Billy Cobham and EST30 among the highlights at Ystad Jazz Festival 2024

Tim Dickeson
Friday, August 16, 2024

Ystad loves its jazz festival as much as the fictional TV police drama ‘Wallander’, which was set here. The festival is completely run by an army of local volunteers who do everything they can to make the festival a fun and friendly place where you can enjoy top class music

Billy Cobham at Ystad - All photos by Tim Dickeson

This year’s festival (its 15th edition), featured 40 events during the five days of the festival spread over 12 venues. The artistic director, pianist Jan Lundgren who also featured in three concerts, chose a varied selection of jazz styles this year and in particular cast a spotlight towards Latin jazz with Bobby Medina’s Latin Jazz Experience, Yamandu Costa, João Bosco Quartet, Alba Armengou and Duo Siqueira.

The home of the festival is the 400 seater Ystad Theatre in the heart of the town - an intimate venue perfect for an afternoon or evening of jazz. Lundgren played two duets here - one with fellow Swedish pianist Lars Jansson who has played with the likes of Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersson & Ulf Wakenius. The concert featured compositions by both players, Lundgren’s ‘Tennis Calypso’ a fun Latin influenced tune - the first he ever composed. Jansson’s compositions ‘Marionette’ & ‘Guided from Within’, were hauntingly beautiful and evocative of this part of the world.

Lundgren’s second duet was with the Brazilian master of the 7 string guitar Yamandu Costa (pictured above). Costa is an amazing player who makes what he is doing look so easy - his fingers gliding over the strings with speed and dexterity - every note crystal clear. The empathy and understanding from the two was excellent as the music flowed from the piano to the guitar and back again. The pair played a selection of mostly self-penned tunes including two for Lundgren’s Mare Nostrum band members - ‘Galliano’ and ‘Fresu’ plus one for his wife ’Hannah’. Yamandou’s compositions ‘Nina’ and ‘Habanera’ were outstanding.

The festival uses several venues apart from the theatre and one of the most atmospheric is the Klosterkyrkan - the oldest medieval monastery in Sweden which hosted two excellent concerts. Alba Armengou is a promising young Catalan singer and trumpeter who played with guitarist Vincente López. The second concert - Duo Siqueira Lima featured husband and wife team Fernando de Lima (guitar) and Cecilia Siqueira (guitar). The couple met at a guitar competition, which they won sharing the first prize - they decided to play together and soon after they married too. They play a wide range of music in their own quirky style mixing Debussy, Jobim & Pascoal. The highlight of the concert was a brilliant version of Astor Piazzolla’s, ‘Tango Suite’, written for two guitars - their rendition was full of emotion and technical excellence. The duo ended the concert with both of them playing one guitar - three strings each.

Away from the latin jazz element of the festival there was a lot else to enjoy. Billy Cobham’s Time Machine blew away the audience in the theatre with a selection of tunes going back to the original 1973 ‘Spectrum’ album. Guitarist Rocco Zifarelli is an excellent player and Gary Husband on keyboards was solid as ever. It’s hard to believe Cobham is 80 years old as his playing and in particular his solo intro to ‘Stratus’ bely his age.

Ballaké Sissoko (kora), Vincent Segal (cello) & Emile Parisien (sax) & Vincent Peirani are two established duos who now play together as a quartet. They recorded a CD, ‘Les Égarés’- which means ‘wanderers’ or ‘people who have gone astray’ which nicely sums up the ethos of the band. The fusion between Sissoko (who comes from Mali) and the three French musicians - who all have different musical backgrounds works astonishingly well. The four play together like friends chatting - the music ebbs and flows between them each one contributing colours or taking a lead so creating a beautiful multi-facetted aural picture. This was a show that you didn’t want to end - It was uplifting and joyful, one of the highlights of the festival.

The other undoubted highlight of the festival was the EST30 celebration. Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund (Pictured above) have put together an almost ‘greatest hits’ selection of music and chosen wisely to rearrange it for a bigger pool of musicians including Ulf Wakenius (guitar), Fredrik Ljungkvist (sax) and Verneri Pohjola (trumpet).

They started the concert as a trio with the haunting ‘From Gagarin’s Point of View’ beautifully played by rising Swedish pianist Joel Lyssarides who did an admirable job stepping into Svensson’s shoes. Öström explained that this iconic song was very nearly ditched by Svensson as ‘not good enough’ until he and Berglund heard it and persuaded him otherwise. The other players were introduced during ‘Seven Days of Falling’ & ‘Tuesday Wonderland’, a rumbustious version of ‘Good Morning Susie Soho’ with Pohjola and Ljungkvist featuring fiery and intense solos from the pair.

The concert was a resounding success breathing new life into great music that fully deserves to be played live again - the arrangements are sympathetic to the originals whilst moving them on showing the direction Svensson’s music might have taken had he not been tragically taken so early in his career.

The festival had a series of ‘Next Generation Jazz’ free concerts each day in the yard of the Hos Morten Café and listening to these bands it’s plain that there are some excellent young Swedish musicians stepping up for the future.

There were several shows at the Ystad Saltsjöbad, a resort hotel on the beach a little walk outside the town. The best of these shows was from Danish harmonicist Mathias Heise. The band comprises Heise (chromatic harmonica), Rasmus Sørensen (piano), Conor Chaplin (electric bass) and Anton Eger (drums). The music is a mash-up of cool jazz, hip-hop and funk and works really well. Heise plays his harmonica through a selection of electronics giving it a range of sounds and effects well beyond the naked instrument which made his playing all the more interesting. Sørensen (also Danish but living in New York) impresses on the piano and his interplay with Heise and lyrical soloing was excellent. Chaplin & Eger keep the beat with precision driving the music along, Eger’s solos are always a treat both visually and musically - a great show all round.

The festival loves finding new venues and this year an intimate morning concert was held in a secluded private garden in the heart of Ystad. Trio Circle is led by prominent Swedish bassist Hans Backenroth and features saxophonist Magnus Dölerud and drummer Oscar Johansson Werre. The stage was set on the patio under the trees and the audience sat in the morning sun listening to Monk and Miles Davis - what a perfect way to enjoy and appreciate music!

The final day of the festival was set in the grounds of Charlottelund Castle (pictured above) a few miles outside of Ystad. More of a stately home than castle with the back lawn making the perfect location for the stage, audience and catering.

The festival presented three shows - Mezzoforte, the Icelandic funk outfit - who very nearly didn’t play as it poured with rain just as they came on stage. Fortunately, the rain only lasted 10 minutes after which the sun returned and the party started. Towards the end of the set, they played their 1983 hit ‘Garden Party’ which seemed very appropriate for the wonderful location.

Following Mezzoforte was a conglomeration of three bands - Eric Gadd & Blacknuss 2.0 with the Norrbotten Big Band - Eric Gadd is Sweden’s top soul singer and Blacknuss 2.0 are a funk, soul and R&B band. With big band arrangements of the music, the audience were on their feet dancing and singing along.

The last show of the festival was a fitting tribute to Duke Ellington featuring a top line-up of Swedish artists including Lundgren on piano backed by the excellent Bohuslän Big Band. A great way to end what had been an excellent festival.

Listening List

Lars Jansson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT-PF71TGNo ‘Marrionette’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khZJ3DQZjfM ‘Guided from Within’

Jan Lundgren & Yamandu Costa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVjho15VIbM ‘Inner Spirits’

Duo Siqueira -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVitgDEh_tw ‘Four hands one guitar’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws6-go6jKR8 ‘Tango Suite’

Billy Cobham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o19L54L41vo ‘Stratus’

Sissoko, Segal, Parisien & Peirani