Bernt Rosengren - Live at JazzCup (2013)

The great Swedish tenos saxophonist, Bernt Rosengren, is a frequent visitor in Copenhagen, and hardly a Copenhagen Jazz Festival passes without the opportunity of hearing him either at JazzCup or one of the other small and unpretentious venues where Bernt enjoys playing jazz. Just like the man himself: quiet and unpresumptuous, not someone to flash anything -except his love of the music which has filled his life for the past half century- and even this is done quietly. And despite his life-time art grant form the Swedish government, jazz has never made him rich. He has received the prestigious Gyllene Skivan (the Swedish magazine Orkester Journalen's award for the best Swedish jazz album of the year) no less than five times. He is a jazzman in body and soul. At 75 he doesn't contemplate retirement: "No, no Jazz is what I do. It's good at".

Bernt is not "just" a blowing session musician. in the 1960's Bernt worked in Stockholm with an advanced big band founded by composer George Russell and in Copenhagen with the Danish Radio big Band for a year. Since then he has often put large bands together to perform his own arragements. In his youth he worked with the Polish pianist and composer Krzysztof Komeda, he was a member of the group Sevda. In short: he is considered a heavyweight veteran of swedish jazz and has played with all the important Swedish musicians including Arne Domnerua. He still fronts his own groups, and in Denmark he is often heard in collaboration with Doug Raney and/or Christina von Bülow.

On December 8, 2012, Bernt was booked for a concert at JazzCup. In the last minute one of the musicians called in sick, and the outstanding pianist Ole Kock Hansen filled in for him. A new quartet was born. The other musicians were one of Denmark's great bassists, Jesper Lundgaard and a coming giant among the young generation of Danish musicians, drummer Niclas Campagnol.

Jeper had a feeling that it was going to be a special day, so he placed his small hard disc recorder on a chair in front of Bernt, pressed the record button, and forgot all about it unit the concert was over. The gadget recorded both sets - including the break. When Jesper listened to the recording a few days later, he was immediately fascinated by Bernt's saxophone lines, and he also discovered that Bernt's great playing by far outweighed what the recording lacked in sound quality. He found himself ignoring the sound and enjoying the music.

At Stunt Records we agreed. A large portion of the music payed that afternoon is on this CD. In many ways this recording is reminiscent of the early radio days whit it's very compressed sound. But many of the greatest recordings in jazz were recorded in technically primitive settings. If te music is good enough, the sound quality i not all that important.

So here are five standards ans a blues, played on an afternoon in copenhagen by four men who have at least one thing in common: they are always there for the music. Nothing smart or strange. Just Jazz with body and soul, the perfect recipe for relaxed, swinging concert and wonderful warm and live souvenir fron copenhagen's JazzCup.

Tracklist:

1. Autumn Leaves
2. I'm Old Fashioned
3. Body & Soul
4. There Will Never Be Another You
5. Lover Man
6. Jazzcup Blues

Personnel:

Bernt Rosengren: tenor sax
Ole Kock Hansen: piano
Jesper Lundgaard: bass
Niclas Campagnol: drums