Fredrik Nordström - Dolores: Two (November 5, 2021)

Here is the follow-up album of Swedish saxplayer Fredrik Nordström's band, Dolores! The group's first album "Dolores: One" was released in April 2021. Recorded during the same studio session, "Dolores: Two" features compositions by Fredrik, complemented by a freely improvised track. This album takes the listener on a beautiful, but sometimes also heartbreaking journey. The contemporary jazz of Dolores is grounded in responsive improvisation and personal expression.

Fredrik Nordström says:

"I composed the material for Dolores with the purpose of creating music that was bare and dynamic. At the same time, perhaps due to the band's drumless setting, I wanted it to maintain a rhythmic dimension and movement that brought it forward. I have been inspired by folk music, perhaps mainly from Scandinavia and from North America. The different musical and cultural backgrounds of the musicians in this band influenced me in the writing process and contributed greatly to the final result."

1. Mirus

2. Sun Bleached

3. Drop

4. Calling the Doves

5. Canadian Tuxedo

6. Melancholia

7. The Big Question - No. 2

8. Ground Frost

Fredrik Nordström - tenor & baritone saxophones, clarinet

Staffan Svensson - trumpet

Andreas Hourdakis - guitar

Ilaria Capalbo - double bass

All compositions by Fredrik Nordström except Drop by Capalbo/Hourdakis/Nordström/Svensson

Recorded on November 23-24 2020 at BAS in Bandhagen, Sweden by Mats Äleklint

Mixed and mastered by Fredrik Nordström at Bluenord Studio

Produced by Fredrik Nordström

Illustrations by Jenny Svenberg Bunnel

Design by LOUP Studio

PREORDER

Fredrik Nordström - Dolores: One (April 23, 2021)

There is undoubtedly a very special atmosphere when Swedish saxplayer Fredrik Nordström pulls the threads in the debut album of his new band, Dolores. The personal expression and creativity of the bandmembers contribute to place the music in an original strain of contemporary jazz - beautiful and melancholic. The starting point for the many things happening in the music is in Fredrik’s compositions, complemented in the release by a freely improvised track and an interpretation of John Coltrane’s “Central Park West”.

Fredrik Nordström says:

"I composed the material for Dolores with the purpose of creating music that was bare and dynamic. At the same time, perhaps due to the band's drumless setting, I wanted it to maintain a rhythmic dimension and movement that brought it forward. I have been inspired by folk music, perhaps mainly from Scandinavia and from North America. The different musical and cultural backgrounds of the musicians in this band influenced me in the writing process and contributed greatly to the final result."

1. Algorithm Changes 05:40

2. Signpost

3. Way up North

4. Rise

5. 19 Southbound

6. Turns

7. The Big Question

8. Central Park West

Fredrik Nordström - tenor & baritone saxophones, clarinet

Staffan Svensson - trumpet

Andreas Hourdakis - guitar

Ilaria Capalbo - double bass

All compositions by Fredrik Nordström except Rise by Capalbo/Hourdakis/Nordström/Svensson and Central Park West by John Coltrane (Jowcol Music/Universal Music Publishing)

Recorded on November 23-24 2020 at BAS in Bandhagen, Sweden by Mats Äleklint

Mixed and mastered by Fredrik Nordström at Bluenord Studio

Produced by Fredrik Nordström

Illustrations by Jenny Svenberg Bunnel

Design by LOUP Studio

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Fredrik Nordström Quintet - Live in Coimbra (2021 Clean Feed Records)

"Inspired in the American jazz of the Sixties, but with a North European perspective of inquestionable modernity, Fredrik Nordström imposed himself already as one of the most powerful and intriguing saxophonists in the tenor variant coming from the Old Continent. His prestige as a performer is extensive to the compositional work he’s developing, such is the richness of ideas in terms of harmony and rhythm presented by his quintet.

With trombonist Mats Äleklint replacing Magnus Broo and his trumpet and Torbjörn Zetterberg ocupying the position of the double bass instead of Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, but keeping Mattias Ståhl (vibraphone) and Fredrik Rundqvist (drums) at their posts, this live CD recorded in Coimbra, Portugal, presents a renewed band with the same objectives defined since the beginning: elasticity of style and afirmative drive. Adding a new voice to the lineage of tenors with robust sound, it’s nevertheless in the Ornette Coleman heritage that we can place Nordström. And that even if “Live in Coimbra” has more connections with the Blue Note catalogue and the Bobby Hutcherson groups in the golden period of this master vibraphonist than with the harmolodic concepts.

