Featured Artist: Susanna Lindeborg’s Mwendo Dawa

CD Title: Live at Fasching

Year: 2007

Record Label: LJ Records

Style: Free Jazz / Avante Garde

Musicians:

Susanna Lindeborg (piano, keyboard, laptop) Ove Johansson (tenor saxophone, EWI, laptop) Jimmi Roger Pedersen (bass, laptop) David Sundby (drums)

Review:

Swedish pianist/composer Susanna Lindeborg has fronted the avant-garde ensemble Mwendo Dawa since the 1970s. On Live at Fasching, recorded in September, 2005 at Stockholm’s Jazzclub Fasching, Lindeborg, along with saxophonist Ove Johansson, bassist Jimmi Roger Pedersen and drummer David Sundby mix computer generated sound-effects with vibrant free-form improvisations.

Lindeborg has an exquisite, patient touch. Her improvisations, encompassing the entire range of the keyboard, combine clustered chords with sleek, winding lines. This approach is highly evident on her compositions “Entry,” the Weather Report influenced “Sticky Beat,” the synthesizer drenched “Time Sign” and the rumbling “Next Sound.” Her unaccompanied solo on Pedersen’s “Den Forladte” is a heartfelt demonstration of technique and grace.

Pedersen fires off machine gun style bass riffs on his composition “Den Grimme Kylling” and low end drones on Johansson’s “Different Walls.” Johansson’s robust tenor sound has a dominating presence throughout the disc. The dynamic saxophonist is able to contrast an aggressive edginess (“Spring Lines”) with lush lyricism (“Ametidim”). Sundby’s percussion creates a colorful landscape. His approach is spacious and deliberate. Every touch of the cymbals seems to find its appropriate place in the overall flow of each composition.

The disc’s whirlwind closer, “Techno 4 Four,” is a fitting end to a session marked by individual prowess and inventive, playful interaction.

Tracks:

Entry, Den Grimme Kylling, Spring Lines, Ametidim, Sticky Beat, Different Walls, Piano Point, Time Sign, Next Sound, Den Forladte, Techno 4 Four

Record Label Website: http://www.lj-records.se

Artist's Website: http://www.lj-records.se/mwendo.html

Reviewed by: John Vincent Barron

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