Jan Johansson - Jazz Pa Svenska - CD DIGIPAK

The legendary swedish jazz pianist and pioneer in combining traditional Swedish folk tunes with jazz influence. Jazz på Svenska is the most sold Swedish jazz record of all time , and has reached an audience throughout the world. The album was initially released in 1964 and has been selling constantly since then.

Jan Johansson (September 16, 1931 - November 9, 1968) was a Swedish jazz pianist. He is little known outside Scandinavia and his records are not widely available, however Jazz på svenska is the best-selling jazz release in Sweden; it has sold over a quarter of a million copies and been streamed more than 10 million times on Spotify. Johansson came from Söderhamn, in the Hälsingland province of Sweden. As a child he studied classical piano and then also mastered guitar, organ and accordion before turning to swing and bebop as a teenager. He met saxophonist Stan Getz while at university. He gave up his studies to play jazz full time, and worked with many American jazz musicians. He was the first European invited to join jazz Jazz with the Philharmonic package.
In the years 1961 to 1968 produced a series of classical albums that would help define his style, reinventing traditional European folk tunes over jazz and avant-garde. These included Jazz på svenska and Jazz på ryska, both of which are available in expanded form on CD. Jazz på ungerska together with Danish Jazz violinist Svend Asmussen is the third album in this series. Jazz på svenska includes variations of 16 Swedish folk songs with Georg Riedel playing double bass. During this time Johansson also made several recordings with radio jazz groups.
The Grammy award-winning album Musikgenom fyra sekler (Music from the Last Four Centuries) builds on traditional Swedish melodies, but this time uses larger groups of musicians. There were also 300,000 and two trio sets, 8 Bitar and Innertrio, reissued as a single CD.
With his career including film and television music, Johansson is also known as the composer of "Here Comes Pippi Longstocking" ("Här kommer Pippi Långstrump"), the theme song of the famous, Swedish television series, Pippi Longstocking. With lyrics by character / series creator Astrid Lindgren and sung by the series' young star Inger NilssonIt would also be one of Johansson's final works.
In November 1968, Jan Johansson died in a car accident on his way to a concert in a church in Jönköping, Sweden.
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