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