Cyrille Aimée, Stacey Kent and Yellowjackets among the highlights at Ystad Jazz Festival 2022

This volunteer run festival in the picturesque town of Ystad was back to full strength this year with an excellent varied program. The festival won two Swedish culture awards last year - perfect recognition of the hard work that goes in to run this ‘laid back’ and very friendly festival.

Subtle tweaks have been made since the last full festival in 2019 - the organisers have listened to audience feedback and so left more time between concerts with a very slight reduction in the number of shows each day - also ending the festival on the Saturday night and not Sunday as previously.

Artistic director Jan Lundgren has a soft spot for vocal jazz so out of 25 concerts there were nine featuring female vocalists. Stacey Kent (above) opened the festival - her show had to be brought forward to mid-day from its original 8pm slot due to flight cancellations, but the pretty Ystad Theatre was still packed out. Kent’s very early career started by touring Scandinavia and here playing with the Claes Crona Trio and husband Jim Tomlinson, she went back to her earliest songs and reminisced about those early days and the friendliness of everyone she met.

Kent’s 8pm slot was filled at very short notice by Swedish singer Ellen Andersson who is an excellent vocalist - her version of ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ was entrancing.

The following day the French chanteuse Cyrille Aimée (now living in New Orleans) performed in the theatre with David Torkanowsky on piano and Matteo Bortone on bass. At first listen Aimée seems a lightweight singer, playing on her youthful looks and almost girlish voice, however this is deceptive. Aimée is a highly accomplished singer with great technique and delivery. Her rendering of the opening song ‘Petite Fleur’ was a homage to Stacey Kent who Aimée lists as a big influence on her and her version of ‘How Deep is the Ocean’ and Stevie Wonder’s ‘Lately’ were quite brilliant. She ended with ‘La Vie en Rose’ a perfect vehicle for her thin but remarkable voice.

Artistic Director Lundgren played two shows at the festival. The first with guitarist Ulf Wakenius was a tribute to Duke Ellington (a big influence on Lundgren) and Oscar Peterson (who Wakenius played with for nearly 11 years). The second concert was a celebration of the drummer Ronnie Gardiner who was 90 this year. Gardiner was born in the US and in his early career played with the likes of Dizzy Gilespie, Benny Carter, Gerry Mulligan and Dexter Gordon.

Moving to Sweden when he was 30 (on the advice of Clark Terry) he made a life and career in Scandinavia including developing the ‘Ronnie Gardiner Method (RGM)’ a training and rehabilitation concept used to help people with brain injury and strokes.

The concert featured a selection of tunes chosen by Gardiner and featured Hannah Svensson on vocals. The highlights were a great rendition of ‘Only Trust Your Heart’ by Benny Carter and a terrific version of ‘Caravan’ with Gardiner showing that at 90 he is still a master of the drums.

The only male vocalist we saw came at a gig 20kms away from Ystad in the tiny hamlet of Löderup. The village hall was absolutely packed for a performance of Frank Zappa’s seminal Jazz/Rock album ‘Hot Rats’. Guitarist Chico Lindvall and trumpeter Anders Bergcrantz have reworked this seminal material for guitar & trumpet rather than guitar & violin as on the original. I’m a huge Zappa fan and it was pretty obvious within a few minutes that the entire band were too. This was a brilliant rendition of the album; everything was instantly recognisable but subtly different - Lindvall is a great guitarist totally in the Zappa groove and Bergcrantz’s trumpet brought a whole new dimension to the piece. Svante Lodén on vocals had the Beefheart vocals down to a tee - deliciously snarling the vocals to ‘Willie the Pimp’ - just brilliant!

Swiss harmonicist Grégoire Maret brought his ‘Americana’ project to the festival - playing with Romain Collin on piano and the great Marvin Sewell on guitar. Sewell toured extensively with Charles Lloyd and impressed me then - here with more ‘laid back’ music to play he was equally impressive. The music is very cinematic and melancholic - with three lead instruments on stage the tunes ebbed and flowed effortlessly between the three players. With almost no change in pace during the show it was quite mesmerising, Maret is just about the best harmonicist around - he knows ‘less is more’ and his playing is exquisite. The show featured songs from the Americana album, ‘Witcheta Lineman’, ‘Great Ocean Road’, ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ and Bill Frisell’s ‘Small Town’.

The final show of the festival featured the Yellowjackets and was a fitting end to what had been a great four-day festival. The Yellowjackets were founded by guitarist Robben Ford and keyboard player Russell Ferrante in 1977 - Ferrante still playing in the band. The West Coast fusion music of the band has changed little over the years but still sounds fresh and dynamic played live. Bob Mintzer is a cool saxophonist (he’s been there 32 years) however Australian bassist Dane Alderson (above) stole the show - his fast solo’s, chords and fills were brilliant - he gets such a sweet sound from his Oceana six string bass.

Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival is a friendly and relaxed occasion with a wide selection of jazz styles from mainstream to almost avant garde. Artistic director Jan Lundgren knows his audience and gives them what they want - all be it with a few surprises. This year ticket sales were 90% capacity across all concerts - a fantastic feat for a festival totally run by volunteers. They are also staging a winter piano festival this year for the weekend of 28/29 December.

Ystad is a charming place with a lot of history and great beaches nearby. Sweden may not the cheapest destination in Europe but certainly is one of the friendliest.