1954/56, Vol. 9 - Summertime

Album review

During Lars Gullin's well publicized struggle with drug abuse and incarceration, it was also a productive period for him artistically. Acclaimed in Down Beat Magazine polls and recording frequently for the Metronome label, Gullin's sound on the baritone sax was only rivaled by Gerry Mulligan, and in some ways exceeded the Californian from a compositional standpoint, although Mulligan's career after 1956 was far more prominent. This ninth volume of recordings compiled for the Dragon label features sessions with true all-star bands of Gullin's Swedish peer group, in septet, octet, big band, and quintet configurations. Gullin's writing reflects the cool bop of the time period, with cleverly controlled charts that explore all of the muted colors in the low end modern jazz spectrum that many post-war/post-Charlie Parker musicians favored at the time. The four septet tracks from 1954 are "flower songs," either light swingers like "Primula Veris," featuring unison playing easily swung and blending colors from the horns on "Laburnum Vulgare," combining sweetness with cohesion during "Lotus Corniculatus," or moving forward on the happy, inventive bopper "Galium Verum." These are all original compositions of Gullin, featuring fellow heavyweights like trombonist Ake Persson, the legendary clarinetist Putte Wickman, tenor saxophonist Bjarne Nerem and pianist Bengt Hallberg, all world class players. A completely different seven- or eight-piece band with reedman Arne Domnerus and tenor saxophonist Carl-Henrik Norin play three of Gullin's originals, including the cool, bluesy swinger "Fedja," the chill ballad "Ma," the layered, counterpointed, conversational "Perntz," and Domnerus on alto sax leading out on the West Coast style take of the standard "How About You?." It's interesting that all of these tracks feature only a trombonist with the woodwinds and rhythm section, and not another brass or chordal instrument, save piano, in sight. The 16-piece big band cuts with the Lars Theselius Orchestra are standards, with Gullin playing lead melodies, pretty simple and uncomplicated, with the group roaring during "Lover Come Back to Me," "Yesterdays" featuring pointed horn accents on the introduction, and "A Foggy Day" an atypical rearrangement of this classic. Two quintet tracks with Persson and Gullin leading show the awareness of Mulligan's confluence on the European scene, as they do his original "So What" (not the Miles Davis evergreen) based directly on the song "Love Me or Leave Me," and a straight read of Irving Berlin's "Always." The Dragon label keeps hitting home runs with these collections of Gullin's work from both a tortured and fruitful period of his life. This volume of reissues keeps that steaming train a rollin' down the line.

© Michael G. Nastos /TiVo