Jazz classic
Notes From the Underground by Bernt Rosengren
As a country in the outskirts of the European continent, Sweden has not always been open to the rest of the world. But with a booming post-WWII industry and a flourishing welfare state, migrants and workers started to arrive during the 1960s. With them came the cultural influences from far away countries. Exotic dishes appeared, and the music scene gradually opened up to new expressions.
Sweden was of course already under the influence of the USA and Great Britain and had enjoyed, for quite a while, an international jazz scene and great domestic players. Most of them were mimicking the big names of the time.
That was also true for the composer, arranger and saxophone player Bernt Rosengren (1937-2023). He arrived on the Swedish jazz scene in the late 1950’s and worked his way up. Jazz orchestras used to be busy playing at dances but when pop music took over, jazz music suddenly needed to prove its relevance in new ways. Rosengren became influenced by bebop and hard bop. In the late 60’s he moved to Copenhagen to join the Danish Radio Big Band for a while before returning to Sweden again.
While he was away interesting things had happened in Sweden. A more progressive strand of pop music had emerged and the doors between jazz and other genres had suddenly been blown open. Now Rosengren started playing with musicians who were experimenting with ethnic music, psych, drone and prog.
Swedish sound
Artist: Bernt Rosengren
Album: Notes From the Underground
Song: Gerda
The stars were aligned when Bernt Rosengren gathered his quartet to record “Notes From the Underground” in September 1973. By then Rosengren had already struck up a friendship with the heavily influential trumpeter Don Cherry, who was living in Sweden at the time. The lesson he learned from Cherry was to look for music in new places rather than in the old Gershwin songbook. He invited the Turkish musicians Maffy Falay and Okay Temiz to join the group along with, among others, Swedish percussionist and world traveller Bengt Berger and pianist Bobo Stenson. The tunes range from Rosengren’s own compositions to Rachmaninov and Turkish and Bulgarian folk songs. It is free jazz of sorts, but also something that was not yet invented: world music.
Most of all, it is a masterpiece way ahead of its time.
Po Tidholm
