Yes , "visa från Utmyra" Utmyra is a place in middle of Sweden, Jan Johansson played the piano. it is based on O tysta ensamhet", witch is a traditonall song from sweden.
Visa means song ( song from Utanmyra ) Utanmyra is a town, near Falun. Falun is the mining town, which gave name to the famous iron red colour so many barns got.
It's an old folk song. The album is all Swedish folk songs that Jan Johansson did jazz interpretations of (you've listened to another before, submitted by Cynips for a live stream). His soloing was just what he felt like when expanding on the lead melody I guess. I think he did it gorgeously! This is part of the Swedish DNA. The album is from 1964. Jan Johansson died tragically in a car accident in 1968. His sons Anders and Jens are celebrated musicians within the metal community. Glad you liked the song. That beautiful melancholy is pretty typical for Scandinavian/Nordic folk. Ps! The Google translation "View from Without an Ant" gave a really good laugh 🤣 Ds!
@@CriticalReactions Jan Johansson produced at least three albums in this niche: Jazz på svenska (Swedish songs) Jazz på ryska (Russian songs), and Jazz genom fyra sekler (Songs from four centuries). Actually this is also composed by Jan Johansson(!): m.ruclips.net/video/NR7ablt3etU/видео.html George Riedel wrote music to other of Astrid Lindgren's movies.
@Critical Reactions There's a wonderful English double bass player named Danny Thompson who plays folk and jazz (commonly a combination as a solo artist). He even wrote a song titled "Till minne av Jan" (In Memory of Jan) honoring Jan Johansson as an inspiration. Can't find the album ("Whatever") featuring it (except in my private collection...). But the follow up "Whatever Next" is on RUclips: ruclips.net/video/BTs-dBCyBRI/видео.html
I think that makes a decent title for something, actually. It took me a few seconds of confusion to realize it was even an attempted translation Bryan was reading out then. Gave a good laugh indeed.
Ahaahaha, it ends without a resolution. Welcome to northern Scandinavia melancholy. This is that feeling when you're out in the woods a summer night and you watch the sun set over a black forest lake, and the warm air blends with the cool night air on your face. And everything is so beautiful it hurts.
This is a favourite since my childhod. I must have been about 10 when this, the best selling Swedish jazz record through time, was released in 1964. I had to check it up (eventually I found a radio program about the background of the song). It is Jan Johansson (1931-1968) playing the grand piano and Georg Riedel (1934-) on bass. No others! Johansson found the notes of this old folk song at the library in the early 60s. "Visa från Utanmyra" translates to song from Utanmyra, correctly a very small village in about the geographical middle of Sweden. The song was played or sung in 1906 by a girl, Reser Anna Larsson from Utanmyra, who had learnt it from her mother. The text (yes, there is one) was actually "Oh tysta ensamhet" = Oh silent lonelyness. Written by Olof Dahlin in 1795. The melody might be younger or older. Jan Johansson created this improvisation from the notes. This one and "Emigrantvisa / De sålde sina hemman" was hits from the album, often played in radio. Johansson finally get bored of them. He declared once that this will be the last time I play it. He died in a car accident a few days later.
Jan Johansson is (was) like a minimalist version of Bill Evans. He was a student at Chalmers, the Technical University of Gothenburg but eventually decided to go all in for music. Unfortunately he died in a car accident in 1968, 37 years old. I believe the album “Jazz på Svenska” was one of the first albums recorded in stereo in Sweden and contains “jazz” versions of traditional folk songs. There are several good songs on the album and ”Visa från Utanmyra” is the most well known.
The bass player (George Riedel) hadn’t met Jan Johansson before and when he he showed up to record he asked where the other musicians were. ”No other, it’s just gonna be you and me” Jan Johansson said. The rest is history. Thewhole album (recorded 1964) is a gem. And, btw, only one pianist. Recorded live, never rehearsed
This is a Swedish folksong. I love that they have not jazzed it totally away. I love that they kept the simplicity. Just like simple and clean scandinavian design.
This music has been one of my favourites all my life. Utanmyra means outer mire and I belive it refers to a distant place from home, where young women looked after the cattle in the summertime in older times. Thank you for reacting to this one. Jan Johansson tradically died in a car accident in 1967
This song carries the soul of my land, it touched me deeply already as a small child. Jan wanted to respect our old folksongs and did so with such grace
Yeah it's contextual, Visa could be effectively translated as "folk song" because that's what it is. By the way, thanks to you I'm discovering a lot of fun stuff and I've discovered I really like some jazz haha. Being swedish and this apparently being jazz interpretations of classic swedish folk songs sign me the heck up, added the album to my jazz playlist, thanks Bryan :D
I´m back listening. The timing is insane.. So slow, and yet every not falls in the exact moment, within the fragment of a second . And then when he makes it dirty, like when a violinist or guitar pulls the string a little extra... in the cleanest way. Jan Johansson was a true genuius.
Jan Johanssons sons played with Yngwie Malmsteen. The drummer Anders also played with Hammerfall and Manowar. Jens played with Dio and Rainbow and Stratovarius. Both of them are very talented.
You talk about two pianos. I'm pretty sure it is just Jan Johansson on the one piano. And they seem to have been doing the recording "live", as in just recording everything in one take, all at once. Well, "all" in this case meaning Jan Johansson on the piano, and Georg Riedel on upright bass. So when you hear two pianos, I think you are wrong. But I could be wrong.
