The new album by Tonight At Noon, a quintet of respected members of the contemporary Finnish jazz scene led by drummer Andr� Sumelius, follows the group's critically acclaimed 2011 debut "To Mingus With Love". Since that time the group has performed at nearly all Finnish festivals of significance and successfully completed an extensive domestic tour of Finland organized by the Finnish Jazz Federation."People, Stories and Dreams" features seven dynamic, energetic compositions by a trio of the group's personnel, works forged in the crucible of many live performances.

Trio X is one of Sweden's foremost improvisational groups. The trio's distinctive feature is exploratory and boundary-crossing music, and the experienced musicians find inspiration in many genres. Lennart Simonsson, Per V Johansson, and Joakim Ekberg started collaborating in 2002, and since then they have made several recordings, worked with numerous well-known artists, and toured in Sweden and abroad. Trio X is a multi-faceted ensemble that works with many projects, from concerts in jazz clubs, in concert halls, and at major festivals to classroom appearances. Alongside their public concerts, they also play in healthcare and caring institutions. The musicians also teach and provide inspiration for amateur groups. The present album is a showcase of traditional Swedish melodies.

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.

H�kan Brostr�m is one of Sweden's top names in jazz. H�kan Brostr�m has toured and played as a band leader and sideman with artists as Eje Thelin, Tim Hagans, Bobo Stenson, Adam Nussbaum, Joey Calderazzo, Palle Danielsson, Esbj�rn Svensson, Ulf Wakenius, Jeff "Tain" Watts and many more. Brostr�m has led several small groups and is also the leader of "New Places Orchestra" which is a big band. He has also been a member of Norbotten Big Band for many years. New Places Orchestra was formed in 2010. Since then the band has done a lot of different interesting projects with guest artists as well as successful performances on their own. The band has worked with artists such as Viktoria Tolstoy, Rigmor Gustafsson, Tommy K�rberg, Meja, Ulf Wakenius, Sven Zetterberg, Jennifer Brown, Movits, Doggelito, LaGaylia Frazer and more.

As a trio, we have been jammin' for a couple of years. We thought it would be nice to bring the group into a studio and make a recording. Here is the result, featuring some tunes written by me and others. Hope you'll enjoy! (Max Schultz) Max Arndth Schultz, born August 31, 1960 in Stockholm, is a Swedish jazz guitarist who plays and composes music in the jazz, blues and pop genres. He started playing a guitar at the age of 10 after seeing a concert with Jimi Hendrix in Stockholm, and began touring in 1979 with the band Rena Liquid. Max Schultz has collaborated with jazz musicians and artists like H�kan Brostr�m, Herbie Hancock, Bob Moses, Nils Landgren, and Esbj�rn Svensson, Svante Thuresson, Anna Nederdahl and Tommy K�rberg. Max Schultz has also worked as studio musician on recordings with Marie Fredriksson, Rebecka T�rnqvist and other artists. The Max Schultz Trio also features Andreas Hellkvist and Daniel Olsson.

In the past, jazz musicians had both a tradition of playing for dancers and a tradition of picking inspiration and music from other genres. LSD does the same thing on this record. Harmonically simple, singable songs with a clear groove are the foundation that is then allowed to blossom in all it's splendor or maybe become something completely different. "It brings the music to the people, for the people, and by the people". (Jason Marsalis) The trio feels like a three-headed beast when they play together. One organism, one unit that can do whatever it wants. LSD has worked together since 2011 and has since then been touring a lot in Sweden and even in Nordic neighboring countries. They also toured in Canada in 2017 and have previously released two albums: "Trio Colossus" in 2012 and "Soon" in 2014, which both received brilliant reviews internationally. So great that even Sonny Rollins has expressed his appreciation of LSD's Trio Colossus.

Filip Ekestubbe belongs to the new generation of Swedish jazz stars. He has been featured on jazz stages in Sweden and Europe for almost 10 years and has collaborated with artists like Magnus Lindgren, Isabella Lundgren, Edda Magnason, Peter Asplund and Bo 'Bo-Kasper' Sundstr�m, Amanda Ginsburg and many more. After 5 intense years with hiss piano trio, Filip releases his debut album "On a clear day". The album contains nine tracks, most of which come from the Great American Songbook, but in their own arrangements that emphasize the trio's personal style. In addition to these songs, some original tracks by Filip are also included, showing the impact of odd meters and different styles as they are integrated tastefully with respect and reverence over the compositions. Filip Ekestubbe trio draws it's inspiration from the second half of the twentieth century, and the influence of jazz greats can clearly be heard in their playing.

