I started playing guitar at the age of 10 in the little town Sandviken in Sweden where I grew up. After a few years, I began to approach jazzmusic and it’s standard repertoire. At such a young age, I was fortunate to have two excellent teachers in music, the pianist Gösta Rundqvist and the guitarist Jonny Johansson. Ever since then, I have actively continued to improve myself in the jazz repertoire, but have never until now released a single record where I play jazzstandards. Why? I think it is due to the strong impact such musicians as Parker, Coltrane, Wes Montgomery and others have had on my playing. To free oneself from these influences and to find one's own personal expression is and has always been a journey for me. Instead, during my career I have chosen to focus on original music where I have felt a greater freedom to shape the music in my own way. But with this record, I take the step fully and publish my own interpretations of some jazz standards that have meant a lot to me. On four of these I play solo and on the remaining three I play with my friends drummer Raymond Strid, the bassplayer Pär- Ola Landin and singer Lena Jansson. These three quite different musicians can be said to represent different sides of my musicianship The instruments I play on the record are alternately my electric guitar (Gibson ES 345), acoustic guitar and the Chapmanstick in combination with the electric guitar. I have chosen to release the album digitally both in high resolution in the original format and in the more low-resolution formats that various streaming sites such as Spotify and others use. The album is also documented and recorded on video which I will publish in connection with the release. |