Per Henrik Wallin & Sven-Åke Johansson

1974-2004
Umlaut UMLÅDA 1

By Ken Waxman

One of those players who was famous” in his home country, but little known outside it, Swedish pianist Per Henrik Wallin (1946- 2005) was an unalloyed soloist whose various bands in the ‘70s and ‘80s marked the transition from freebop to freer sounds. Karlsborg-born, Wallin, who ran away from home at 15 to hear Bud Powell play at Stockholm’s Golden Circle club, always maintained a fondness for swing, stride and melody besides freer impulses. He also lived long enough to move from playing with fellow experimenters of his generation like bassist Torbjorn Hultcrantz and saxophonist Lars-Göran Ulander to younger stylists like trumpeter Magnus Broo and reedist Fredrik Ljungkvist.

As this memorable four-CD set demonstrates however, some of Wallin’s best, and certainly his best-known, playing was done in the company of fellow Swede Sven-Åke Johansson, born in1943 in Mariestad. By the mid-‘60s however, Johansson had moved to Berlin where he was in a vital, part of ensembles led by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, pianist Alexander Van Schlippenbach among others. Also over the years Johansson’s creativity has taken on more sardonic and theatrical trappings. As this box-set, with tracks from 1974, 1986 and 2004 demonstrates, the multi-rhythmic drummer also expresses himself playing faux-schmaltzy accordion as well as singing. Together Wallin and Johansson came across as a free jazz version of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis or a musical counterpoint to Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in the Rush Hour franchise. One sticks to the musical business at hand, while the other ricochets all over the place with jokey references as he plays. Still Johansson’s rhythmic skill allows the tracks to flow organically even as he burlesques the music.

In fact, a comparison of the tracks on CD1, Sista Valsen i Norrköping from 2004 and CD2, Quartier Latin f.d. Biograf from 1974 and ’75 shows very little variation in Johansson’s playing. Volcanic and un-self conscious using his whole kits to highlight thumps, drags and rolls, 30 years later he manages to sound like a man nosily falling down the stairs while still holding on to the beat. Wallin does sound different however. During the elaboration of the two tracks he and the drummer recorded with Canadian bassist Joe Williamson in the 21st Century, his playing is still as alternately tough and lyrical as it was years before. However the snatches of jazz and American song book classics that sometime peppered his solos in the 20th century have been replaced by inferences. Thus in his limpid and lightly decorated treatment of “En Vals” and “Sigge Fürst” while pinpointed Monkish key clipping or fluid Bud Powell-like kineticism is present as he jangles across the keys, it’s not emulation but stylistic internalization he’s expressing. Meantime the drummer’s command of stentorian whaps is tempered with scrubs and rubs across his drum tops, plus drum stick scratches across cymbal top. Younger than the others by several decades Williamson’s powerful strokes keeps the time on an even keel.

Back in the mid-‘70s, Wallin’s dynamic soloing more directly jumped from suggestions of Powell’s facility, Herbie Hancock’s modalism and Cecil Taylor’s dynamism. A track such as “Roxy” for instance, includes an interlude of almost unbroken staccato emphasis: free playing at near-warp speed. With vigorous smacks from his snares and cymbals, Johansson adds to the layered friction only to be buried under a cascade of tremolo piano notes. Although the drummer’s strategy then encompassed quasi-military beats and thundering ruffs – flashbacks from Brötzmann gigs perhaps – the pianist’s brooding and sombre timbres were often used to cool down the interchange.

A more playful and balanced partnership is exhibited on the seven 1986 tracks, which make up Magnetiska Hundar I and II, originally issued on LP by FMP. Especially instructive are “The Moon Says Good Night” and “The Moon Continued”, really one extended 27-minute performance. Before the drummer, who can be imagined sporting a pencil-thin mustache and smoking jacket sing-speaks the English recitation, that turn of events had been implied when his café-styled accordion slurs are partnered with Wallin’s pseudo cocktail piano styling. Earlier however these cabaret styling was preceded by an earlier piano-drums duet that sounds half Monk and Roy Haynes and half James P. Johnson and Eddie Dougherty. In contrapuntal response to Johansson’s initial opposite sticking and paradiddles, the pianist then slides in references to “Round Midnight” played at three times its usual speed, until the two compromise on a format that is both chromatic and swinging. With honky-tonk-like tremolos evoked from the piano, the drummer switches to light syncopation, before uncasing the accordion. The climax brings back the drums for rim shots, while Wallin uses his sustain pedal to percussively reverberate his conclusion.

