Hamrå Orkester Björn Cedergren, Tenor saxophone Patrik Putte Janson, Trumpet Andreas Thurfjell, Alto sax & clarinet Simon Westman, Piano Olli Rantala, Double bass Fredrik Hamrå, Drums, compositions

After the two critically acclaimed and award-winning albums ‘Longing’ and ‘What’s it all about?’, the jazz quartet Ellas Kapell are releasing their third album ‘For all we know’. With innovative arrangements, which could almost be considered original compositions, the group continues to interpret traditional music from the world of jazz. This time they are focusing on creating a musical atmosphere that allows you to both rest in the familiar as well as discover the unknown. The theme for the album is sorrow, yet with glimpses of something more. It is through the cracks that the light flows in and with their music, Ellas Kapell wants to echo those moments when the darkness shifts and despair turns to hope

While many have interpreted the classic jazz compositions of our time, few have done it in such innovative and creative ways as Ellas Kapell, if critics and audiences are to be believed. The four members met in 2016 and have since released three (soon) albums, won the Golden Album Reader’s Choice Award (JAZZ/Orkesterjournalen), been named the Vocal Jazz of the Year by Lira Music Magazine, as well as have been streamed over 4 million times. During the last few years, the band has toured frequently, and worked together with renowned Swedish jazz musicians such as Magnus Lindgren and Karin Hammar. In 2017, Ellas Kapell participated in the SVT documentary “Vi äger drömmarna"" (‘We own the dreams’).

“I was introduced to the world of vocal jazz at a young age. The melodies and lyrics of many of the jazz standards made a huge impression on me and still speak to me today. It has long been a great wish of mine to take this journey with Mike Moreno and Lars Danielsson, finding new ways of playing and singing these songs together … And here we are with an album consisting of not only jazz standards but also originals and modern tunes such as ‘Distance’ by Glauco Viénier and Norma Winstone.” (Mette Juul)

Ge Mig En Dag

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A Walk in the Centerpoint

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On this new release, Swedish artist Meta Roos joins up with Trio X to present a varied program of folk and jazz tunes by various composers. Meta Roos was born and raised in Boda Kyrkby in but lives since 2002 in B�lsta in Uppsala county. She made her debut as a sixteen-year-old when she started singing with various dance bands in Dalarna; She achieved the greatest success with the Nippe Sylw�ns Band. Since 1984 she has been a full time artist. During the 1980s, she sang in the dance band Rose Band, which became popular throughout Europe. Roos played New Year's Rev in Borl�nge and came a few years later to Peter Flack in �rebro where she participated in four reviews.

Outi Tarkiainen writes of her new release with the Norrbotten Big Band: "During my year as composer in residence with the Norrbotten Big Band in 2017, I wrote eight compositions that strongly capture my voice as a composer while at the same time focusing from many angles - maybe some of them surprising - on this immensely adaptable jazz orchestra. I decided to call the set Unpainted Portraits, my aim being to paint musical portraits of people and prospects past, present and future. Literature, and especially poetry, has always been a source of inspiration for me in my work, and many of my new portraits are dedicated to writers I admire: the early 20th-century English modernist Virginia Woolf, the Finnish visionary playwright Minna Canth, and the contemporary S�mi poetess Rauni Magga Lukkari now living in Troms�, Norway. One of the pieces pays tribute and is dedicated to the Suffragettes campaigning for votes for women in early 20th-century England. Others make a respectful nod in the direction of the jazz tradition, and the listener may here detect echoes of some of my favorite jazz composers, such as Gil Evans, Charles Mingus and Maria Schneider."

Vivian Buczek was born in Sweden with Polish roots. She has today developed into one of Sweden’s most outstanding and engaging jazzsingers with a remarkable feeling for the jazz idiom. She writes: "Ella Fitzgerald has always been my greatest inspiration and the main reason that I have become a jazz singer. It all began when my dad gave me the live album "Ella in Berlin” from 1960 and it immediately blew me away! I had never heard such honest and joyful singing before. The way Ella was using her voice in so many different ways was astonishing to me. She could sing anything, slow heart-breaking ballads, moaning blues, and up-tempo songs with her impressive scat singing to top it all. This is my second album in collaboration with one of the greatest Swedish musicians and arrangers Martin Sjöstedt. Martin has a fantastic ability to get inside any tune and come up with the most imaginative arrangements a singer can wish for. It’s always a thrill and an amazing musical journey every time I perform on stage with him and his trio. I have chosen some of my favorite Ella songs that I have listened to and sung since I was a teenager, many of them from the Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks and live albums. This album is with my sincerest gratitude to Ella Fitzgerald for having given me inspiration for the one thing I enjoy most in life: Singing!”