There are lots of comments already, but I'd like to add a thing or two. Jazz på svenska (Jazz in Swedish) was originally released as three EPs in 1962, 1963 and 1964 respectively. In 1964 the tracks were collected as an album (with one of the tracks replaced by another take of the same song). The album was rereleased on CD with bonus tracks and mp3s of the complete sessions in 2005. The music is traditional Swedish songs, dance tunes, wedding marches and one "vallåt" (call for the cattle to come home). Visa från Utanmyra was recorded in Stockholm on February 28, 1962 and originally included on the first EP. The song is also known as O Tysta Ensamhet (Oh, Silent Loneliness) from its opening line. So, it's a sad, "why does nobody love me" type of song. The lyrics referred to in one of the comments were written by Björn Lindroth after Jan Johansson had popularised the song. It was recorded by Monica Zetterlund in 1963 (Great singer and another Swedish artist you need to check out).
"visa" means song or tune. "Från" is "from". "Utanmyra" is the name of a place, and it is a composit word. "Utan-" means "without" but it can also mean, as in this case, "outside" or it could maybe even mean "the far". "Myra" means "ant", but in this case the word you are looking for is "myr" wich translates as bog or marsh. (It is a feature of nordic landscape that doesn't perfectly translate into an English word) The ending "-a" signifies that it is an old place name. "Utanmyra" is thereby translated as "the outer marsh" or "(the place) outside the marsh" If you look up "utanmyra" on Google Maps, you find one single place with this name, it looks like it is a small village ore even just a farmstead outside the city of Falun in Sweden.
Utanmyra means beyond the bogs, its place.. it was even a place at Viking age, where people lived.. on the other side of the bogs! Jan Johansson was a jazz pianist, I dont know if he did have any connections to this place, but its kinda swedish folklore on a jazz piano.
Yeah, you didn't get it. I don't blame you. It's about darkness, snow and solitude. You must have had that experience to tune into this song, I guess. If you listen to ABBA playing super trouper on Wembley, Benny Andersson pays tribute to this musical tradition and even to Jan Johansson in the synth intro to the song. Another folktune but similar.
Dostoyevsky said that all the Russian writers had come out of Gogols overcoat / referring, for those who don't know to his novel "the overcoat". I think it's fair to say that all Swedish musicians have come out of Jan Johansson's piano.
I've been on a jazz kick lately (been exploring the discographies of Bill Evans and Sonny Rollins) so this fits in perfectly with what I've been listening to recently; definitely has something of Evans's delicate lyricism, though it's harmonically simpler than Evans given the latter's influence from the French Impressionist composers. I see other comments have mentioned it's an adaptation of a Swedish folk song and I can definitely hear that, though it's been common in jazz to do adaptations of folk songs since as long as jazz has been around; Sonny Rollins especially loved covering the popular songs of the day. This was definitely lovely and I may try to find a version to buy/download and just throw it on my current playlist.
When my husband and I got married, in 1976, when we arrived at our reception, on an island in Oslo fjord (Ildjernet), this was playing. We have loved it ever since, and still have the LP...it is just recently that I have learned Jan Johnasson died long before we were married
This amazing Pianoplayer who wrote the theme for "Pippi Longstocking" gathered a lot of old folksongs from Sweden, som of the songs are named after the location where he found it. For many Scandinavians this album "Jazz in Swedish" is essential in your record collection alongside Kind of blue and Beatles white album. There is only one piano ....
He was originally meant to compose all of the music for Astrid Lindgren's film adaptions, but he suddently passed away quite early in the process. The task passed on to his friend Georg Riedel - another amazing jazz-pianist-turned-composer.
IT means Song from Utanmyra which place name meand the Outer Mire or something simular. Only one piano and upright bass. He is a well known Jazz pianist internationally. I think he played with bill evans.
This is a signifikant part of my childhood. Wery much Swedish folk. Please find it with sorg…. Monica Zetterlund , and tell us what you think…. Pax! /ToZ
It is in a key that my music teacher called "Melodic Minor". Slightly different from ordinary minor. A melodic minor: A-B-C-D-E-F-G#-A. Jan Johansson collected old Swedish folk songs before they were forgotten and mixed them with jazz. It is as Swedish as it can get. A reminder of the hard times when people mixed bark in the bread when they starved. When people decided to go to America. Listen and you hear it.
UTC +1 hahaha. The title means approx. 'Song from Utanmyra', it's an old traditional swedish folk song. Jan would often hit two keys simultaneously to throw off investigators, making them think it was two pianos or something 😛 Re sound quality: Its tape hiss. The rest of the songs on the album doesn't have that. Probably the best take of this song, so they went with a little bit of noise. And the more you listen to it, the better it gets. This is known fact.
Thank you. This is one of my all time favorite pieces since I was a toddler. One of the musical magicians up there with Jimi Hendrix for me. The beautiful blend of melancholic music from the US and Sweden really pulls at my soul. At our wedding, for her bridal march, we chose the fifth song on this album: Brudmarsch efter Larshöga Jonke. It presented her perfectly
As I said in a recently common it's probably hard to appreciate this music if you haven't grown up with cold, dark winters and isolation. But in a way it's a good thing that you can't. Benny Andersson in ABBA has spoken about this sentiment as the key to understand ABBA. Sweden produces good music in an astonishing rate, and the special melancholy tune can't be copied. The Swedish music tradition has not only given birth to artists as ABBA, Europe, Roxette, the Cardigans, the Dirty Loops and many many other worldly appreciated bands and solo artists, but have many other artists that sings in Swedish and are considered just as good and inspiring for Swedish artists. As an example a pop guy unknown for the world, Jacob Hellman,made an LP that was chosen as the best Swedish LP by the biggest Swedish newspaper by the year 2000. My point being: only Scandinavian artist has access to this unique source of inspiration, so they will always be able to shine in a unique way with an expression that can hardly be copied. And Jan Johansson is one of these national/regional house Gods that will always keep inspiring us. I think you can hear it in the piano parts in the Dirty Loops song Work shit out for example. Any Swede who listens to it will immediately say: "Jan Johansson!"
