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FLASH MUSIC
proudly presents
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Gilbert Matthews Quartet
Live at the "Old
Oak"
Trumpeter Håkan Falthin and the undersigned were
those accountable for a unique experiment which took place
between May and November 1994 in the Gamla Eken Restaurant
at the Scandic Crown Hotel, near Slussen, in Stockholm.
Live jazz with no cover charge was presented for five
evenings a week, plus Sunday matinees, in a project that
resulted from a cooperative effort with the
cultural-workers' employment bureau - who paid half of the
musicians' fees and all the social welfare charges. The
groups were usually assembled specially for these occasions,
creating many exciting musical constellations.
Gilbert Matthews was the leader of the quartet for the
September 4th matinee, which you will hear on this disc. To
achieve as much freedom as possible, the group elected to
play without a piano. They were hardly aware of being
recorded and nobody gave a hoot to the possibility that the
material would in due course turn up on a CD; we can clearly
hear how uninhibited all the musicians are, what fun they're
having, and how they hurl themselves into the most breakneck
of adventures, not least in the collective
improvisations.
Since the end of the 1970s, drummer Gilbert Matthews has
been one of the driving forces vitalizing Swedish jazz. He's
perhaps best known for his participation in the quartet and
quintet of the late altoist Christer Boustedt; the quintet
continued as the Contemporary Bebop Quintet (CBQ) after
Christer's death in 1986.
Gilbert Matthews was born in 1943 in Cape Town, South
Africa, where he began as a guitarist before switching over
to drums at the end of the 1950s. He was also politically
active in the ANC and was forced to flee to London in 1968.
Somewhat later he moved to Los Angeles and, among other
things, played for more than a year with the Ray Charles
Orchestra during the 1970s and thereafter for some time with
Sarah Vaughan. From 1973 Gilbert started to show up ever
more often in Sweden, and in 1979 he got married here and
made his home in Stockholm. In 1981, he formed Brus Trio
together with pianist Arne Forsén and bassist Ulf
Åkerhielm and in the same year started with Christer
Boustedt's group. Parallel with his endeavors in Sweden,
Gilbert has been active all along in international circles.
He's been part of Chris McGregor's big band, Brotherhood of
Breath, and has for many years been touring with saxophonist
Archie Shepp's quartet, as well as with Horace Parlan's
trio. Other internationally known artists he's been working
with are tenor saxophonist Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis and singer
DeeDee Bridgewater. He's made records with all of them
(apart from 'Lockjaw') and also with South African bassist
Johnny 'Mbizo' Dyani, the CBQ, Brus Trio, South African
pianist Dollar Brand - Abdullah Ibrahim - and many others.
Gilbert has also toured abroad with the CBQ to Greece,
Scotland and Israel, among other places, and also to South
Africa where the quintet's visit was a great success.
Gilbert Matthew's fancifully inventive drumming
constitutes a mighty rhythmic force-field in today's Swedish
jazz. His tempos are as solid as rock and he swings
prodigiously, not least thanks to the distinctness of his
cymbal playing. I often miss the old-time swing rhythm
heartbeat which bears up the whole orchestra and I miss the
appreciation of its significance in today's jazz. For my
sensibilities, that heartbeat is replaced far too often by
woolly figures and rhythms in outright opposition which work
against both flow and swing. Gilbert's accenting with snare
and bass drum are responses to the soloist and commentaries
on his playing, an interplay far removed from a more or less
automatic battering. Gilbert's sense of form and his way of
varying himself during the progress of a song ensures that
one's interest is maintained high all the time. Despite his
playing being unbelievably intricate and driving
technically, everything falls into place so naturally and
vibrantly that we have not the slightest difficulty in
following the musical development. His sense of melody bears
traces of his African heritage and is not so directly
connected to American bebop playing (even if it is naturally
dealing with branches of the same tree), and his four or
eight bar exchanges scale the very dizziest of heights!
 Krister
Andersson and Roland Keijser are both long established as
two of Sweden's most prominent modern jazz musicians. Roland
plays mostly alto sax here; his tenor and soprano sax are
only heard on cuts #3 and #5.
Among Krister's many recordings may be mentioned "About
Time" (Flash FLCD 1), which received the year's best jazz
recording of 1993 award (Orkester Journalen's 'Golden
Record'), with the follow up appearing in 1995, "Concord and
Time" (Flash FLCD 2).
 Roland
Keijser is as fascinated by, and deeply rooted in, other
ethnic music forms as he is in jazz music. His open
mindedness became clear in his work with that flagship of
the alternative music movement, Arbete och Fritid. Triple
Heater and Kalousch are some of his latest own groups, and
he has made records with Peps Blodsband, Blå
Tåget, Chapter Seven, and many others of the most
diverse kinds of groups. His recordings of Swedish folkmusic
have been something of a pioneering endeavor, not least the
unique LP "Folksax Anfaller" (Hurv), where with complete
feeling for the style, Roland and another six saxophonists,
on the different members of the saxophone family from
sopranino to bass sax, play traditional fiddlers music with
trills and all. Roland's arsenal of instruments is as all
embracing as his musical outlook and it is a remarkable fact
that his first real jazz record - tenor sax and rhythm
section - came as late as in 1997, "Back Home Blues"
(Sittel).
 During
that period in Gamla Eken, Bengt Hanson and Gilbert
discovered each other to such an extent that from then on
they have preferred to accept engagements together. Bengt
cooperated for many years with pianist Knud Jörgensen
and has played on and off with Krister Andersson and his
instrumental colleague, Nisse Sandström, over a
considerable period. He also plays in Roland Keijser's group
and, together with Gilbert Matthews, in the Horace Parlan
Trio. His big sound and forceful drive are of the classic
variety; deep steady tones, the pulsing heart of the
orchestra.
That afternoon in Gamla Eken was an unforgettable
experience and this recording is a glorious document of that
uniquely inspired musical event!
Gunnar Lindqvist
translated by Keith & Ingrid Knox
Gilbert Matthews Quartet -
Hothouse / Per Henrik Wallin Trio -
Blues for Allan / Bosse Wärmell
- The Golden View / Börje
Fredriksson - Progressive Movements / Don
Cherry - Brotherhood Suite / Krister
Andersson - About Time and Concord
and Time
FLASHBACK
Supported by the Swedish National Council
of Cultural Affairs
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Flash
Music
Katarinav. 20, 116 45 Stockholm
S W E D E N
tel: 046 8 641 26 03
fax: 046 8 644 12 19
e-mail:
flashmusic@hotmail.com
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