Courtesy of Bobo Stenson

A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH BOBO STENSON


Listening to Charles Lloyd's early ECM material, you realize pretty quickly that Bobo Stenson is a man to be heard. It is easy for an American to dismiss his playing. It isn't bebop and he ain't a young lion. He didn't play with a Parker or a Dizzy or a Blakey at clubs in Manhattan. He is Swedish and like IKEA takes time to warm up to. But a country touting the heavy hands of Mats Gustafsson, Fredrik Ljungkvist, Paal Nilssen-Love, and Sven-Ake Johansson (just to name a few) has a leg up on most of what's going on here as a whole. Aside from the Chicago Empty Bottle/Velvet Lounge-ers and the Tonic/Vision Festival guys and some scatterings around the country, the States has been void of improvised music envelope pushers since the dawn of the Seventies. But before I babble on and on, allow me to introduce Bobo Stenson, unedited and in his own words.


FRED JUNG: Let's start from the beginning.

BOBO STENSON: Well, I started to play classical when I was seven. There was music in the house. All my brothers and sisters were playing and my parents. My elder brother, six years older than me, he was playing drums. He was into jazz so I guess I got it from him that I heard the music. Later on, I used to sit in his room playing drums and play along with records with Miles Davis, Bud Powell, and all of these people. So that's how I started. I started to play quite early in jazz. I was twelve when I already played in front of other people.


FJ: Why didn't you follow in your brother's footsteps?

BOBO STENSON: I don't know. I played the piano already, since I was seven. Piano was my instrument, but I always loved the drums. I even have a set of drums myself, so I always liked to play. I don't play drums, but I like to fool around with it.


FJ: Influences?

BOBO STENSON: I got Miles Davis. I listened to among pianists, I have favorites like Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Bobby Timmons and Bill Evans. Also, before, maybe Bud Powell. I came from that time.


FJ: So bebop.

BOBO STENSON: Yes, bebop, that's it. I got quite early into Coltrane too.


FJ: Who doesn't worship the J. C. alter?

BOBO STENSON: Oh, he's been my hero through all the years. That's the guy, I think. His expressions and the emotional things, you can hear it and it is so strong. This did it and also, the whole approach and the swing, the notes he picked. This is my music, I think when I was quite young. My very first record was an EP with Modern Jazz Quartet. That was also a favorite of mine and Milt Jackson. I saw a picture yesterday at Yoshi's (Oakland, CA) and I was thinking of it and he just passed away. I felt his playing so much, always. I think he was really great, one of the greatest I think. He had a nice swing, always. He had a nice flow. I like that very much.


FJ: I notice that tide like quality in your own playing.

BOBO STENSON: Yeah, I guess so. I like very much. I always loved to play with drummers. I've been fortunate to do it too. Billy Hart is wonderful. I've also played with Higgins. They're very fine drummers. I've been very happy with that.


FJ: Who is on your drummer wish list?

BOBO STENSON: Wow, what should I say. I would like to play little more with Jack DeJohnette. We are friends. That's number one to me. I also hear those young guys, Brian Blade for instance. He's very good I think.

FJ: How long was your stint with Lloyd?

BOBO STENSON: Eleven years. We will play some in the future too. We have a duet thing we're doing in April. I will join him for the summer for some concerts in Europe. We got along very well, I think. It was easy to play with his musical language. I think he liked me obviously too. We really had a good time. He had confidence in me or something. He could trust me and he could feel relaxed in a way because I could understand his thing. I could do something with his tunes, add things and do things with it. So I think he felt kind of comfortable with that.


FJ: That kind of visibility at a start up label that ECM was at the time is notable.

BOBO STENSON: I was in the company when it started. I made my first trio album in 1971. It was the same feeling that you had, that you are very free to do what you want. There was nobody telling you that you had to play Gershwin or things like this. He (Manfred Eicher) is not that kind of producer. He really lets you do even though he has a strong influence on you. But he always gives you freedom and he's interested in that. And also with Keith Jarrett and the many things he made for him for his classical stuff and all kinds of shit. He's very open to that. So we had this quartet with Jan Garbarek in the Seventies. That was a kind of famous quartet. We had Palle Danielsson. We are recording in '73, those years, in the Seventies was quite strong. Then I started to play with Charles in '88 and next year we were Palle Danielsson, Jon Christensen and me. So then Manfred got interested when he heard that we were together again, the three of us from the Seventies with Charles and he had obviously contacted. I think that made it easier for Charles to join that label because we were already there. It was funny. It was nice recording then. I think I made five albums with him.


FJ: Your trio with Danielsson and Christensen started pretty free with Jan Garbarek's early ECM records.