Interesting to listen to this review from one who just dives into something unkown and from many decades later than when it was recorded. Since I have listen to this music from time time for 55 years about, seen Jan Johansson and George Riedel live several times, both in Swedish Radio Broadcasting Studio in Stockholm and in the Concert House in "my town", Norrköping, one tme in the 60s, read a lot about him, about the recording of the album, listened to the music and pals talking about him in radio programs..so it was amusing to listen to what a serious muscian like you could figure out about it. // The recordings in later days are often done in another faschion than what was the tradition in the 60s, so I guess you were a bit suspicous about how this was produced, how "authentically" it was. // The sound in the room was something Jan worked a lot on, I have read, he did not want a drummer! although Egil Johansen who use to play with him in the Swedish Radio Jazz Group was/is a terrific drummer, but those transients flowing out in space would have been disturbed as Jan had it, so that was his reason to keep it so sparse.// For me who lived a bit north in Sweden when I was young, this is exactly how I feel about the melancoly with the forests, lakes and very few people there, as I see many in the comment field talk about. // After this was recorded, Jan had doubts about if it was good , if it was even anything to release...!? well...there are always so many options, why this?...why not somethng els...?...I think of Duke Ellington saying...just give me a dead line please, otherwise I will be changing it forever..like...// Those who worked around Jan, like e.g .Arne Domnerus, saxophonist, had the opnion that Jan was the only genius we have had in Sweden, or other pals would consider him genius like...his appropriation on the tangents was personal and unique, and when he was asked about it, he did not think it was anything special, he said that when you had hit the tangent you could not do much about the tone/note...well maybe the pedals then...but he put those "grace notes" in to make the inteferences of the oscillations make something happening instead. // The recording that you listened to seemed to be the original recording to me, Jan's sons...good and famous musicians on their own have made a remix of that album that I for myself is not fond of, that mix have the bass too thick and the room sound too spacy for me...I do not get the feeling of that melancholy that I can recognize from living in Norrland sparsely populated area. // Okay this became long, but this music have a place in my heart, although I do not listen to it each and everyday, but now and then. Thanks for the review! I will put a link to a live in studio, so people can see how they handle everything live under here.
Here's a live of another song (visa) that is on the that album, but with other musicians in a studio, so you can get an idea how it looked like when Jan was playing. // Jan spent a period in Köpenhavn in Denmark playing with eminent american musicians and they wanted him to come over to the US, but suddenly one day Jan had disappeared....moving back back home to good ol' Sweden and following his own ideas...ruclips.net/video/ej4P6m7L-4U/видео.html
there is 1 pianist and a bass player (George Riedel) Jan Johansson describes Swedish nature through his piano playing. Show from Utanmyra describes how it exactly sounds from a stream, as it penetrates the forest 😊, Jan Johansson is Sweden's foremost pianist! 😉
Some literature fans move to a different country and learn the language just to be able to read a novel properly. I think you at the very least would have to live in a rural, (unusually traditional) part of mid Sweden long enough that it got into your system to unlock a small portion of the visions and feelings that this music invokes for those that are intimate with it.
I haven't seen any good translation from the Swedish Wikipage in the comments, so here comes a summary. The melody was written down at a musical Event in Gesunda 1906. The melody was performed by Reser Anna Larsson who lived in Utanmyra on Sollerön, hence "Song from Utanmyra". The wiki page doesn't really say, but I believe it was an old traditional melody. Reser Anna Larsson was playing Cow Horn Bugle. Wiki page doesn't really state it, but most likely it was perfomer on Cow Horn Bugle at the event 1906.
If one wants to check out Jan Johanssons technique, there's a video of Emigrantvisa (different song on the same album) here ruclips.net/video/ej4P6m7L-4U/видео.html
You talk about how it ends on tension, without resolution. There's lyrics to this song, about love lost. Or maybe about a girl who was used and left behind. "Only once did I meet the man who changed my world. He broke my rose and laughed. And then he walked". So maybe it ends on tension on purpose? One version with lyrics here, in Swedish of course, though: ruclips.net/video/tGj0vnMgRsw/видео.html
@@CriticalReactions I’m pretty sure Jan is playing all piano parts at the same time. He was just so talented that he could accentuate the melody over the comp, making them seem like they were played so independently.
Us swedes holds the olympic gold for melancholy in music. You can hear it not only in folk and jazz but also in pop such as ABBA or Ace of base. The list is long but Kent and Weeping Willows are super sad in the most beautiful way.
I love this recording. Its two of Sweden's best jazz instrumentalists ever, Jan Johansson on piano and Georg Riedel on contra bass. Its based on an old folk tune, Song from Utanmyra. I do not think you can learn to pronounce the name Utanmyra. The U and the Y have sounds not existing in English at all.
