A Retrospective

Tracklisting:
01. Shorty George (Basie) 3:34
02. Swedish Pastry (Kessel) 5:47
03. If You Could See Me Now (Dameron) 5:04
04. On Green Dolphin Street (Washington-Kaper) 8:18
05. Restless (Coslow-Satterfield) 5:14
06. Rockin' Chair (Carmichael) 7:30
07. Barney Goin' Easy (Strayhorn-Ellington) 6:05
08. Doxy (Rollins) 5:02
09. I've Never Been In Love Before (Loesser) 5:12
10. You Stepped Out of a Dream (Kahn-Brown) 5:47
11. Angel Eyes (Brent-Dennis) 5:26
12. Spring Isn't Spring Anymore (Dennis-Dennis) 3:49

Total time: 66:55 min.

Sources:
Track #1, taken from the Bill Perkins CD "Perk Plays Prez" (FSRCD 5010)
Track #2, taken from Jan Lundgren "California Connetion" (FSRCD 5025)
Track #3, taken from Jan Lundgren "Cooking! At The Jazz Bakery" (FSRCD 5019)
Track #4, taken from the Conte Candoli CD "Portrait of a Count" (FSRCD 5015)
Track #5, taken from the Herb Geller CD "You're Looking at Me" (FSRCD 5018)
Track #6, taken from the Conte Candoli CD "Conte-Nuity" (FSRCD 5028)
Track #7, taken from the Arne Domnérus CD "Dompan!" (FSRCD 5032)
Track #8, taken from the Andy Martin CD "It's Fine... It's Andy!" (FSRCD 5037)
Track #9 & 10, taken from "Pete Jolly-Jan Lundgren Collaboration" (FSRCD 5038)
Track #11 & 12, taken from Jan Lundgren "Celebrating the Music of Matt Dennis" (FSRCD 5040)

Personnel:

Jan Lundgren, piano, with

Track #1: Bill Perkins (ts), Dave Carpenter (b), Paul Kreibich (d).
Recorded at Sage & Sound Studio, 1995

Track #2: Dave Carpenter (b), Paul Kreibich (d).
Recorded at Sage & Sound Studio, 1996

Track #3-4 & 6: Chuck Berhofer (b), Joe LaBarbera (d). Recorded at The Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles (#3), Sage & Sound Studio (#4), 1996; Capitol Studios (#6), 1999

Track #5: Herb Geller (ss).
Recorded at Sage & Sound Studio, 1997

Track #7: Arne Domnérus (cl).
Recorded at Entourage Studios, 2000

Track #8: Andy Martin (tb), Tom Warrington (b), Paul Kreibich (d).
Recorded at Entourage Studios, 2001

Track #9-10: Pete Jolly (p), Chuck Berhofer (b), Joe LaBarbera (d).
Recorded at Entourage Studios, 2001

Track #11-12: Tom Warrington (b), Joe LaBarbera (d).
Recorded at Entourage Studios, 2003

Recordings produced & compiled by Dick Bank

Newly remastered by Bernie Grundman

Engineering: Jim Mooney, Joe Sidore, Bones Howe
Mixing: Jim Mooney, Bjarne Hansen, Talley Sherwood
Mastering: Joe Sidore, Bernie Grundman

Photography: Kenneth Ruona
Annotation: Doug Ramsey, Jan Lundgren, Dick Bank
Graphic production: Heidi Frieder

Executive producer: Jordi Pujol
______________________________________________________________________________

"Jan Lundgren's Fresh Sound albums are benchmarks in the career of a major jazz artist. This collection presents Lundgren from 1995 to 2003, as a leader and in support of some of the foremost jazz performers of our time."

-Doug Ramsey
______________________________________________________________________________

Reviews:

"Jan Lundgrens 'All By Myself' topped the Jazz Journal New Issues poll in 2014, and Mark Gardner had earlier awarded it a five-star rating. I bought a copy and was as impressed as were my fellow critics. Now, thanks to Fresh Sound and the enthusiasm of producer Dick Bank who compiled this anthology, Im revelling in a mini cornucopia of Lundgrens first 10 albums for the label.