This combination of commiseration and confrontation continues with exciting results through the remainder of the tracks. Should Johansson decide on a syrupy, squeeze box backed recitation of the enigmatic ditty “The Eel”, then Wallin provides sympathetic accompaniment; should the pianist’s bravura output move from echoing Monk to emulating Art Tatum, with clinks escalating to note cascades, the drummer accelerates his strategy from subtle rolls to hitting all parts of his kit; and should Wallin’s sparse chording suddenly turn impressionistically flowery, then brutal drum beats are replaced by staccato glissandi for sonic extensions and connections.

At 68 Johansson is still very much active, turning out discs with younger experimenters like guitarist Annette Krebs and trumpeter Axel Dörner. With Wallin no longer here, 1974-2004 is not only a record of the drummer’s inventiveness over a protracted period, but documents more memorable playing from a pianist who didn’t record enough.

Tracks: CD 1: Sista Valsen i Norrköping: 1. En Vals* 2. Sigge Fürst* CD 2: Quartier Latin f.d. Biograf: 1. Biograf 2. Roxy 3. Saga 4. Teaterbio CD 3: Magnetiska Hundar I: 1. The Moon Says Good Night 2. The Moon Continued 3. Ungmön.... (die Eule) CD 4: Magnetiska Hundar II: 1. The Eel 2. Get Hap 3. The Swinging Policeman 4. Romans

Personnel: Per Henrik Wallin: piano; Joe Williamson: bass*; Sven-Åke Johansson: piano; drums, voice, trumpet, accordion

--For New York City Jazz Record August 2012

August 6, 2012

PER HENRIK WALLIN

Burning In Stockholm
Atavistic Unheard Music Series UMS/ALP 249 CD

PER HENRIK WALLIN
The Stockholm Tapes
Ayler ayl CD-032

One of the most respected Swedish improvisers, pianist Per Henrik Wallin, born in Karlsborg in 1946, is young enough to be part of the first generation of players who adapted the advances of Free Jazz to their own purposes. At the same time he’s old enough to have internalized earlier traditions of jazz piano from stride masters like Willie “The Lion” Smith to Thelonious Monk’s rhythmic and time breakthroughs – and able to bring them out when he wishes.

You can hear that on these CDs made up of previous unreleased live sessions by two different Wallin trios in what was arguably his most influential period of the late 1970s, early 1980s. A serious accident in 1988 sidelined him for a while, but he was back in form by the end of the last century, recording with a young firebrand like saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and winning a top Swedish jazz prize in 2003.

Each threesome represented here couldn’t be more different. Recorded in 1975 and 1977, THE STOCKHOLM TAPES finds the pianist in his original bass-less trio, featuring low-key drummer Peter Olsen and alto saxophonist. Lars-Göran Ulander, now chief producer for Swedish Broadcasting Corp.’s jazz department. Recorded in 1981, BURNING IN STOCKHOLM features Wallin in a more familiar trio setting. However rather than his usual bassist Torbjörn Hultcrantz, the pianist and his longtime drummer Erik Dahlbäck are joined by expatriate South African Johnny Dyani (1945-1986), whose experience encompassed work with the British Brotherhood of Breath band and American trumpeter Don Cherry.

“Jive in July -75, Live” and “This Time Is Next Time Now”, THE STOCKHOLM TAPES’ final selection, contains the meat of session, especially where Ulander is concerned. Improvising in a classic Ornette Coleman mold on the former, the saxman’s playing is alive with acrid, writhing lines double- and flutter tongued. As his ideas flow, he narrows his tone so that darting semitone and sudden overblowing are on show. Out of admiration or respect, Wallin doesn’t even begin playing until the first tune is one-third over.

