Fredrik Lindborg Trio & String Quartet: Riedel

The Riedel of the title is Georg Riedel, the renowned Czech-born, Swedish bassist and composer. Active since the 1950s, Riedel played in the ensembles of Arne Domnerus and Lars Gullin, as well as leading his own combos for decades. But he is perhaps best known for his collaborations with pianist Jan Johansson, particularly the enormously popular Jazz på Svenska (Megafon, 1964), whose jazz take on Swedish folk songs has shifted over a quarter of a million units. Classical music has also absorbed Riedel's interest. So too film music. No surprise then, that when invited by saxophonist Fredrik Lindborg to compose eight pieces for trio and string quartet, Riedel should draw from his broad stylistic palette to render music of a hybrid nature.

To Riedel's compositions, each of the eight musicians offers a response, though the order in which they fall seems mischievously random. Of course, it is not strictly necessary to identify which vignette—most weigh in at around a minute—responds to which composition to appreciate the deeper architecture of the music but attempting the jigsaw is half the fun. Brooding, mournful, uplifting and lyrical, these miniatures form a wonderful gallery of contrasting sonic imprints, from chamber intimacy to celebratory calypso. The eighty-eight-year-old Riedel takes centre-stage on one, his unaccompanied bass singing and swinging.

Inevitably, however, there is more meat on the bones of Riedel's eight compositions, with Lindborg's baritone, tenor and soprano saxophones casting an array of moods and colors. It is quite the musical journey. Baroque elegance bookends bustling swing. Noirish ambiance of bluesy hue gives way to lush strings, which in turn make way for bruising baritone saxophone over pizzicato strings and walking-bass pulse. Driving rhythms and sprightly melodies contrast with tender reverie. Legato strings carry purring tenor saxophone. The more vibrant, jazz-centric passages share a little of Quincy Jones's bouyancy and swagger, but Riedel is, above all, an original voice.

In Riedel's brief liner notes he dismisses as irrelevant attempts to categorize the music. Surprisingly, he puts jazz above classical as the superior music. To recognize a musical hierarchy might seem like something of a contradiction given the genre-fluid nature of Riedel, but then Riedel is first and foremost a jazz musician. Riedel's rich, multi-layered jazz-classical tapestry should, however, appeal to more than one demographic.

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