The title means ”Song from Utanmyra” Utanmyra is a place, visa = song, often folk song, when it comes to music. Visa can also mean ”show” like in ”Let me show you this..” Your translation was hilarious though 😅
"Visa" means more like verse. Maybe just a sublty, but is it an older version of "Låt" perhaps. Conveys a simplicity which is appropriate. Forgive me, my Swedish is maybe a little outdated,
Visa means song or verse. "från" means "from". "Ut" means "out" "Myr" means marsh or bog or something like that. So outbog or outmarsh, so think wilderness or something like that, not really owned by anyone. It's also the name of a city in Sweden.
A collegue and I used to define jazz as the most unnecessary playing between two bars ... but this is very much the opposite - minimalistic jazz. And definitely enjoyable.
Just wanted to say that the title of the album translate to "Jazz in Swedish", and the song is his 'freestyle/jazzy version' of a classical Swedish folk-song. And it in turn translates to "Song from 'Utanmyra'", where 'Utanmyra' is a place/village in Sweden. Jan Johansson is a Swedish legend within the Jazz- & Folk-song scene, still! He's a national 'treasure'. And no - this is a 'live' duet, Bass and Johansson on piano. Didn't see anyone else in the comments provide the correct translation. Cheers from Sweden.
Nooo Utanmyra. Means outside mire...a little villigage outside Falun.( Myra also means as ant but not in this context)Mire= myr.Myra is dialect in this name.
"View from without ant"? That was a mistranslation! Well, no, it is kind of a correct translation, but just as the English word "spring" can mean at least three different things (water, bouncy thing, or a time of the year), this is more of that. As others already pointed out, "visa" in this context means "song". Or more specifically a traditional folk song. And that "från Utanmyra" part means "from (the village of) Utanmyra". I suppose the village is near a bog or swamp or something, because the village name means something like "outside the swamp". But that is not important here, it's just a village name, no point in trying to decipher that. The title of the song comes from a researcher who was writing down old traditional songs before the last traditional performers died out, about a hundred years ago. And this song was written down in a tiny village named Utanmyra. It just happened to be the village where the researcher heard the song. It might very well not be the place the song originally came from. But he wrote it down as "Song I heard in the village of Utanmyra". And now it is the name the song has here in Sweden.
Utanmyra means “on the outer margins of the moore”. Myra and moore are related words. “Utan” basicaly means “on the far side of”. The girl in the song had no chance protecting her virginity (here “rose”) when meeting a man “on the outer side of the moore”.
Suggestion: check out Lars Gullin, swedish jazz icon of the fifties. He played Baryton saxophone and was bandleader. Listen to "dannys dream" or "summertime". You find it on youtube.
Nice guy..........but I gave up with him trying to understand this 60's Swedish jazz classic piece!!! Obviously if he knew his stuff he'd get this right away......But being a snot-nosed music college kid he's never heard of Jan Johansson.!!.....such a shame. But we accept that nowadays......he's probably never heard Herbie Hancock's "Mimosa" either!!!.....
The most interesting subject musically here is the first take of the tune which is not on the original vinyl record but is a bonus track on the later CD. First take is mind-blowing and so "far out" that Jan did not risk(?) or wanted it on the record. You can hear him say: let's do one more take. But what many jazz geniuses have said, like Miles, first take very often is the best. Listen yourself to the CD bonus track, it's awesome, and that's an understatement.
I am swedish. This song gives me shivers. Every time.
Grazie. Uno dei nostri più grandi, se non il più grande.
There is just one piano ❤
Har lyssnat hela platta senaste tiden mycket och det är nånting magiskt med den....
Yes , "visa från Utmyra" Utmyra is a place in middle of Sweden, Jan Johansson played the piano. it is based on O tysta ensamhet", witch is a traditonall song from sweden.
ruclips.net/video/NcCgkDw2WmA/видео.html
Visa means song ( song from Utanmyra )
Utanmyra is a town, near Falun. Falun is the mining town, which gave name to the famous iron red colour so many barns got.
It's an old folk song. The album is all Swedish folk songs that Jan Johansson did jazz interpretations of (you've listened to another before, submitted by Cynips for a live stream). His soloing was just what he felt like when expanding on the lead melody I guess. I think he did it gorgeously! This is part of the Swedish DNA. The album is from 1964. Jan Johansson died tragically in a car accident in 1968. His sons Anders and Jens are celebrated musicians within the metal community.
Glad you liked the song. That beautiful melancholy is pretty typical for Scandinavian/Nordic folk.
Ps! The Google translation "View from Without an Ant" gave a really good laugh 🤣 Ds!
That's awesome! I'd love to find more of this concept -- jazz interpreted folk songs. It works very well, at least in this context.
@@CriticalReactions Jan Johansson produced at least three albums in this niche: Jazz på svenska (Swedish songs) Jazz på ryska (Russian songs), and Jazz genom fyra sekler (Songs from four centuries).
Actually this is also composed by Jan Johansson(!):
m.ruclips.net/video/NR7ablt3etU/видео.html
George Riedel wrote music to other of Astrid Lindgren's movies.
@Critical Reactions There's a wonderful English double bass player named Danny Thompson who plays folk and jazz (commonly a combination as a solo artist). He even wrote a song titled "Till minne av Jan" (In Memory of Jan) honoring Jan Johansson as an inspiration. Can't find the album ("Whatever") featuring it (except in my private collection...). But the follow up "Whatever Next" is on RUclips: ruclips.net/video/BTs-dBCyBRI/видео.html
I think that makes a decent title for something, actually. It took me a few seconds of confusion to realize it was even an attempted translation Bryan was reading out then. Gave a good laugh indeed.
