5.0 out of 5 stars
Hot Licks, Not Fiery Sticks, November 18, 2011
This review is from: Burning In Stockholm (1981) (Audio CD)
As far as I know, no Wallin (nor any Bruno) was ever burned at the stake in Stockholm. The most renowned Wallin of history -- Johan Olof Wallin (1779-1839) -- was hardly a heretic; in fact he was the Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala and the poet/composer of some of the most frequently-sung hymns in Swedish churches. In a modest provincial way, the Wallins have been a musical family as persistent as the Bachs of Thuringia or the Scarlattis of Sicily. Per Henrik Wallin (1946-2005) was Sweden's most accomplished jazz pianist, as you'll hear on the "barn-burner" CD. Ulf Wallin is a prominent Swedish violinist, known for his devotion to contemporary music. Rolf Wallin (b. 1957) is an avant-garde composer, whose works compare in style and quality to those of Xenakis, Ligeti, and Berio; Rolf was born in Oslo and is considered Norwegian, but Sweden regards him as a Wallin on loan. And there are other Wallins on the loose in concert halls around the world.
This CD features a single 49-minute "improv" by Per Henrik Wallin on piano, Erik Dahlbäck on drums, and Johnny Dyani on bass, recorded in Stockholm in 1981 but brilliantly re-engineered for release in 2004. None of these musicians is at all well known in the USA, though they've all performed with major American jazz artists in Europe, on tour or in exile, including Albert Ayler and Bud Powell. It would be fair to say that pianist Powell must have been a strong influence on pianist Wallin; you'll hear the classic be-bop elements in Per Henrik's phrasing and in his 'Parkeresque' habit of inserting musical quotations -- subtle riffs on pop tunes, scraps of classical themes, and at this session an extended Charles Ives-like tonal development of a New England hymn. But Wallin's improv is freer than Powell's ever became, and thus closer to the manic energy of Cecil Taylor or the 'flash' on the keyboard of Bennie Greene. It seems clear to my ears that this session was truly improvisatory, and that the three performers superbly nudged each other toward maximum expressiveness. In other words, the trio is as tight an ensemble as if they were playing from written scores at a conservatory recital, yet they revel in their inflammatory spontaneity.
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