KALLE ALMLÖF – Kalle Almlöf (Amigo, 1980)

Instrumental
International relevance: *

Kalle Almlöf's claim to blog inclusion stems from his co-operation with Arbete & Fritid/Roland Keijser associate Anders Rosén; Almlöf's first album was ”Västerdalton” which prominently featured Rosén's fiddle, and so did 1975's ”Stamp, tramp och långkut”. The eponymous 1980 album at hand marks the third time they united on disc, and it also features some further noted fiddlers, namely Pers Hans Olsson, Jonny Soling and Björn Ståbi. 

As expected, it's Swedish folk fiddling through and through with an emphasis on polskas (a particular type of dance tunes highly popular among Swedish folk musicians). The perfoming duties are split in solos and duos, and while there's nothing wrong with any of it (the skills displayed here are impeccable, needless to say), it's a collection of tunes clearly aimed at the folk music audience and not at all recorded with any progg listeners in mind. The best tracks are the most melancholic ones, particularly the two that round off the first side, ”Bakmes” (a variation on well-known Swedish folk song ”Vårvindar friska”) with Anders Rosén, and Almlöf's solo execution in ”Polska från Älvdalen”. The high point of side B is the Kalle Almlöf original ”Åreskutan”, a tribute to a Swedish mountain by the same name.

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TINTOMARA – Tintomara (Abra Cadabra Production, 1979) / Lek (Amigo, 1981)

Instrumental
International relevance: **/**

Before pianist Elise Einarsdotter became a respected name in jazz of her own, she was in late 70's/early 80's jazz quartet Tintomara along with for instance flautist Katarina Fritzén known for her work with visa singer Fred Åkerström and also appearing on a later album by Lena Ekman. Her flute is one of the most prominent features in Tintomara where she almost took on the role of a singer.

Tintomara's first, eponymous album (released on Danish imprint Abra Cadabra Production) is an incredibly tight performance with some latin touches and excellent ensemble playing. The sound is lush and airy making for an easy listen, but at the same time it's a bit unengaging. Everything is nice and there's nothing particularly wrong with it, but somehow it never concerns me much. It passes rather unnoticed despite several welcoming traits. Still better than their second album ”Lek” though.

Released on the higher profile label Amigo, ”Lek” is a much more produced affair with an overuse of smooth-over reverb. It's also an unwanted step closer to jazz fusion which is a rather ill-fitting garb for Tintomara who thereby sacrifice too much of the friendly spirit of their first effort.

Tintomara full album
Lek full album

JONAS HELLBORG – The Bassic Thing (Amigo, 1981)

Instrumental

International relevance: **

Jonas Hellborg is a world renowned bassist having played with a plethora of bands and musicians as diverse as John McLaughlin, Material, Public Image Ltd. and Ginger Baker. He's best known as a jazz fusion player, and although this his debut album shows him a solo player in the strictest sense, it's still a fusion album, with fusion moods, fusion moduses and fusion methods. Stripping away every other musician to let the electric bass be all and everything doesn't change that. And if your standard fusion album is a group exercise in picking fluff out of your umbilicus, "The Bassic Thing" even more of a belly button scrutiny. I never understood the notion of the bass – or for that matter, the drums – as a solo instrument as anything but a show-off by someone who doesn't know his or her place in an ensemble setting. And a show-off this is. I'm bored to ashes before even the first track is finished, and then there's 35 more minutes to suffer by. File under 'patience flagellation'.

Full album

OLLE BÄVER – Castor fiber (Amigo, 1978)

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

 

High calibre free/avant jazz from Gothenburg's vital 70's scene, with Susanna Lindeborg (Mwendo Dawa, Salamander) on piano. But ”Castor fiber” has powerful and nervy perfomances from everyone involved, which means Bo Andersson (sax, clarinet), Jan Amnehäll (sax, flute), Ingemar Landén, (drums), Per-Anders Nilsson (baritone saxophone) Kjell Thorbjörnson (bass), with guests Torulf Berg (cornet), Anders Bodebeck (trombone), and Harald Stenström (tuba). Dynamic and tense, there's anothing airy-fairy about this; still it sometimes gets the dreadful 'spiritual jazz' tag attached to it which is dead wrong – spirited is the correct word.

Olle Bäver is also represented on various artists comp "LIM – Levande musik från Göteborg". They later turned into acclaimed free jazz outfit Pow Wow that released a couple of discs on the Footprints label in 00's.

Full album

APPENDIX – Space Trip (Amigo, 1973)

Swedish vocals, instrumental

International relevance: ***

Founded in 1965, Amigo Records were one of the longest running independent labels in Sweden until the huge Bonnier media group bought them out in the early 00's, only to close down Amigo's business less than ten years later. The very minute Amigo Records were lost to the Bonnier conglomerate, so was the appeal of the original label. It was a bit sad to see that appeal go, once cultivated through an often refreshingly unpredictable catalogue of original releases (including anything and everything from theatrical plays to the world's #1 garage rock band The Nomads). Amigo also had an impact as a distribution company, making a plethora of jazz, blues and folk releases available domestically.

”Space Trip” is a surprisingly little known Amigo album, released in 1973 by Appendix from Malmö. Revealing traces of both late 60's/early 70's Miles Davis and UK band If, it's most definitely a jazz rock but not quite a fusion effort. It's not a style I particularly fancy myself, but I have to admit that ”Space Trip” has a certain appeal. It is indeed more spacey than your average jazz rock album, the self-descriptive title track in particular, with echoed vocals and wah-wah keyboards. The melancholy of ”Autumn Song” coming through in singer Lars-Håkan Olsson's emotive voice suggests both Moody Blues and King Crimson, whereas ”Tetan” approaches free jazz.

Varied as it is, ”Space Trip” has a cohesive, reflective mood, instilled by a certain sense of tentativeness. Not that Appendix weren't self-confident because they were, but they had refreshingly small amounts of the bravado that would soon make Appendix's style largely outdated by the advent of the cocky full-on fusion bands. ”Space Trip” remains a bit of a curiousity, but nevertheless one of the top-line fusion albums to come out of Sweden.

Saxophone player and flautist Helge Albin later became leader of Tolvan Big Band acknowledged for their work with Tommy Körberg (Solar Plexus, Made in Sweden et al) and Dave Liebman among others. Also in Tolvan Big Band was drummer Roy Wall. He Walso appears on several albums by other artists over the decades. Bass player Ted Persson and Hans Blom did some session work in the 70's.

Full album playlist