@@erikahlander3489You forgot "Jazz in Hungarian".
Ahaahaha, it ends without a resolution. Welcome to northern Scandinavia melancholy. This is that feeling when you're out in the woods a summer night and you watch the sun set over a black forest lake, and the warm air blends with the cool night air on your face. And everything is so beautiful it hurts.
" northen Skandina melancholy" ❤❤❤
This is a favourite since my childhod. I must have been about 10 when this, the best selling Swedish jazz record through time, was released in 1964. I had to check it up (eventually I found a radio program about the background of the song). It is Jan Johansson (1931-1968) playing the grand piano and Georg Riedel (1934-) on bass. No others! Johansson found the notes of this old folk song at the library in the early 60s. "Visa från Utanmyra" translates to song from Utanmyra, correctly a very small village in about the geographical middle of Sweden. The song was played or sung in 1906 by a girl, Reser Anna Larsson from Utanmyra, who had learnt it from her mother. The text (yes, there is one) was actually "Oh tysta ensamhet" = Oh silent lonelyness. Written by Olof Dahlin in 1795. The melody might be younger or older. Jan Johansson created this improvisation from the notes. This one and "Emigrantvisa / De sålde sina hemman" was hits from the album, often played in radio. Johansson finally get bored of them. He declared once that this will be the last time I play it. He died in a car accident a few days later.
Jan Johansson is (was) like a minimalist version of Bill Evans. He was a student at Chalmers, the Technical University of Gothenburg but eventually decided to go all in for music. Unfortunately he died in a car accident in 1968, 37 years old.
I believe the album “Jazz på Svenska” was one of the first albums recorded in stereo in Sweden and contains “jazz” versions of traditional folk songs. There are several good songs on the album and ”Visa från Utanmyra” is the most well known.
This is the unofficial anthem of Sweden.
Don't say things like this on the internet, people might actually believe you
@@poskmyst225 Perhaps they shouldn't take the internet that seriously.
@@JoakimLarsson570 it is indeed
@@anul6801Yes it is. And also Öppna landskap with Ulf Lundell.
Med ut i vår hage mfl
The bass player (George Riedel) hadn’t met Jan Johansson before and when he he showed up to record he asked where the other musicians were. ”No other, it’s just gonna be you and me” Jan Johansson said. The rest is history. Thewhole album (recorded 1964) is a gem. And, btw, only one pianist. Recorded live, never rehearsed
This is a Swedish folksong. I love that they have not jazzed it totally away. I love that they kept the simplicity. Just like simple and clean scandinavian design.
This music has been one of my favourites all my life. Utanmyra means outer mire and I belive it refers to a distant place from home, where young women looked after the cattle in the summertime in older times. Thank you for reacting to this one. Jan Johansson tradically died in a car accident in 1967
"Song from Outmire" from album "Jazz in swedish"
I've loved this album for decades. Sitting right now in Stockholm airport, I just have to listen to this. Jan, thank you so much for everything.
This song carries the soul of my land, it touched me deeply already as a small child. Jan wanted to respect our old folksongs and did so with such grace
Yeah it's contextual, Visa could be effectively translated as "folk song" because that's what it is. By the way, thanks to you I'm discovering a lot of fun stuff and I've discovered I really like some jazz haha. Being swedish and this apparently being jazz interpretations of classic swedish folk songs sign me the heck up, added the album to my jazz playlist, thanks Bryan :D
Glad to hear! Jazz can be tough to get into but I find it deeply rewarding to listen to once you get more familiar with it.
This came out in 1964, not 2005. So it's not a modern recording.
The ass in the background is played by George Riedel who wrote songs to Astrid Lindgren and her characters. 😉🇸🇪
May he rest in peace. 🥹
Such an unfortunate typo!
Ass ?
In this context, "Visa" means song . This brings back memories from early childhood. I think of my mother and father
I´m back listening.
The timing is insane.. So slow, and yet every not falls in the exact moment, within the fragment of a second .
And then when he makes it dirty, like when a violinist or guitar pulls the string a little extra... in the cleanest way. Jan Johansson was a true genuius.
Jan Johanssons sons played with Yngwie Malmsteen. The drummer Anders also played with Hammerfall and Manowar.
Jens played with Dio and Rainbow and Stratovarius.
Both of them are very talented.
It's one piano. One bass.
Played at once.
Yes, it is a pity that he did not see a video
I grew up in Denmark... next to Sweden and heard this in the late 60's. Loved it as I loved Beatles and so on...
You talk about two pianos. I'm pretty sure it is just Jan Johansson on the one piano. And they seem to have been doing the recording "live", as in just recording everything in one take, all at once. Well, "all" in this case meaning Jan Johansson on the piano, and Georg Riedel on upright bass. So when you hear two pianos, I think you are wrong. But I could be wrong.
Jan, had his own special way of playing, so special. So he get the “halftones” just by his own play.
One piano. One bass. Played at the same time.
I would say that this is as Swedish as it gets... listening to this while taking a train through a rain swept Sweden... beautiful and melancholic!
Yes, I grew up hearing this a lot on radio and everywhere...