Two years after the release of her latest album - the widely critically acclaimed Imprints - Karin Hammar now releases her new album Circles. Like last time, Hammar works with her group Karin Hammar Fab 4 to help her shape 8 new compositions and an interpretation of Nina Simone's "Four Women" into her own musical landscape. The new compositions draw inspiration from such diverse encounters and places: Brazil, Morrocco, her daughter Ella, fellow musician Hildegunn Öiseth, to name a few. The title track was written in a small compartment backstage at Malmö Arena in Sweden prior to a show with Swedish pop star Orup. The Karin Hammar Fab 4 line up includes some of Sweden's finest jazz players: Niklas Fernqvist on bass, Fredrik Rundqvist on drums and new member, guitarist, Andreas Hourdakis who brings a new form, shape, and level to the group's sound. Karin Hammar is widely seen as one of Sweden's foremost trombone players, with four studio albums as a solo artist and numerous collaborations under her belt since debuting in the nineties. She's been given numerous awards in Sweden, including a prize from the Alice Babs foundation.

Ellen Andersson Quartet’s debut album “I’ll Be Seeing You” is a disc that will not go anywhere unnoticed. The Quartet is a group of relatively common jazz composition: vocals, guitar, bass, and drums, and makes standard songs in their own arrangements. The song material the great story-rate and emotional range, where playfulness meets big seriousness makes this an album listeners will adore. Ellen Andersson Quartet aims to find a middle ground where tradition can face the present, but also wants to do this without losing their integrity and personality. The group also wants to challenge the way in which many jazz vocalists relate to and participate in the music. The ensemble attaches great importance to each of the four musicians being on equal terms.

 

"All hail Ellen Andersson, the best sort of blasphemous resurrection. The audacious Swedish jazz singer with the voice of tissue paper enrobing a jewel is probably the best representation of new jazz coming out of Europe and a more than fitting successor to Billie Holiday." - AXS

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Dayna Stephens, one of the most interesting saxophonists of his generation, stars on A Week Ago Today, together with bandmates Andr� Sumelius, George Kontrafouris and Teemu Viinikainen.Drummer and producer Andr� Sumelius, who befriended Stephens while doing concerts and recordings together in San Francisco and, later on, NYC, and wanted to bring Dayna to Finland to record, envisioned the project from the start. Dayna Stephens' melodic compositions make up the majority of the album's music, but a few of Sumelius' compositions and one from Kontrafouris round out the production.

The original music on this album is in the traditional jazz style with influences from singers like Blossom Dearie, Monica Zetterlund, and Karin Krog.

Taken from Lars Danielsson: Per, Lars, and Henrik are the core of the original version of Funk Unit (with Nils Landgren) where they together created a raw, wild, and unpredictable framework to their a little bit different view of the genre Funk/Jazz. Albums such as Redhorn and Live in Stockholm with Maceo Parker are examples of some of the influences that they have "marinated" in their long-standing collaboration with Michael Ruff, Randy Brecker, Brenda Russell, etc. Studio Tan emerged out of the desire to continue building on common experiences and create a collective musical frame on a platform where they could meet and create musical moments for themselves and their audience.

When Josefine entered her second half-century in 2021 (sometimes it's permissible to mention the age of a lady...), Norrbotten Big Band decided to celebrate her achievements by commissioning six big band pieces from composers who, at different times and on different occasions, have been connected with Josefine. We are very happy with the result and confident that the sometimes challenging nature of the music will create a portrait of Josefine with all her magnificence on full display.

When Josefine entered her second half-century in 2021 (sometimes it's permissible to mention the age of a lady...), Norrbotten Big Band decided to celebrate her achievements by commissioning six big band pieces from composers who, at different times and on different occasions, have been connected with Josefine. We are very happy with the result and confident that the sometimes challenging nature of the music will create a portrait of Josefine with all her magnificence on full display.