During his career, Anders Hagberg has proven his musical prowess as an innovative and virtuoso improviser of flutes in genres like jazz and world music. With the new album TRUST, he takes his innovative expression to a new level with cinematic vocals, suggestive grooves and enchanting melodies. He writes: "The music for this album was originally created in interaction with visual artforms, such as dance, pictures, video, and sculpture... For a number of years now, I have carried out artistic research at Gothenburg University's Academy of Music and Drama. I have been looking at what you might call musical states: tonal spaces constructed by musical modes. In particular, I have focused on tone color in melody playing and the role of silence in musical expression. My work on states, sounds, and silences has informed all of the music you hear on this album."

Anne Mette Iversen writes of her new release with the Norrbotten Big Band: "It has been my great pleasure to work as Composer in Residence for The Norrbotten Big Band this year. During four visits to Lulea I have brought in new music and we have rehearsed, experimented, tried out and tested ideas, gotten to know each other. For me it has been a fantastic experience, a process that has enriched me in various ways as a composer and musician. Apart from having gained experience and learned various technical skills, the most surprising thing I discovered was that it could be a challenge to get the individual musician to take of the 'big band hat' which they usually take on when they sit down in a big band. While there is a use for these 'hats' or for 'standard big band musician practicies'; I find that in creative music, there is easily more room for more individual responsibility and approach. I have tried to make room for that, and it is my hope that a little bit of this shines through in the music we are presenting [on this album]. It is a constant goal for me to present my music as 'complete' and fully rounded in terms of idea, musical balance and presentation. Whether on album level or individual song level, I attempt to create a balanced composition with a sense of purpose that conveys an overall emotional message."

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."

AFTER MANY YEARS of musical collaboration, the idea to let the saxophonist create the melodies and the pianist the harmonies was born. When the arrangements were put in place, it resulted in a musical hybrid that the creators could not label at first. It has something to do with jazz but is garnished with small marzipan roses from the countryside in the north of Sweden. When the fumes from the laboratory experiment subsided, they said to each other: "This is a new element. We will name it Oscar Peterson-Berger.*" We hope that the album 'Petrichor' will land softly in

Ellen Andersson has been described as two voices in one - the young, curious and the older, experienced - a performer with a rare artistic weight. On November 6, she releases her long-awaited second album in her own name: "You Should Have Told Me." Since her successful debut in 2016 with "I'll Be Seeing You", she has been hailed by reviewers and audiences both in Sweden and abroad and has established herself as one of the most prominent voices on the Swedish jazz scene. With millions of streams and hundreds of concerts behind her, she has in recent years been seen and heard on stages and concert halls across the country, including with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Malm� Symphony Orchestra and Norrbotten Big Band - but on the new album she returns to the core: jazz quartet, a modern, acoustic sound - contemporary, captivating and personal. About the album, Ellen says: "Interpreting something someone else has written is terribly scary, and one of the most inspiring things I know. I think we develop the most when we get to reflect in other people, and for me it applies at least as much to the music. From that comes this album, where I with horror-mixed delight wanted to shed new light on music that has etched itself with me, and also feels so close that I easily forget that many of the songs were written a long time ago. "

Up & Coming Jazz Talents is a project where Bohusl�n Big Band meets young, sharp jazz musicians. Together we play music that the talents choose. The project was started in 2013 and returns every year. The meeting between the band and the young musicians creates new musical exchanges and also opportunities for future collaboration. Several of the young musicians we played with earlier in the project have either returned as guest artists or substitutes in the Bohusl�n Big Band. This album resulted in the 2020 edition of Up & Coming Jazz Talents in fantastic concerts at Vara Konserthus and Nefertiti where the audience got to hear tomorrow's jazz stars. His interest - late in life - in popular song and his high TV profile in much loved opera and stage show numbers. He retained his inimitable vocal timbre with it's positively sensual beauty of sound throughout his long singing career. This "gold standard" was attained at best by Fritz Wunderlich in the German-speaking world. Schock's personality and his stage presence assured him a loyal following; later generations can form their own picture with the aid of the present recordings.

Ellas Kapell was formed in the fall of 2016. Sharing an enthusiastic view on the great musical catalogue of Ella Fitzgerald, the band found it's moniker and initial repertoire. The repertoire has since expanded beyond the limits of Ella's songbook, but the band name remains. In 2018 the band started working on it's debut album Longing. Each band member chose their select few favorite jazz standards and expanded on their thematic and symbolic contents. Clad in new arrangements, the compositions retain their original core, but make bold excursions to modern, daring and personal realms. Addressed topics include rejection, abandonment, romance in the autumn of life, obsession and longing for the past. Some of the interpretations remain simple, carried only by the fragility of lyrics and harmony, while others make room for virtuosity and playfulness. Four of the tracks include guest musician Klas Lindquist on saxophone and clarinet.

EARLY YEARS