2012 · Album
Don Byas at Nalen with Jan Johansson - Live in Swedish Harlem
Recorded 1959, live at Nalen, Stockholm · Sonet · Produced by Information unverified — omitted
Harlem Heat in a Stockholm Ballroom
Byas plays with a warmth and muscle that makes you wonder why he isn't better remembered.
Nalen was Stockholm's big dance hall, and by the late 1950s it had become one of the best places in Europe to hear serious jazz. Don Byas had been living in Europe since 1946, and by the time this recording was made he had settled comfortably into the continent's club and concert circuit. What you hear on Don Byas at Nalen with Jan Johansson - Live in Swedish Harlem (1962) is a tenorman fully in his prime — not restless, not proving anything, just playing at a very high level with a local rhythm section that can actually keep up. Byas had one of the biggest, most full-bodied sounds of any saxophonist of his generation, somewhere between Coleman Hawkins and early Coltrane, and the live setting lets that sound breathe in a way studio recordings sometimes don't.
Jan Johansson is the real local surprise here. The Swedish pianist was already developing the folk-inflected style that would make him famous with Jazz på svenska (1964), but on this date he's playing straight-ahead swing with real confidence. He comps cleanly, solos tastefully, and never gets in the way. The interplay between him and Byas on the ballads is particularly good — Byas leans into the melody with that big tone and Johansson gives him just enough cushion without padding everything out.
This is not a hidden masterpiece that somehow reshapes how you think about jazz. It's a very good live document of a great saxophone player doing what he did naturally, recorded in a room where people clearly cared about the music. If you already know Byas from his 1940s work with Dizzy Gillespie or his duets with Ben Webster, this fills in an important later chapter. If you don't know him at all, this is a fine place to start.
Who's playing
Georg Riedeldouble bass
Slam Stewartdouble bass
Jan Johanssonpiano
Don Byastenor saxophone
Egil Johansendrums
Where next?
More by Jan Johansson
All 21 albums →
The musicians on this record
Shut Yo' Mouth! 1981
Slam Stewart
plays double bass here
plays double bass here
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Lockrop 2006
Georg Riedel
plays double bass here
plays double bass here
