Horn Please!
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Horn Please!

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"Jonas Knutsson & Horn Please / Horn Please! (Country & Eastern) European"

Swedish saxophonist Jonas Knutsson began his musical career in jazz playing
alto sax but has since expanded his musical career to include Swedish folk
music and has added soprano and baritone sax to his arsenal. On this
release, he adds five more saxophonists to the mix, along with minimal bass
and percussion, on compositions that span the jazz and folk genres and that
range from the tightly arranged to the more improvised. Tracks 1, 2, 6 & 13
are light, sprightly tunes with an almost classical air about them. “Vals
Från Vilhelmina” (#3) is a slower, melancholy waltz with more of a gypsy
flavor. Ol’ I Tängsta” (#4) is a duet on soprano saxes reminiscent of
courtly renaissance music. The other duet on the album features bass and
percussion (#13)—the only track without any horns—in a modern chamber jazz
number. There are also three solo pieces (tracks 6, 8 & 10), the last of
which by tenor Klas Toresson is the most jazzy and feels most improvised.
“Vinterpolska” (#9) begins in the lilting classical folk style, but about
halfway through the tempo changes to a more modern jazz, driving rhythm.
“Moi” (#12) is another modern piece that falls in none of the prior
categories, almost a soundtrack piece. “Mayee-Tharangini” (#15) and
“Bosambo-Revati” (#16) are traditional south Indian pieces goosed by a
syncopated rhythm and ensemble horn playing, the latter being one of the
disc’s highlights. Knutsson’s blend of traditional & modern, east & west,
and an unusual arrangement of instruments makes this music that will open
your ears and have you requesting, “Horn, please!”
Paul Borelli 11/4/07
- Radio KOOP Austin Texas


"Jonas Knutsson & Horn Please"

You might think that Swedish folk dance tunes on six saxes would be, well, a brassy noise, a wall of blart. That would be fine in its way, but the emphasis here is on the sweet vocal tone of soprano saxes, supported by and interwoven with alto, tenor and baritone all playing with the immense subtlety and deep knowledge of the material.

Sax has had a role in Swedish roots music right next to the fiddles since the days of Filarfolket and early Groupa, and seven of the folk-rooted saxists of the time, Jonas Simonsson, Sten Källman, Thomas Ringdahl, Anders Rosén, Jonny Wartel, Kjell Westling and Roland Keijser, all well known in roots bands of the day, formed the massive of Bröderna Blås, playing polskas, hallings and their kin. In those days the folk-sax sound was mostly the husky honk of tenor and below.

Today's sextet tends to the higher frequencies, the seductive sylph-tones of soprano saxes. It's led by Jonas Knutsson, who is booth a leading jazz player and a frequent folk collaborator with Lena Willemark and Ale Möller on Nordan and other groupings, and with Ola Bäckström and Johan Hedin in Triptyk. With them he usually plays soprano, but for much of this album he goes lower on alto or baritone while the others take the soprano lines.

The others are Åsa Johansson, Daniel Carlsson, Alexandra Särström, Klas Toresson, and Hanna Wiskari, she of the strongly recommended trio whose percussionist Petter Berndalen also brings his acute sinsibivity to the rhythms of traditional material to the Horn Please! crew, joined in the rhythm secdtion by bassist Bengt Johansson.

The tunes are played as tighty and structured as any fiddler, but with multiple lines and rhythmic offsets that can open out into more improvisational blowing sections that snap-twist back to polska or spread into lyrical melodies. They're mostly traditional Swedish, with a smattering by band members, and a couple of Carnatic traditional tunes that stem from Knutsson's long involvement in Indian music with drummer Bengt Berger and others; for the first of these all six play soprano in unison. The album closes with an airily spacious treatment, by Knutsson's delicately expressive soprano over ringing bass hormonics, of a joik tune learned from Johan Anders Baer.

Musicianly, natural and accessible.
-Andrew Cronshaw - fROOTS


Discography

JONAS KNUTSSON:
2008 Jonas Knutsson & Mats Öberg: "LIVE!" (Country & Eastern)
2007 JONAS KNUTSSON ”HORN PLEASE!” (Country & Eastern CE08)
2006 Thomas Tidholm/Jonas Knutsson ”Himlen har inga hal" (PPCD 03 Paraphon)
2005 Jonas Knutsson/Johan Norberg ”Cow Cow” (ACT 9425-2 ACT Music)
2005 Bengt Berger Jonas Knutsson Christian Spering & Friends "See you in a minute. Memories of Don Cherry" (Country & Eastern CE 03)
2004 Berger Knutsson Spering ”Up Close” (Country & Eastern CE04)
2004 Jonas Knutsson/Johan Norberg ”Norrland” (GAFCD1066 Gazell Records/ ACT 9014-2 ACT Music)
2003 Mirja Mäkelä/Berger Knutsson Spering ”Arco Iris” (IMPALA 007 Texicalli Records OY)
2002 Jonas Knutsson Quartet ”Jonas Knutsson Quartet” (Tmc CD 018 Touche Music)
2001 Triptyk ”Midwinternights mass” (8573-85817-2 Warner Atrium)
2001 Berger Knutsson Spering "Live vol 2 at Mosebacke with Bobo Stenson" (AMCD 890 Amigo)
2001 Berger Knutsson Spering "Live vol 1 at Glenn Miller Café" (AMCD 889 Amigo)
1999 Ale Moller/Jonas Knutsson ”Latitudes Crossing” (3984-29704-2 Warner/Atrium)
1998 Triptyk ”Triptyk” (3984-22197-2 Warner Atrium)
1997 Jonas Knutsson ”Malgomaj” (WPCS-10058 Warner/Atrium)
1997 Berger Knutsson Spering "Om natten" (AMCD 890 Amigo)
1997 Jonas Knutsson ”Flower in the Sky” (compilation JCD 04002 ACT Music)
1997 Enteli "Enteli live" (AMCD 738 Amigo)
1996 Lena Willemark/Ale Moller "Agram" (ECM 1610 ECM)
1995 Jonas Knutsson/Mats Oberg ”Vadara Vadara” (SEGCD-1 Seg Records)
1995 Enteli "Sagan om ringen" (SRPROF 637 Sveriges Radio)
1994 Jonas Knutsson ”Lust” (CAP 21459 Caprice Records)
1994 Enteli "Enteli" (PSCD 77 Phono Suecia)
1993 Lena Willemark/Ale Moller "Nordan" (ECM 1536 ECM)
1992 Jonas Knutsson ”Vyer” (jazz i Sverige 1992 CAP 21426 Caprice Records)

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Bio

JONAS KNUTSSON BIO
born 1965 i Umeå, Sweden. Sopranino, soprano, alto och barytone saxophonist; composer and teacher.
Jazz/folk musician inspired by jazz, scandinavian folk singers och fiddlers, Jojk, west african, north- and southindian classical music
Has played in Cabazz, Mynta, Elise Einarsdotter Ensemble, Enteli, Nordan, Encore (jazz i Sweden 1990), Triptyk, Larbre Voyage (Bertrand Renaudin, France) Världsorkestern, Stockholm Folk Big Band, Hodos Quartet (Olivier Cahours, Frankrike), Turbulent silence (Bertrand Renaudin,Frankrike), Paavo, Gushpanka, Jonas Knutsson band, Jonas Knutsson kvartett, Norrland (Johan Norberg/Jonas Knutsson), Berger Knutsson Spering, Jonas Knutsson-Mats Öberg Duo, Gunnel Mauritzon Band and Beches Brew. In 2006 he formed Horn Please.