This record is a message in a bottle, only resurrected as an LP 43 years after its initial recording. Prolific composer, musician, producer, arranger, pianist, radio and television personality Berndt Egerbladh (1932-2004) had an immense production in his lifetime, but all the same, some of his greatest works were never committed to wax during his life. We’re privileged to have what was originally a commissioned recording for Swedish radio resurface on a cassette, treasured by his nephew and fellow pianist Mats Öberg, now presented as a proper record.

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There’s a trait of self-doubt that has permeated Swedish jazz. Historically, it expressed itself through an intense reverence for standards. Taken to its extreme, it sort of relegated the jazz masters to an eternal state as students. A few mavericks eschewed this, notably Jan Johansson. Johansson – nothing lesser than an idol to Egerbladh – defied his contemporaries rigorous adherence to an ethic where none should get any fancy ideas about primarily recording their own compositions, and only paid sparse attention to Night in Tunisia, Caravan, Body and Soul, Summertime etcetera. Rather, he revolutionized the Swedish jazz lexicon by marrying traditional Swedish folk songs to the jazz idiom, in an thus far unequalled and humorous way. If Johansson tried to unlock the door to creativity, Egerbladh attempted to kick the door in. And how he did.

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Few Swedish composers made such a varied mark musically in the latter half of the 20th century. Just as Egerbladh’s curiosity took him to places quite few of his contemporary Swedish jazz musicians ventured, he had many homes even before the whole country became his stage; born in Dalarna in the West bordering Norway, raised in the northern town of Umeå, settling in Stockholm later in his professional career. Juggling duties as bandleader, composer, television show host, pianist and so much more, he provoked some envy from contemporaries. And some of that envy came out as ire against his musical diversity, or lack of purity. Being marinated in musical curiosity, he dabbled in composing and arranging masterly soul music (Doris – Did You Give The World Some Love Today), grazing the ebony and ivory on Brazilian inspired pop (The Gimmicks – Mixed Up Lydia’s Pickin’ Up Painted Ping Pong Balls) and electric piano on Eastern-tinged jazz (Gabor Szabo – Small World), to playful and furious Jazz-Rock (Heta Linjen – Won’t You Step Inside?). And last but not least all his output as a bandleader in his trio, quartet and orchestra, as well as recordings in his own name, from his immensely creative and curious streak in the seventies with explorations such as Nybyggarland, Kristallen Den Fina and African Suite.

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Given that Egerbladh was such a people person, in the sense that he connected with people on so many levels, it could come as a surprise that he struggled with artistic self-doubt. He could be brutal with regard to his own music. And given that he composed so much more music of his own than most of his Swedish jazz contemporaries, he surely exposed himself. Most musicians or plain culturally creative people can recognize that in themselves on some level, but it’s harder to see in others. The recognition of others is not tantamount to belief in one’s own creation. This recording came about in 1982, when Egerbladh had taken a step back from the intense life of constant gigs during the previous two decades. He seemed almost suffering from depression at the time. One of the possible explanations as to why what should be considered one of his finest body of compositions was never released commercially is that having it obscured from the world after its one-off performance on Swedish radio meant that he didn’t have to expose himself to the world at a sore time. An incredible musical piece, featuring some of the cream of jazz musicians active in Sweden at the time, such as Ulf Adåker, Maffy Falay, Urban Hansson, Lars-Göran Ulander and others. Stylistically, it is a return to a form equalled only on Schizo, Egerbladh Trio’s outing from 1965 although with the sound of a much mightier ensemble. You are in for a musical treat from the vaults of history.

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In the popular history of Swedish jazz, Stockholm looms above all else. It’s a self-centred image coming from the Swedish media class. This view has been regurgitated in countless documentaries, owing simply to the fact that there is an abundance of filmed material from the capital where there’s a shortage from elsewhere in the country. In the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties, there were incredibly vibrant jazz scenes in various regions of Sweden, by no means limited to the capital. Not least in Västerbotten in the North, especially centred around Umeå. These scenes were at once interdependent and autonomous cooperating and competing, driven by diehards and enthusiasts as well as professionals. Egerbladh as a person bridged this country-city divide, the capital-province division in so many ways: through touring the whole country, by being a key figure in the Umeå jazz scene, by being a television and radio personality that popularized jazz and rejected highbrow snobbery in music while making amazing compositions. And by exploring the folkloric and the African in his music. This recording here is a distillate of that ethos, in the quiet storm it serves you worlds are contained. Now take the plunge.