There are lots of comments already, but I'd like to add a thing or two. Jazz på svenska (Jazz in Swedish) was originally released as three EPs in 1962, 1963 and 1964 respectively. In 1964 the tracks were collected as an album (with one of the tracks replaced by another take of the same song). The album was rereleased on CD with bonus tracks and mp3s of the complete sessions in 2005. The music is traditional Swedish songs, dance tunes, wedding marches and one "vallåt" (call for the cattle to come home). Visa från Utanmyra was recorded in Stockholm on February 28, 1962 and originally included on the first EP. The song is also known as O Tysta Ensamhet (Oh, Silent Loneliness) from its opening line. So, it's a sad, "why does nobody love me" type of song. The lyrics referred to in one of the comments were written by Björn Lindroth after Jan Johansson had popularised the song. It was recorded by Monica Zetterlund in 1963 (Great singer and another Swedish artist you need to check out).
Grew up with that one. A very nice song.
"visa" means song or tune.
"Från" is "from".
"Utanmyra" is the name of a place, and it is a composit word.
"Utan-" means "without" but it can also mean, as in this case, "outside" or it could maybe even mean "the far".
"Myra" means "ant", but in this case the word you are looking for is "myr" wich translates as bog or marsh. (It is a feature of nordic landscape that doesn't perfectly translate into an English word)
The ending "-a" signifies that it is an old place name.
"Utanmyra" is thereby translated as "the outer marsh" or
"(the place) outside the marsh"
If you look up "utanmyra" on Google Maps, you find one single place with this name, it looks like it is a small village ore even just a farmstead outside the city of Falun in Sweden.
Utanmyra means beyond the bogs, its place.. it was even a place at Viking age, where people lived.. on the other side of the bogs!
Jan Johansson was a jazz pianist, I dont know if he did have any connections to this place, but its kinda swedish folklore on a jazz piano.
Yeah, you didn't get it. I don't blame you. It's about darkness, snow and solitude. You must have had that experience to tune into this song, I guess. If you listen to ABBA playing super trouper on Wembley, Benny Andersson pays tribute to this musical tradition and even to Jan Johansson in the synth intro to the song. Another folktune but similar.
Dostoyevsky said that all the Russian writers had come out of Gogols overcoat / referring, for those who don't know to his novel "the overcoat". I think it's fair to say that all Swedish musicians have come out of Jan Johansson's piano.
Jan Johansson was inspiration for title track Heritage by Opeth.
Opeth borrow heavily from this whole album. No complaints though!
I've been on a jazz kick lately (been exploring the discographies of Bill Evans and Sonny Rollins) so this fits in perfectly with what I've been listening to recently; definitely has something of Evans's delicate lyricism, though it's harmonically simpler than Evans given the latter's influence from the French Impressionist composers. I see other comments have mentioned it's an adaptation of a Swedish folk song and I can definitely hear that, though it's been common in jazz to do adaptations of folk songs since as long as jazz has been around; Sonny Rollins especially loved covering the popular songs of the day. This was definitely lovely and I may try to find a version to buy/download and just throw it on my current playlist.
When my husband and I got married, in 1976, when we arrived at our reception, on an island in Oslo fjord (Ildjernet), this was playing. We have loved it ever since, and still have the LP...it is just recently that I have learned Jan Johnasson died long before we were married
The first music I hear when I came to my country Sweden 1972 was this one. Really Jazz på Svenska. "Jazz in swedish".
This amazing Pianoplayer who wrote the theme for "Pippi Longstocking" gathered a lot of old folksongs from Sweden, som of the songs are named after the location where he found it. For many Scandinavians this album "Jazz in Swedish" is essential in your record collection alongside Kind of blue and Beatles white album. There is only one piano ....
He was originally meant to compose all of the music for Astrid Lindgren's film adaptions, but he suddently passed away quite early in the process. The task passed on to his friend Georg Riedel - another amazing jazz-pianist-turned-composer.
Jan's sons are metal musicians aswell as touring playing their father's arrangements of swedish folk music. Jens and Anders Johansson. Both brilliant.
IT means Song from Utanmyra which place name meand the Outer Mire or something simular. Only one piano and upright bass. He is a well known Jazz pianist internationally. I think he played with bill evans.
so soft with an ambiant vibe that lead me directly near the end of the 40's with the piano having fun playnig with the theme
This is a signifikant part of my childhood. Wery much Swedish folk. Please find it with sorg…. Monica Zetterlund , and tell us what you think…. Pax! /ToZ
Visa från Utanmyra is translated as "Song from Utanmyra"
That album is unique in that it still sells very well over 50 years after release. The most swedish music you will find.
It is in a key that my music teacher called "Melodic Minor". Slightly different from ordinary minor. A melodic minor: A-B-C-D-E-F-G#-A. Jan Johansson collected old Swedish folk songs before they were forgotten and mixed them with jazz. It is as Swedish as it can get. A reminder of the hard times when people mixed bark in the bread when they starved. When people decided to go to America. Listen and you hear it.
UTC +1 hahaha. The title means approx. 'Song from Utanmyra', it's an old traditional swedish folk song. Jan would often hit two keys simultaneously to throw off investigators, making them think it was two pianos or something 😛 Re sound quality: Its tape hiss. The rest of the songs on the album doesn't have that. Probably the best take of this song, so they went with a little bit of noise. And the more you listen to it, the better it gets. This is known fact.
Its makes my soul cry every time
View from without an ant - yes, that is the title! Spot on.👌
Helt hilarious! :)
"Utan myra", no question about it!
Det är humor det 😂
Jan Johansson is sadly not very well known outside Sweden where he is a legend. He has inspired numerous other Swedish composers.
