- Jan Johansson
Jan Johansson (
September 16 ,1931 –November 9 ,1968 ) was a Swedishjazz pianist . He is little known outside Scandinavia, and his records are not widely available, though "Jazz på svenska " ("Jazz in Swedish") has sold more than a quarter of a million copies, and is the best selling jazz release ever in Sweden.Johansson was a native of
Söderhamn , in theHälsingland province of Sweden. Studying classical piano as a child, he would also go on to master the guitar, organ and accordion, before turning on to swing andbebop as a teenager. He met saxophonistStan Getz while at university. He abandoned his studies to play jazz full time, and worked with many American jazz musicians, becoming the first European to be invited to join theJazz at the Philharmonic package.The years 1961 to 1968 produced a string of classic albums, which would help define his style of re-imagining traditional European folk tunes via jazz and the avant garde. These included "Jazz på svenska" and "Jazz på Ryska" ("Jazz in Russian") which are both available in an expanded form on CD. "Jazz på Ungerska" ("Jazz in Hungarian") together with Danish Jazz
violinist Svend Asmussen is the third album in that series. "Jazz in Swedish" comprises variations on sixteen Swedish folk songs withGeorg Riedel playing acoustic bass. During this period, Johansson also made several recordings withRadiojazzgruppen .The
Grammy award winning albums "Musik genom Fyra Sekler" ("Music from the Past Centuries") builds on traditional Swedish melodies, but this time uses larger groups of musicians, and "300.000". There were also two trio sets, "8 Bitar" and "Innertrio", which have been reissued as a single CD.In November 1968 Jan Johansson died in a car crash on his way to a concert in a church in
Jönköping , Sweden. His sons,Anders Johansson andJens Johansson , run Heptagon Records which keeps their father's [http://www.heptagon.se/ recordings] available.External links
* [http://www.janjohansson.se/ Jan Johansson - Official Webpage]
* [http://www.heptagon.se/ A very useful guide to buying Johansson issues and reissues on CD.]
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:4s620rnac48v AllMusic guide entry]
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