Nils Landgren – Christmas Concert With My Friends (DVD)

Tracks:
Ave Maris Stella Det Strålar en stjärna
Bereden väg för Herran Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
Jul Jul Strålande Jul White Christmas
When You Wish Upon A Star What Child Is This?
Christmas Song När Juldagsmorgon glimmar
Aria: Lascia ch’io pianga Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Nu tändas tusen julejus Till Bethlehem
In Dulce Jubilo / Det kimar nå til julefest Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht
Gläns över sjö och strand

Line Up:
Nils Landgren –trombone, vocals
Viktoria Tolstoy, Jeanette Köhn & Sharon Dyall – vocals
Ida Sandlund – piano, vocals
Bugge Wesseltoft – piano
Lars Danielsson – bass, cello
Johan Norberg & Ulf Wakenius – guitar
Jonas Knutsson – saxophone (on Maybe This Christmas”)
Anders Bromander – church organ
Walter Brolund Trombone Choir

Nils Landgren about the making of Christmas with my friends
With the “Christmas With My Friends” concert recording a long-time dream come true for me.
I have always wanted to perform these songs of joy, but in my own way and with good friends as company, being
able to concentrate on the music without any boundaries.
It is with great pride and happiness that I am presenting this Christmas concert to you. It is the Christmas I dreamed
of as a kid and I kept on dreaming till I got the chance to fulfil it and now it´s here, right in front of me and you.
I am as happy as a kid on Christmas Eve when the gifts are handed out (yes, that´s the way we do it in Sweden).
The music on this recording is a choice of songs that I have come across during all the years of dreaming of making
this project.
I have been searching all over the place and I have asked all my friends performing on this project to look for songs
they¹d like to perform.
What we’ve got is a wonderful mix of songs from medieval Europe to modern Christmas songs from the American
tradition, something that I always wanted to do, at least as long as I have been in the business which counts 30 years
today.
My friends on this recording are simply the best ones I could wish for as Christmas gifts. Viktoria Tolstoy, Sharon
Dyall, Jeanette Köhn, Johan Norberg, Ulf Wakenius, Jonas Knutsson, Lars Danielsson and Bugge Wesseltoft, they all go
way back.
Ida Sandlund is my newest friend, a truly wonderful performer from whom you will hear more and soon!
I hope that you will enjoy our way of celebrating Christmas. Please do not forget why we celebrate. Let us make this
world a better place where we all can live together and enjoy our time here on earth.
Love,
Nils
Christmas With My Friends
Nils Landgren
CD: ACT 9454-2
DVD: ACT 9901-9
German Release Date: November 17, 2006