Thank you. This is one of my all time favorite pieces since I was a toddler.
One of the musical magicians up there with Jimi Hendrix for me.
The beautiful blend of melancholic music from the US and Sweden really pulls at my soul.
At our wedding, for her bridal march, we chose the fifth song on this album: Brudmarsch efter Larshöga Jonke. It presented her perfectly
As I said in a recently common it's probably hard to appreciate this music if you haven't grown up with cold, dark winters and isolation. But in a way it's a good thing that you can't. Benny Andersson in ABBA has spoken about this sentiment as the key to understand ABBA. Sweden produces good music in an astonishing rate, and the special melancholy tune can't be copied. The Swedish music tradition has not only given birth to artists as ABBA, Europe, Roxette, the Cardigans, the Dirty Loops and many many other worldly appreciated bands and solo artists, but have many other artists that sings in Swedish and are considered just as good and inspiring for Swedish artists. As an example a pop guy unknown for the world, Jacob Hellman,made an LP that was chosen as the best Swedish LP by the biggest Swedish newspaper by the year 2000. My point being: only Scandinavian artist has access to this unique source of inspiration, so they will always be able to shine in a unique way with an expression that can hardly be copied. And Jan Johansson is one of these national/regional house Gods that will always keep inspiring us. I think you can hear it in the piano parts in the Dirty Loops song Work shit out for example. Any Swede who listens to it will immediately say: "Jan Johansson!"
Interesting to listen to this review from one who just dives into something unkown and from many decades later than when it was recorded. Since I have listen to this music from time time for 55 years about, seen Jan Johansson and George Riedel live several times, both in Swedish Radio Broadcasting Studio in Stockholm and in the Concert House in "my town", Norrköping, one tme in the 60s, read a lot about him, about the recording of the album, listened to the music and pals talking about him in radio programs..so it was amusing to listen to what a serious muscian like you could figure out about it. // The recordings in later days are often done in another faschion than what was the tradition in the 60s, so I guess you were a bit suspicous about how this was produced, how "authentically" it was. // The sound in the room was something Jan worked a lot on, I have read, he did not want a drummer! although Egil Johansen who use to play with him in the Swedish Radio Jazz Group was/is a terrific drummer, but those transients flowing out in space would have been disturbed as Jan had it, so that was his reason to keep it so sparse.// For me who lived a bit north in Sweden when I was young, this is exactly how I feel about the melancoly with the forests, lakes and very few people there, as I see many in the comment field talk about. // After this was recorded, Jan had doubts about if it was good , if it was even anything to release...!? well...there are always so many options, why this?...why not somethng els...?...I think of Duke Ellington saying...just give me a dead line please, otherwise I will be changing it forever..like...// Those who worked around Jan, like e.g .Arne Domnerus, saxophonist, had the opnion that Jan was the only genius we have had in Sweden, or other pals would consider him genius like...his appropriation on the tangents was personal and unique, and when he was asked about it, he did not think it was anything special, he said that when you had hit the tangent you could not do much about the tone/note...well maybe the pedals then...but he put those "grace notes" in to make the inteferences of the oscillations make something happening instead. // The recording that you listened to seemed to be the original recording to me, Jan's sons...good and famous musicians on their own have made a remix of that album that I for myself is not fond of, that mix have the bass too thick and the room sound too spacy for me...I do not get the feeling of that melancholy that I can recognize from living in Norrland sparsely populated area. // Okay this became long, but this music have a place in my heart, although I do not listen to it each and everyday, but now and then. Thanks for the review! I will put a link to a live in studio, so people can see how they handle everything live under here.
Here's a live of another song (visa) that is on the that album, but with other musicians in a studio, so you can get an idea how it looked like when Jan was playing. // Jan spent a period in Köpenhavn in Denmark playing with eminent american musicians and they wanted him to come over to the US, but suddenly one day Jan had disappeared....moving back back home to good ol' Sweden and following his own ideas...ruclips.net/video/ej4P6m7L-4U/видео.html
there is 1 pianist and a bass player (George Riedel) Jan Johansson describes Swedish nature through his piano playing. Show from Utanmyra describes how it exactly sounds from a stream, as it penetrates the forest 😊, Jan Johansson is Sweden's foremost pianist! 😉
This song is strongly associated with Gotland where me and my entire extended family (on my grandfather's side) are natives.
Some literature fans move to a different country and learn the language just to be able to read a novel properly. I think you at the very least would have to live in a rural, (unusually traditional) part of mid Sweden long enough that it got into your system to unlock a small portion of the visions and feelings that this music invokes for those that are intimate with it.
Visa = Show something
But also
Visa = Musical piece
I haven't seen any good translation from the Swedish Wikipage in the comments, so here comes a summary.
The melody was written down at a musical Event in Gesunda 1906. The melody was performed by Reser Anna Larsson who lived in Utanmyra on Sollerön, hence "Song from Utanmyra". The wiki page doesn't really say, but I believe it was an old traditional melody. Reser Anna Larsson was playing Cow Horn Bugle. Wiki page doesn't really state it, but most likely it was perfomer on Cow Horn Bugle at the event 1906.
If one wants to check out Jan Johanssons technique, there's a video of Emigrantvisa (different song on the same album) here ruclips.net/video/ej4P6m7L-4U/видео.html
It's the calm n steady pill for my craving for the organized simple cleaness.
Only 1 pianist and 1 piano. One person on bass
Exactly... ha ha. How didn't he hear that?!
