Real swing knows no geographic or ethnic bounds, as this set’s cooking take on McCoy Tyner’s “Blues on the Corner” proves. Recorded live in Stockholm and featuring Alabaman tenor saxophonist Sean Nowell with Swedish sidemen, the cut contains all the groove and pocket you’d expect from a band of New Yorkers. Nowell and co. add a Middle Eastern flavor on a rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Amad” (from his Far East Suite), and the leader demonstrates his deft way with a ballad on a sublime reading of Billy Strayhorn’s “Chelsea Bridge.” Guitarist Fredrik Olsson and Nowell also turn in scintillating solos on the Swedish folksong “Ack Värmeland, Du Sköna” (more familiarly known as “Dear Old Stockholm”). And Nowell’s “NY Vibe” is suitably aggressive and relentlessly swinging, with some pure burn from guitar and tenor sax.
Originally PublishedSean Nowell: Stockholm Swingin’
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