The album includes two pieces never recorded before, “Yakiniku” and “Mister Barista”, and a version of a song by none other than the pop singer Björk, “Cocoon”, and it’s a blast, showing this project in the ideal of contexts when the music in question is jazz: a concert. Bravo."

1. Yakiniku 08:01

2. Russian T 05:53

3. No Longer 09:36

4. In Motian 06:01

5. Cocoon 07:28

6. Pizza Girl 12:00

7. Mister Barista 10:01

Fredrik Nordström - tenor saxophone

Mats Äleklint - trombone

Mattias Ståhl - vibraphone

Torbjörn Zetterberg - double bass

Fredrik Rundqvist - drums

All compositions by Fredrik Nordström except "Cocoon" by Björk Guðmundsdóttir/Thomas Knak

Recorded live on November the 5th 2005 at Teatro Académico Gil Vicente in Coimbra, Portugal by Luis Delgado

Mixed and mastered at Bluenord Studio in Stockholm, Sweden by Fredrik Nordström

Produced by Fredrik Nordström

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Fredrik Nordström - Needs (2021 Clean Feed Records)

"In his new album, saxophonist and composer Fredrik Nordström deals with a format that reminds of a double quartet of the same type as Ornette Coleman recorded in the early 1960’s. For someone always interested in exploring different possibilities of group interaction, the decision isn’t really a surprise in itself: what surprises us are the results. Instead of acting as a double quartet, Nordström and his fellow Swedish musicians sometimes acts as an octet or as a trio, a quintet, or, you name it! The (double) rhythm section shows off some groovy and hard swinging parts as one unit, but the freedom to contribute individually in this collective of great improvisers is fundamental.

Nordström’s writing and conduction of the improvisational developments are, as always, subtle and meticulous, like hidden geometrical forms in an (apparently) abstract canvas. And if the double quartet matrix is generally connoted with the free jazz subgenre, in “Needs” something else is in equation, coming from the bop and hard bop traditions (Nordström’s tenor style owes something to Dexter Gordon) adding adventurous compositions with dazzling improvisations and giving expression to what the leader of this one day session calls «progressive jazz with unquestionable influence of contemporary classical and rock music». A must."

1. Needs 07:37

2. Fake Face 04:34

3. House of Tales 07:09

4. Hometown Prophet 05:51

5. Hope 07:29

6. Brand New Dollars 06:13

7. Morning Bliss 09:02

LEFT channel:

Fredrik Nordström - tenor & baritone saxophones

Mats Äleklint - trombone

Filip Augustson - double bass

Christopher Cantillo - drums

RIGHT channel:

Fredrik Ljungkvist - clarinet & tenor saxophone

Niklas Barnö - trumpet

Torbjörn Zetterberg - double bass

Fredrik Rundqvist - drums

All compositions by Fredrik Nordström

Recorded March 23, 2018 at BAS, Bandhagen Sweden by Mats Äleklint

Mixing and mastering at Bluenord Studio, Högdalen Sweden by Fredrik Nordström

Produced by Fredrik Nordström

Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul

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Johan Berke Upstairs Five - Live at Fasching - June 1, 2017 (2018)

This album - the twelfth with the group - contains a live recording from the Stockholm jazz venue Fasching.

The tunes are written by myself, with the exception of Short, But Sweet no 28, which was a collaboration with Yasuhito Mori who provided the "lyrics" and the voice in japanese for the electronic soundscape used in live performances of the tune. The studio version contains a longer spoken voice feature by Mori-san.

The tunes we play are mainly taken from our 2017 album: SIMPATICO, but "The Big Krumbukto", a staple of our live set, was first recorded on EASTERN SCENE IN GREY MINOR (2008) and on the live: OPEN DOOR (2012), which was recorded at another Stockholm jazz venue: Glenn Miller Café. The tune "Pushover" was premiered on that album too. 

For more info on earlier albums, please visit gasonjazz.nu

Fredrik Nordström – tenor & alto saxophone 

Alberto Pinton – baritone, alto & soprano saxophone, clarinet 

Johan Berke – electric guitar, electronics, composer 

Robert Erlandsson – double bass 

Fredrik Rundqvist - drums 

Recorded (of course!) June 1 2017 at Fasching, Stockholm by Johan Nordin and Pawel Lucki. 

Mixed and mastered by Johan Berke July, 2017 and November, 2018. 