You talk about how it ends on tension, without resolution. There's lyrics to this song, about love lost. Or maybe about a girl who was used and left behind. "Only once did I meet the man who changed my world. He broke my rose and laughed. And then he walked". So maybe it ends on tension on purpose? One version with lyrics here, in Swedish of course, though: ruclips.net/video/tGj0vnMgRsw/видео.html
And this was my actual pick for that livestream some time ago. So you’ve heard it before!
I thought the name sounded familiar but I couldn't place it.
@@CriticalReactions I’m pretty sure Jan is playing all piano parts at the same time. He was just so talented that he could accentuate the melody over the comp, making them seem like they were played so independently.
Oh! I didn't remember. Guessed that it was a different (very familiar) song and not a double feature.
I can hear who heavily influenced jens johansson. Damn it is eerie.
Us swedes holds the olympic gold for melancholy in music. You can hear it not only in folk and jazz but also in pop such as ABBA or Ace of base. The list is long but Kent and Weeping Willows are super sad in the most beautiful way.
The best album in history.
I love this recording. Its two of Sweden's best jazz instrumentalists ever, Jan Johansson on piano and Georg Riedel on contra bass. Its based on an old folk tune, Song from Utanmyra. I do not think you can learn to pronounce the name Utanmyra. The U and the Y have sounds not existing in English at all.
The title means ”Song from Utanmyra”
Utanmyra is a place, visa = song, often folk song, when it comes to music. Visa can also mean ”show” like in ”Let me show you this..”
Your translation was hilarious though 😅
Jan once said. There must be one way to play the note C so people starts to cry!
"Visa" means more like verse. Maybe just a sublty, but is it an older version of "Låt" perhaps. Conveys a simplicity which is appropriate. Forgive me, my Swedish is maybe a little outdated,
Visa means song or verse.
"från" means "from".
"Ut" means "out"
"Myr" means marsh or bog or something like that.
So outbog or outmarsh, so think wilderness or something like that, not really owned by anyone.
It's also the name of a city in Sweden.
He never play it the same Way. Always impro
I think there is a soft snare hit at 1:59 of your video, so the steel brush hypothesis is probably correct!
Wow, I completely missed that. Thanks for bringing that up. And good ear!
The Swedish Soul: modernistic with its roots in forest fairy lands.
A collegue and I used to define jazz as the most unnecessary playing between two bars ... but this is very much the opposite - minimalistic jazz. And definitely enjoyable.
Just wanted to say that the title of the album translate to "Jazz in Swedish", and the song is his 'freestyle/jazzy version' of a classical Swedish folk-song. And it in turn translates to "Song from 'Utanmyra'", where 'Utanmyra' is a place/village in Sweden.
Jan Johansson is a Swedish legend within the Jazz- & Folk-song scene, still! He's a national 'treasure'.
And no - this is a 'live' duet, Bass and Johansson on piano.
Didn't see anyone else in the comments provide the correct translation.
Cheers from Sweden.
Come on! It's just Jan playing😅
Nooo Utanmyra. Means outside mire...a little villigage outside Falun.( Myra also means as ant but not in this context)Mire= myr.Myra is dialect in this name.
"View from without ant"? That was a mistranslation! Well, no, it is kind of a correct translation, but just as the English word "spring" can mean at least three different things (water, bouncy thing, or a time of the year), this is more of that. As others already pointed out, "visa" in this context means "song". Or more specifically a traditional folk song. And that "från Utanmyra" part means "from (the village of) Utanmyra". I suppose the village is near a bog or swamp or something, because the village name means something like "outside the swamp". But that is not important here, it's just a village name, no point in trying to decipher that. The title of the song comes from a researcher who was writing down old traditional songs before the last traditional performers died out, about a hundred years ago. And this song was written down in a tiny village named Utanmyra. It just happened to be the village where the researcher heard the song. It might very well not be the place the song originally came from. But he wrote it down as "Song I heard in the village of Utanmyra". And now it is the name the song has here in Sweden.
He died soo Young. Its soo sad
He does not know that he is touching the Swedish soul.
Utanmyra means “on the outer margins of the moore”. Myra and moore are related words. “Utan” basicaly means “on the far side of”. The girl in the song had no chance protecting her virginity (here “rose”) when meeting a man “on the outer side of the moore”.
Suggestion: check out Lars Gullin, swedish jazz icon of the fifties. He played
Baryton saxophone and was bandleader. Listen to "dannys dream" or "summertime". You find it on youtube.
only one pianist
6:04
That "translation" is way off.
for me that is one of the best instrumental ..........
Jazz in Swedish
View without 🐜😂😂😂😂
Stop the talking.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Johansson_(jazz_musician)
Nice guy..........but I gave up with him trying to understand this 60's Swedish jazz classic piece!!! Obviously if he knew his stuff he'd get this right away......But being a snot-nosed music college kid he's never heard of Jan Johansson.!!.....such a shame.
But we accept that nowadays......he's probably never heard Herbie Hancock's "Mimosa" either!!!.....
Snot-nosed? I thought I blew it before I made this video. I guess I should start double checking before I hit the record button. 😂
The most interesting subject musically here is the first take of the tune which is not on the original vinyl record but is a bonus track on the later CD. First take is mind-blowing and so "far out" that Jan did not risk(?) or wanted it on the record. You can hear him say: let's do one more take. But what many jazz geniuses have said, like Miles, first take very often is the best. Listen yourself to the CD bonus track, it's awesome, and that's an understatement.