In the select company of such kindred spirits as Bill Perkins, Conte Candoli, Herb Geller, Arne Domnerus and Pete Jolly, Lundgren is both a sensitive accompanist and a commanding pianistic voice. Every track offers ample evidence of this claim, but a few examples will have to suffice. Collaboration - with the unfairly neglected Pete Jolly - is a particular delight. Alun Morgan called it The best two piano album, both musically and technically, ever produced. Ive Never Been In Love Before and You Stepped Out of a Dream certainly deserve that encomium. Doxy taken from the tribute album to Frank Rosolino features the bluff muted trombone of Andy Martin and a stunning solo by Lundgren. The meetings with Conte Candoli produced satisfying versions of On Green Dolphin Street and Rockin Chair, with the two principals very much on the same musical wavelengths as were bassist Chuck Berghofer and drummer Joe La Barbera.

Bill Perkins, who appears with Lundgren on Shorty George, described him as a thoroughly modern pianist, with an unerring grasp of harmony, rhythm and dynamics. In a piece entitled Im A Lucky Guy, Lundgren thanks Dick Bank: A producer known for his ultra high standards and total involvement, these recordings all originated with him."

John White -Jazz Journal (September, 2015)
______________________________________________________________________________

"Swedish jazz pianist Jan Lundgren is definitely one of my favorite present-day jazz musicians, a very sympathetic player who works well in different kinds of settings, ranging from mainstream traditional jazz to more forward-looking, modern works. Therefore, I was thrilled to learn that the European label Fresh Sound Records have decided to release a retrospective of his recorded work for the Barcelona-based company. On 'Jan Lundgren: A Retrospective' we find Lundgren playing both as a sideman and as a session leader. In the former capacity, he accompanies saxophonists Herb Geller and Bill Perkins, trumpeter Conte Candoli, Swedish jazz legend Arne Domnerus, trombonist Andy Martin, and fellow pianist Pete Jolly. In all instances, he proves to be a very subtle accompanist, always infusing the cuts with class and elegance. As a leader, Lundgren appears to feel most comfortable in a trio setting, driving the band forward with his characteristically classy swinging approach.

Lundgren the trio leader is showcased to great advantage here via one track from his excellent album 'Cooking! At the Jazz Bakery,' recorded in Los Angeles in 1996, and two taken from his tribute CD to Matt Dennis. Lundgren has cut several albums honoring the work of lesser-known composers from the Great American Songbook, whose tunes he reinvents from his own jazzy perspective, and the two tracks from his Dennis disc, "Angel Eyes" and "Spring Isn't Spring Anymore," are lovely examples of this. Going back to the early stages of his career as a recording artist, there's also a track from his 1996 album, 'California Connection,' a trio reading of Barney Kessel's "Swedish Pastry" with bassist Dave Carpenter and drummer Paul Kreibich.

Also, Lundgren has participated in countless sessions alongside well-known musicians who made a name for themselves mostly within the confines of West Coast jazz and who are caught here at the tail end of their careers but still sounding as good as ever. That is the case of Herb Geller, Bill Perkins, and Conte Candoli. Perkins and Geller are represented here on one track each, while Candoli appears on two cuts, "On Green Dolphin Street" and "Rockin' Chair," which are among the best on this retrospective compilation. The track with Herb Geller is a beautiful alto sax-piano duo on the Sam Coslow number "Restless," which shows to great advantage what an inspired accompanist Lundgren can be. In the early years of Lundgren's career, the veteran Arne Domnerus acted as a mentor, and the two of them do a clarinet-piano duo on "Barney Goin' Easy," a mid-tempo vehicle that Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington wrote for Barney Bigard. In 2001, Lundgren made a quartet album with pianist Pete Jolly, Chuck Berghofer on bass, and Joe LaBarbera on drums, and the two tracks presented here, "I've Never Been in Love Before" and "You Stepped Out of a Dream," show that Jolly and Lundgren are a perfect match, and their collaboration is definitely a joy to listen to. On Sonny Rollins's "Doxy," Lundgren has room to contribute a very attractive solo in between muted trombone passages by Andy Martin, who is the leader of that 2001 session.

In short, if you like jazz piano of the highest order, it doesn't get much better than Jan Lundgren these days. He's been playing professionally and recording since the mid-1990s for a variety of labels, in addition to constant touring, and it was just about time we had a retrospective of his career for Fresh Sound Records. This is a very good place to get introduced to his music—so start here, and you can be sure you'll be looking for the rest of the recordings in his rather prolific discography!"

Anton García-Fernández (September 14, 2015)
Amazon.com

Tracklist