EXCLUSIVE Although details are still to be further fleshed out and officially announced, this summer will see a major new festival series of concerts involving a number of symphony orchestras across Europe performing the music of the late great Esbjörn Svensson, the charismatic and influential pianist and composer who tragically died on 14 June 2008 aged just 44 as a result of a scuba diving accident in his native Sweden. Svensson changed the face of European jazz, and has influenced countless numbers of bands around the world including Trichotomy, GoGo Penguin, Tingvall Trio, Neil Cowley Trio, and not forgetting Brad Mehldau, to name just five, and who gained the appreciation and respect of jazz giant Pat Metheny who performed memorably with EST at the Jazz Baltica festival. Svensson was the most significant figure in Swedish jazz since Jan Johansson in the 1960s the revered figure best known for his classic album Jazz på svenska (‘Jazz in Swedish’), which used European folk music as an ingredient for jazz improvisation, one of the first to do so. The Västeras-born Svensson unlike Johansson harnessed the power of rock, free jazz, and electronics allying them to his own virtuoso grasp of the music of the masters of jazz piano including chiefly Thelonious Monk in the early stages of his career and Svensson’s compositional strength rooted within the co-operative spirit of the trio as the band shared writing duties and credits. Following study at the University of Stockholm Svensson founded EST in 1993 with his childhood friend drummer Magnus Öström and bassist Dan Berglund. They together went on to become global jazz stars, releasing 11 albums during Esbjörn’s lifetime with another, Leucocyte, appearing shortly after Svensson’s death, and four years later the extraordinary 301 released in March last year. Further details are to be confirmed by the band’s management but work is understood to be well advanced on symphonic arrangements of Svensson’s music with partner symphony orchestras lined up across Europe for performances in the summer with a possible UK orchestra involved for concerts in the autumn.
(UPDATE): The orchestral arrangements are by Uppsala-born conductor and arranger Hans Ek, known for his work as music director of the Polar Music Prize ceremony, where he has arranged and performed with the Stockholm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra music by Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Björk, and Paul Simon among the winners of the prestigious prize, as well as orchestrating for theatre and film including Dogme director Thomas Vinterberg’s 2007 film A Man Comes Home. EST manager Burkhard Hopper says the festival details will be announced in April, and they will include some major European festivals this summer. “We will work with local pianists who have shown through their recordings/music/playing that they carry the torch of Esbjörn forward. There are no plans for an album yet.”
Stephen Graham
EST above
Jazz would never be the same again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtEztYjk88s