Jan Lundgren - Potsdamer Platz

The Guardian 80

(ACT)

Jan Lundgren must have just about the broadest stylistic range of any musician in jazz. It extends from timeless, straight-ahead swing to the contemporary “sound of Europe”, as typified by his two successful Mare Nostrum albums. But there’s no mistaking the sparkle and lightness of spirit that illuminates his piano playing, wherever you hear it. It’s there in his composition too, as this set amply demonstrates. It opens with the title piece, tuneful and jaunty, featuring the splendid Finnish saxophonist Jukka Perko, and this establishes the prevailing mood. Even in its more pensive moments, Lundgren’s music exudes a warm and welcoming atmosphere, quite unlike the alleged chilliness of some Scandinavian jazz.

The Guardian 80

(ACT)

That the Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren has often accompanied mainstream leaders such as the US saxophonists Harry Allen and Scott Hamilton is no accident – Lundgren’s intuitions about when to do more with less make him an ideal accompanist, he has the most polished of keyboard touches, and a songwriter’s ear for melodies that sound simultaneously conventional and new.

Potsdamer Platz – one in an ongoing stream of releases from Munich’s classy ACT label on its 25th anniversary – is a showcase for Lundgren’s composing, and his Scandinavian quartet including former EST double-bassist Dan Berglund and the eloquent Finnish saxophonist Jukka Perko. The title track has a Keith Jarrett-like bluesy roll, Twelve Tone Rag is like a stretched Charlie Parker tune with a New Orleans blues pianist beneath, Lycklig Resa is a delicious waltz for Perko in smokily lyrical mood, while the ballads No 9 and Never Too Late reveal Lundgren’s delicate touch and his composing talents in subtle balance. The materials are close to lounge-bar jazz, but Lundgren’s use of them belong in another world entirely.