Björn Jayson Lindh - Cous Cous

Björn Jayson Lindh
Cous Cous
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Metronome MLP 15450


Swedish flautist Björn Jayson Lindh (later Björn J:son Lindh) was pretty active in the 70s putting out quite a few good jazzfunk LPs with three of them being distributed by CTI. Here's his second and one which received better critical reception upon release than most others, as evidenced in this review over at Vinyl Vulture:

A more composed affair this one, as Björn gets his mate Janne Schaffer in to beef up the axework, which he quickly does on the opening workout 'My Machine': nice chunky funk and a great start. There is much contrast to this and the more laid back tracks like 'Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues', which boasts a certain mellowness and a lovely string arrangement of his own creation. On the same theme is 'El Henna', perhaps one of his most graceful cuts; floating gently along as multi-tracked flute lines weave back and forth like angel's pillow talk. Truly beautiful. This LP also finds Lindh at his most Bob James-like on 'Elastic Springtime', which really is disturbingly similar to the Taxi theme and pre-dates it by some years. Naughty old Bob! And then, just when you are just starting to wonder what has happened to the Turkish Delight, the album finishes with a 10-minute trip down just those streets, which is not at all bad. Could well be top of the heap this one.


Jan Schaffer - Acoustic Guitar, Guitar, Electric Guitar
Palle Danielsson – Bass
Mike Watson - Bass [Fender]
Nagi el Habashy - Cello
Kofi Aivor - Congas
Malando Gassanna - Congas
Bengt Berger - Drums
Ola Brunkert – Drums
Bobo Stenson - Electric Piano
Kenny Håkansson - Guitar [Electric]
Abd el Rahman el Khatib – Lute
Bahi Barakat - Tabla
Jan Bandel – Tabla

Arranged By - Abd el Rahman el Khatib, Björn J:Son Lindh
Producer - Anders Burman
Engineer - Rune Persson


Finding this album in the early 90s was a bit of a relief. It helped me deal much better with my secret shame of harbouring an appreciation for the first (and only listenable) ABBA record since Lindh sweded up the horn and string arrangements for his fellow countrymen. One of my musical sins absolved, I could sleep a teensy bit better at night.

Soundological serves up the cous cous HERE or HERE.


If you're still hungry for more helpings of Lindh, here's his 70s discography:

1971 Från Storstad Till Grodspad
at Soundological

1971 Ramadan
c/o My Jazz World

1972 Cous Cous
at Soundological & c/o My Jazz World

1973 Sissel
at The Fairfield Parlour & c/o My Jazz World

1974 Boogie Woogie (AKA Second Carneval)
c/o My Jazz World

1976 Raggie
c/o My Jazz World

1978 Bike Voyage II
c/o My Jazz World

Björn J:Son Lindh - Från Storstad Till Grodspad

BJÖRN J:SON LINDH
Från Storstad Till Grodspad
1971

96.7 MB
320 CBR LAME mp3
Vinyl (?) rip & scans from SR RELP 1135


It's not common practice to post rips from other sources here but the previous Lindh post (Cous Cous) has proven extremely popular. Now that Smooth at My Jazz World has fleshed out some of BJL's discography in the last few days, extra links have been added to the list as a result. However, this debut effort doesn't seem to have popped up yet so I thought I'd post this HiQ version originally upped on PirateBay by user Knaverlisa in a torrent collecting Lindh's 70s albums. Both the torrent and user have long ago walked the plank, so dropping it here to fill in the blanks for all those funky flute fiends who frequent Soundological.

Från Storstad Till Grodspad (which according to Google Translate means From Metro For Frog Brick thus making even less sense to those of us who speak English) fits more into the fusion à la prog file and is considerably more experimental than his later works. This comes through clearly on the first track which takes up the whole of side one - especially the second half of same, which some tasteful cat put up on YT this summer. Listen below, it's a SERIOUSLY dope piece and the excerpt kicks in just as the track moves out of the cinematic build-up and into the meat around the ten-minute mark. This segment alone has made it one of my favourite Lindh albums and puts it in the category of "must have," at least as far as his career is concerned.

Musik Från En Storstad (excerpt)

Side two sounds like it could be incidental music for film or TV and varies from minimalist free form improv ("Stäng Locket Hon Fryser") to Swedish sex romp silliness ("Tom Bohla") and spaced-out pop rock ("Biezlov" & "I Grodspadet"). Don't worry, he doesn't forsake the funk which stays up front on "Grytnäs Sväller" as well as being sprinkled throughout the first side. There's a load of musicians involved across the multiple recording session, including longtime collaborator Janne Schaffer on guitar. Soundological would love to provide more info on the proceedings but Swedish ain't our strong suit so any native speakers who can help us in the comments would be doing us a solid (update 2009/01/05 - a kind reader who wishes to remain anonymous sent a translation which I have posted in the comments).


Björn J:son Lindh - Piano, Organ, Flute
Hawkey Franzén - Guitar, Accordion, Vocals
Anders Nordh - Guitar, Vocals
Janne Schaffer - Guitar
Kenny Håkansson - Guitar
Rune Gustafsson - Guitar
Bengt Linnarsson - Bass
Georg Wadenius - Bass
Palle Danielsson - Bass
Bobo Stenson - Electric Piano
Ola Brunkert - Drums
Rune Carlsson - Drums
Jan Bandel - Drums
Janne Carlsson - Drums
Kofi Ayivor - Congas
Bengt Olsson - Horn
Bengt Sundberg - Horn
Bernth Gustavsson - Trumpet
Bertil Lövgren - Trombone
Jörgen Johansson - Trombone
Nisse Sandström - Sax
Lars-Erik Rönn - Oboe
Lucas Lindholm - Bass
Mats Hagström - Cello
Göran Lagerberg - Vocals
Karin Stigmark - Vocals


1 Musik Från En Storstad
2 Tom Bohla 1971
3 Grytnäs Sväller
4 Biezlov
5 Den Dansande Wollmar
6 I Grodspadet
7 Stäng Locket Hon Fryser
8 Tom Bohla 1972


Pick up your frog brick from Soundological HERE or HERE.