Georg Riedel is one of the pillars of Swedish jazz. A bass player par excellence, his first name gig was back in 1953 with baritone saxophonist, jazz great and Swedish jazz hero Lars Gullin. Today, he is revered for his role with pianist Jan Johannson, another Swdish jazz legend, in creating Jazz par Svenska. A composer of note in his own right from childrens songs to music for TV, radio and opera alongside his jazz work, he is still going strong at the age of 88 and here he’s contributed eight compositions to Fredrik Lindborg’s new album where each tune is performed in its original form followed by a musical fragment based on each of these tunes by every band member, plus Riedel himself. The real interest is less the musical fragments, but in the way Riedel has written sophisticated arrangements for Lindborg’s trio where the strings function both in a melody carrying role but also outline the harmonies of each song (the band has no chordal instrument). Lindborg is an accomplished soloist on baritone, tenor and soprano saxes, and here sounds positively inspired to be bringing this project to life. Riedel plays tribute to his old boss Lars Gullin on ‘Gullinarium’ and ’Stillében’ in what is a well constructed and executed album.