At that point the interaction intensifies. Left-handed ripples from the pianist meet wavering split tones, false fingering and vibrated pitches from the saxophonist, as Olsen smacks his snares and toms and rattles his cymbals. Although Ulander’s tone turns legato and moderato for a time three-quarters of the way through, the final section resonates with a cappella body tube squeaks, with the final 90 seconds pinponging between shrilling abstract multiphonics and stentorian resonation.

More of the same feeling enlivens “This Time Is Next Time Now”. But on this tune, as the reedist spurts and honks sideslipping note examinations, the pianoman responds with pile driver left handed chords followed by right handed glancing key tinkles. Here the post-Trane echoes are paramount, as Ulander’s sharp, snapping note accents accelerate to glossolalia. Wallin’s rejoinder somehow manages to combine McCoy Tyner-like modal action, Monk-like key pummeling and two-handed Jerry Lee Lewis-like rocking boogie piano.

In contrast however, the first selections, recorded two years later, seem wan. For some reason the saxist spends most of his time twittering, with the drummer contributing muffled paradiddles at key points. Chameleon-like, Wallin leaps from influence to influence throughout, showcasing tough, modal Tyner-like styling, Dave Brubeckian hammering, whirling Keith Jarrett-inflected harmonies and passages that could be from MAIDEN VOYAGE-era Herbie Hancock. Other influences that surface include arpeggio-rich cadences played with Art Tatum-like speed, and a sub-theme that threatens to become “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”.

All this free association pianism is put to good use accompanying the odd crunching rumble from Olsen and Ulander’s altissimo excursions and peeping phrasing. But Wallin reaches even further into his bag of tricks for the 49-minute TGV ride that is BURNING IN STOCKHOLM.

Challenged by drummer Dahlbäck’s doubled bounces and cymbal rattles plus Dyani’s vigorous string repercussions, Wallin’s soloing is more complex, and references so many influences that at times listeners could be playing name that tune, style or pianist.

Beginning with circular, near-modal runs that reflect Tyner, he quickly introduces two-handed contrasting dynamics à la Cecil Taylor, just as swiftly superseded by flashing octaves that don’t neglect the piano’s lower quadrant. Overcoming the bassist’s plucked accompaniment he briefly inveigles a roosty version of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, and then gradually abstracts the melody. On top of Dyani’s steady pulse he puts many notes to use, suggesting then offhandedly moving past fragments of many jazz standards, “Misty” and “Lullaby of Birdland” among them.

Dahlbäck’s minimalistic rolls push Wallin into full gospel mode for a couple of minutes, then he moderates down to stab out more standard hard-bop lines in a Ray Bryant-Ramsey Lewis fashion. Turning to a stride section, modernized with broken chords, Wallin’s versatility forces the drummer to sound his cowbell and lay on the back beat, aided by the slightly over-recorded bass line. One-third of the way through, Wallin reintroduces the theme, first with bebop runs, then hammered out gospelish, and finally with a boogie-woogie tinge. Cascading into variations on “America” from West Side Story, he coats the melody with an overlay of cascading notes, adding pedal pressure as Dyani offers his theme variations.

Barely skirting Oscar Peterson-like cross handed excesses, Wallin slows down to walking bass and ornamental semi-stride jabs before trying out a ballad interlude in the piece’s penultimate minutes. Swirling around the bassist’s double stops and the drummer’s press rolls, he progressively accelerates the tempo, suggesting that Peterson and Taylor’s styles aren’t that dissimilar. Monkish key clipping presage a false climax, with the finale a “Hymn To Freedom” style flourish that brings out rapturous applause.

No misnomer, the trio was certainly “burning in Stockholm”, with this CD and the other, confirming that these hitherto unknown works by Wallin deserves to be heard.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Burning: 1. Burning In Stockholm

Personnel Burning: Per Henrik Wallin (piano); Johnny Dyani (bass); Erik Dahlbäck (drums)

Track Listing: Tapes: 1. E.V. 2. Wuppertal 3. A Jive in July -75, Live! 4. This Time Is Next Time Now

Personnel: Tapes: Lars-Göran Ulander (alto saxophone); Per Henrik Wallin (piano); Peter Olsen (drums)

April 4, 2005