SHORT BIOGRAPHIES
Nils Landgren– trombone, vocals
The man with the red trombone is always on the look out for new challenges. This is what has made Nils
Landgren one of the most creative, many-sided and also most successful artists to be currently found in the
European jazz scene. With "Mr Redhorn" you don't only associate the frenetic celebrated concerts of his
groovy Funk Unit, you also know him from his intimate duos with Esbjörn Svensson where they would rework
Swedish folk songs, from his chamber concerts of religious music, from his collaborations with big bands or
as a sensitive interpreter of ballads.
Since 1994 he has been under contract to the ACT Label from Munich, releasing over this period 15 albums
in his own name. Eight have received the golden German Jazz Award, with two even going platinum!
Meanwhile, his role as producer of Swedish singers Rigmor Gustafsson and Viktoria Tolstoy has brought him
two further gold awards.
Viktoria Tolstoy – vocals
Her “crystal-clear voice, that is simply enchanting”, as the Berlin-based “taz” once put it, has found Tolstoy a
place in the hearts of audiences far from the habitat of the Elk. In 1997 the – then 22 year-old – recorded
the phenomenal album White Russian under the guidance of Esbjörn Svensson. The melodious pop-jazz on
this release made her a star and lifted her into the charts in Sweden, yet it was hardly available outside her
homeland. The move to ACT in 2004 enabled her to break into the international scene. Her first two albums
for ACT Shining On You (ACT 9701-2) and My Swedish Heart (ACT 9705-2) have both received a German
Jazz Award; her third album Pictures of Me (ACT 9712-2) has been released in fall 2006.
Jeanette Köhn – vocals
Jeanette Köhn graduated from the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm in 1993 and is today one
of Sweden’s most versatile singers. Her repertoire ranges from Renaissance music through operas by W.A.
Mozart (at the Drottningholm Court Theatre) to musicals such as Danish composer Sebastian’s “Cyrano” and
works by Duke Ellington, to name but a few. Jeanette Köhn has received several prestigious Swedish prizes
and has appeared as soloist with e.g. the Stockholm Sinfonietta, the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra in Finland,
the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Choir.
Sharon Dyall – vocals
Sharon Dyall was raised in London and Barbados by a Swedish mother and her father, a South American
jazz instrumentalist. The Swedish singer, dancer und actress has starred in a number of musicals such as
“Westside Story”, “Hair” or “Cabaret”. Her large repertoire includes big band jazz as well as gospel, soul,
rhythm & blues and rock music. Her voice can be heard on a couple of international best selling albums
such as Eagle-Eye Cherry’s first two albums or on Nils Landgren's last Funk Unit album: Funky Abba (ACT
9430-2)
Ida Sandlund – vocals, piano
Ida Sandlund was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1977. Her father is an opera singer and her mother a
piano teacher. She gathered her first stage experience in churches in Stockholm and started out playing
gospel music at first. She studied music at the Music Academy in Gothenburg for four years. At that time, she
sang a lot of jazz, but she has become more and more influenced by soul over the years. Lately she has
mainly been on tour with various Swedish artists and performed with artists like Christian Walz, Lisa Nilsson,
Eric Gadd, Stephen Simmonds and Bo Sundstøm.
Bugge Wesseltoft– piano
Composer, arranger, pianist and producer Bugge Wesseltoft (born 1964 in Norway) is a central figure in the
dynamic Scandinavian jazz scene. In 1994, he formed his own band with the exceptional singer Sidsel
Endresen and recorded several albums with her over the next few years. In the 1990’s, his revolutionary
project “New Conception of Jazz” combined jazz, house, techno, ambient and free improvisation. In 1994,
the project’s first recording earned Wesseltoft the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammy. In 1996, he
founded his label Jazzland Records. In 1997, he recorded his only solo piano album to date for the Munich
label ACT: It’s Snowing On My Piano (ACT 9260-2). The album has since sold more than 40.000 copies
and the DVD Christmas Concert With My Friends presents him for the first time playing "In Dulce Jubilo" and
"Det kimer nå til julefest" live on stage at the grand piano.
Lars Danielsson – bass, cello
Swedish bassist, cellist and composer Lars Danielsson is a musician with particularly broad interests. Born in
1958 and trained in classical cello at the conservatory of his hometown Gothenburg before he turned to the
bass and jazz music, Danielsson is a musician who has developed a new quality of beauty in sound. He has
cultivated an uncommonly tangible, mellow and soft tone that is at once round and gentle. Seldom have we
heard a bass or cello in jazz played with such subtle strength and roundness. And as a composer, Danielsson
has a great feel for elegant, soaring melodies. He has already released three albums on ACT as a leader, he
is the producer of the last album of V. Tolstoy (Pictures of Me) and performed as sideman on a number of
ACT productions.
Johan Norberg – guitar
Guitarist Johan Norberg is known as one of the best and most interesting acoustic guitarists currently on the
Scandinavian folk and world music scenes. With star trombonist Nils Landgren he played in the incredibly
popular Swedish duo "Chapter Two" for 17 years. Together with Jonas Knutsson he has released two albums
on ACT: Norrland (ACT 9014-2) and Cow Cow – Norrland II (ACT 9425-2).
Ulf Wakenius– guitar
Ulf Wakenius has for the past nine years held what might be the most prestigious chair in jazz for a guitarist:
as a member of the Oscar Peterson Quartet. Wakenius (born in 1958) found his love for jazz guitar through
an admiration of the British blues rock. Today he has diversified into different styles: into funk, and into
Brazilian samba such as on his solo album he recorded 1984 in Rio de Janeiro with musicians ranging from
Elis Regina and Milton Nascimento. He has established himself as a man in great demand in the studio and
on stage, as he played with the who’s who of jazz. Besides Oscar Peterson there is Pat Metheny, Herbie
Hancock, Michael Brecker, Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Roy Hargrove, Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Max
Roach, and Viktoria Tolstoy, also on ACT, to mention just a few. With his first ACT recording in 2005: Notes
from the Heart (ACT 9435-2) Wakenius paid homage to the beauty of Keith Jarrett's compositions.
Jonas Knutsson – saxophone
Jonas Knutsson, with his 1997 ACT album "Flower In The Sky" (ACT9248-2), has shown himself to be a jazz
musician with a strong affinity to the Swedish folk idiom and as a saxophonist with great lyrical qualities. He
has worked, among others, with folk icon Lena Willemark, in the pioneering folk jazz group "Enteli" and later
in the "Nordan" project, admired on both sides of the Atlantic alike. Together with Johan Norberg he has
released two albums on ACT: Norrland (ACT 9014-2) and Cow Cow – Norrland II (ACT 9425-2).