TOMASZ STANKO Resplendent in houndstooth jacket, tight jeans and two-tone buckle shoes,Tomasz Stanko took to the stage and attached a wireless microphone to his trumpet. He offered a half smile to the welcoming audience, nodded to his colleagues and launched into the first of four unannounced … [Read more...]
Archives for August 2012
Hallberg And Lundgren Back To Back Again
One of the premier events of this festival was the appearance of a pair of world-class Swedish pianists separated in age by 34 years. One is a cultural hero of his nation. The other is reaching that status. 46-year-old Jan Lundgren, artistic director of the festival and a resident of Ystad, greeted … [Read more...]
Martin And Rosenwinkel In Ystad
Compact and organized, the Ystad Jazz Festival is nonetheless too loaded with music for anyone to be able to hear more than a generous sampling. Here are a few samples. CLAIRE MARTIN Ystad artistic director Jan Lundgren introduced the group as The Claire Martin Band. Whether or not that is … [Read more...]
Three Swedish Tenors
The 250 listeners of a certain age who filled Per Helsas gÃ¥rd on Friday got what they came for—reassurance that solid mainstream jazz is alive and well in Sweden. The courtyard surrounded by venerable half-timbered buildings rang with the brawny music of three of the country’s best-known … [Read more...]
Two Ystad Concerts
As the schedule attests, Sweden’s Ystad Jazz Festival is programmed tightly. Over a quick lunch, Iouri Lnogradski of the Russian magazine Jazz.Ru observed that it would be technically possible for a listener to attend everything, but at the price of exhaustion. Rather than sprint from site to site … [Read more...]
A Pre-Festival Glimpse
The only way a town of 18,000 can bring off a four-day music festival is to involve the community. In Ystad, a summer beach haven in the south of Sweden, a staff or nearly one hundred volunteers and a corps of financial supporters work together for months to create Sweden’s only major jazz … [Read more...]
Ystad Ho
Just arrived in Sweden to cover the Ystad Jazz Festival this week. Here's the view from the hotel window. It's a tough assignment, but somebody had to volunteer. Reports coming soon. Watch this space. … [Read more...]