BOBO STENSON: I think we think in the same direction. We are kind of speaking the same language. I remember we have that quartet. We never rehearsed or anything. It was not necessary. We just went on. You have to go through some melodies and stuff when you have to record, but we just played. It was just amazing. I never experienced that, I think.


FJ: You're no stranger to free jazz, having played with Don Cherry as well.

BOBO STENSON: Oh, yeah. He was a great inspiration, you know. For a lot of people in Sweden, he lived in Sweden, had his family and everything. I played with him for years when he was around. We also made his last recording for ECM. You know that.


FJ: And Tomasz Stanko as well.

BOBO STENSON: Yeah, yeah, I know him also through the years. The last year, he formed this quartet with Tony Oxley, Anders and me. We started to play and actually, I turned him on to ECM because when I was recording with Charles, Manfred asked me what I was into and so I talked to him about this, that we have a quartet with Stanko and he said to tell him to call me and then he was back on the label.


FJ: You are the ECM way and the light, Manfred's apostle.

BOBO STENSON: Yeah (laughing), but it was really fine for him (Manfred). He got a revival also. I should get paid (laughing). Well, it's OK. I'm happy for this.


FJ: Let's touch on War Orphans on ECM.

BOBO STENSON: We just played the music that we had in mind. And also, the previous one, Reflections, that was a success a little bit. I got prizes and stuff for that. No money, just things to put on the wall, that kind of things (laughing), Grammy even in Sweden. It was quite fun. So you had good feeling when you went in to do the second album. You know that you can do things and Manfred was happy too. It was relaxed. You never know how it's going to be. The new one was recorded in a special room, special place, a fantastic place made for classical people for meeting people, rehearsing, and meditation, all kinds of stuff. We worked there and we stayed there. They cooked for us and everything. We just went on playing this wonderful, big room. It's kind of like a live situation. We're all in the same room and you can hear a wonderful piano. The sound is gorgeous I think. I just heard it the other day with Charles at his place in Santa Barbara. We were there for dinner and he put it on his big speakers and stuff. It was amazing to hear it. It's fantastic sound. We just recorded six hours of music and then we had to take away all that and then we mixed and we made ready these ninety minutes and we were going to take away another thirty minutes, but then Manfred called me and said that it was so nice that we should make a double CD and put it out. So that is how we did it.


FJ: You seem most comfortable in trio form.

BOBO STENSON: Yeah, yeah. I like the freedom. You can stop or start whenever you want. It's easy. I like it. I like that form. I didn't play so much trio in the early years. I've always been with horn players. It's not easy to play trio either, to get work because some people say that you need a singer or a horn player or something. It's been working quite well for us in the past years. We do long tours in Europe and also now over here, which is unusual for Europeans.


FJ: Is there a cultural divide between Europeans and Americans, with the latter on the losing end?

BOBO STENSON: Yeah, it is I think. It is difficult to, for you, there is a very strong tradition here. The music here is almost your folk music. We play this way in Europe, but we also have other things that we have in our tradition, I think. A lot of players are into classical music and also different folk music. I think we add elements of that. It must be different. I think that it is different. It is not such a big change. We play in the same way we play. But it's nice to have the challenge because you have all this strong tradition here and I know it. I've been around with Charles. I know it. But I've always been very well accepted here and it's very nice.


FJ: Having worked with Jan Garbarek, what is a Nordic sound?

BOBO STENSON: I know. People talk about a lot of players that have this. I guess I'm included in that. Especially I think for Norway and Sweden because we have been more open-minded versus Denmark has been really United States oriented. A lot of guys went over there and lived in Copenhagen.


FJ: Dexter Gordon did that for a period.

BOBO STENSON: Yeah, they stayed there for years. So the Danish are more influenced by that than the Swedish and the Norwegians are more into that folk music and those elements have a different approach to it, more improvised, a little freer way of playing I think. That's what I think people notice as Nordic sound or something.


FJ: And the future?

BOBO STENSON: I don't know. The tour just finished today. We're done with these seven or eight dates. We've been here ten days, Yoshi's, Seattle, Vancouver, La Jolla, New Mexico, Santa Cruz, and the thing in Los Angeles was cancelled because of the Grammy's. They rented the whole thing, the Knitting Factory, for a party (laughing).


FJ: You got bumped for an after party.

BOBO STENSON: (Laughing) Yeah, no, anyway, we had a good time here. It was a great response and everything. So we're going to do some of the East Coast soon. It's already on its way. They want us back here, so we'll probably be back here next year.

Fred Jung is the Editor-In-Chief and is on strike. Comments? Email Him