last three decades, along with Fred Van Hove and Misha Mengelberg. At times reminiscent of Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, and Ahmad Jamal, Wallin is one of this music's great textural ...
read morePer Henrik Wallin Trio: The Stockholm Tapes
by Germein Linares
The Stockholm Tapes include two '70s recordings by the Per Henrik Wallin Trio in Stockholm. The first two tracks, E.V." and Wuppertal," come from a 1977 concert at Kagelbanan, while the final two improvisations, A Jive in July," and This Time Is Next Time Now," come from a 1975 concert at Jazz Club Fasching. As with last year's excellent release, Burning in Stockholm, the jazz here is loosely structured, with an intrinsic concern for dynamic interactions producing a dense and ...
read morePer Henrik Wallin/Johnny Dyani/Erik Dahlback: Burning in Stockholm
by Robert R. Calder
These three men are well-known in free improvisation contexts. The two Swedes, pianist Per Henrik Wallin and drummer Erik Dahlback, form two thirds of a trio whose bassist surely couldn't have minded the amazing and now departed South African bassist filling his role on this 1981 date. The music might be called free improvisation, but there's nothing weirdly dark or uncontrolled--or tame or dull or incoherent.
Wallin plays a few bars expertly in mainstream Twentieth Century concert idiom, and suddenly ...
read moreThe Per Henrik Wallin Trio, 1986-87: Where Is Spring
by Jack Bowers
Whatever else one thinks of Swedish pianist Per Henrik Wallin, one thing must be conceded--he has assuredly developed a style of his own, which is quite evident on this album recorded by his trio nearly two decades ago. Little wonder that he has been described in the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD as a European original."
Stylistically, Wallin is a modernist who hasn't forsaken the roots of jazz, and there are echoes in his playing of everyone from Art ...
read morePer Henrik Wallin: One Knife is Enough
by Matthew Wuethrich
The record has transformed our experience of music from a physical one to a conceptual one. In the comfort of our living room or car, we more often get only the aural nature of music, rather than the intimately visceral impact of watching a performer’s physical exertion. Swedish pianist Per Henrik Wallin, and the challenge he has overcome, reminds us that music is still a process, a dialogue between the body and the instrument.
One Knife is ...
read moreThe Per Henrik Wallin Trio: 9 * 9 * 99
by Jack Bowers
Per Henrik Wallin is a remarkable pianist, and listening to his trio in this concert performance is a memorable experience. Wallin, paralyzed from the waist down by an accident in 1988, can no longer use the pedals while playing but has compensated so well by altering his touch that one scarcely notices the shortcoming (if indeed it can even be looked upon as that). Wallin’s unaccompanied paraphrase of “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” (renamed simply “What Time”) is ...
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