Cover design by Johan Berke, photos by Leif Johansson musikfoto.leifjohansson.nu 

Produced by Johan Berke

1. While We're...Jong! 08:14

2. The Big Krumbukto 10:23

3. Comfort Zone D 09:52

4. Summer Ghosts 04:44

5. Pushover 09:51

6. Short, But Sweet no 28 (Oyatsu no jikan) 08:46

7. Mola Mola 10:02

Johan Berke Upstairs Five - Meteorological Interlude: Johan Berke Upstairs Five plays Weather Report (2018)

This album is a major departure from my usual output of mostly original music with this group, documented on ten releases since 2004 on the GasonJAZZ label (www.gasonjazz.nu), and in one case, on the Phono Suecia label (SCOPE - Music by Fredrik Nordström and Johan Berke - for tentet, 2009) . Here we are tackling the immortal music of Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter and Jaco Pastorius, in arrangements for sextet by myself (tracks 1, 3, 4, 7, 10&11)and Fredrik Nordström (tracks 2, 6 & 8). 

It does feel quite natural to play this music, since we all have a long relation to these compositions, and stylistically it doesn't deviate to far from what we normaly play with the group, since we have written the arrangments specifically for the group members in the line-up, who are used to play my, not allways so easy, compositions. Suffice to say, we all have had a grand time playing these classics by three giants in the field of small group jazz composition. 

I've also included two short compositions for solo acoustic guitar, as I usually do on all my recordings. These are the "Meteorological Interludes" that is refered to in the title. I dedicate these two pieces to Ralph Towner, who made a guest appearence on the intro of "The Moors" from Weather Reports album "I Sing The Body Electric" (1972)

The drawing, by artist Nina Grönroos, on the cover, is a tip of the hat to the cover of "Sweetnighter", a 1973 release by Weather Report. 

Trumpet - Niklas Barnö

Soprano and Baritone Saxophones, Clarinet and Bass Clarinet - Alberto Pinton

Tenor and Baritone Saxophones - Fredrik Nordström

Electric and Acoustic Guitars - Johan Berke

Double Bass - Robert Erlandsson

Drums - Fredrik Rundqvist

Recorded at BAS, Bandhagen by Johan Berke, June 1&2 2018

Mixed & Mastered by Johan Berke September 2018

1. Cannonball 09:33

2. Three Views Of A Secret 06:01

3. Birdland 08:48

4. Havona 08:12

5. Meteorological Interlude no 2 01:21

6. Harlequin 06:56

7. Elegant People 08:08

8. Badia 07:47

9. Meteorological Interlude no 1 01:22

10. Three Clowns 05:42

11. Palladium 10:36

Fredrik Nordström - Needs (CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2018)

In his new album, saxophonist and composer Fredrik Nordström deals with a format that reminds of a double quartet of the same type as Ornette Coleman recorded in the early 1960’s. For someone always interested in exploring different possibilities of group interaction, the decision isn’t really a surprise in itself: what surprises us are the results. Instead of acting as a double quartet, Nordström and his fellow Swedish musicians sometimes acts as an octet or as a trio, a quintet, or, you name it! The (double) rhythm section shows off some groovy and hard swinging parts as one unit, but the freedom to contribute individually in this collective of great improvisers is fundamental.

Nordström’s writing and conduction of the improvisational developments are, as always, subtle and meticulous, like hidden geometrical forms in an (apparently) abstract canvas. And if the double quartet matrix is generally connoted with the free jazz subgenre, in “Needs” something else is in equation, coming from the bop and hard bop traditions (Nordström’s tenor style owes something to Dexter Gordon) adding adventurous compositions with dazzling improvisations and giving expression to what the leader of this one day session calls «progressive jazz with unquestionable influence of contemporary classical and rock music». A must.

LEFT channel:

Fredrik Nordström  tenor & baritone saxophones

Mats Äleklint  trombone

Filip Augustson  double bass

Christopher Cantillo  drums

RIGHT channel:

Fredrik Ljungkvist  clarinet & tenor saxophone

Niklas Barnö  trumpet

Torbjörn Zetterberg  double bass

Fredrik Rundqvist  drums

All compositions by Fredrik Nordström

Recorded March 23, 2018 at BAS, Bandhagen Sweden by Mats Äleklint | Mixing and mastering at Bluenord Studio, Högdalen Sweden by Fredrik Nordström

Produced by Fredrik Nordström | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos | Photos of Fredrik by Mats Äleklint | (of basses) by Fredrik Nordström