(Mainstream Jazz) [WEB] Harry Allen / Jan Lundgren Quartet - Quietly There - 2015, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Some musicians deserve more attention than they get. In this sentiment, the American jazz magazine Down Beat has a poll called “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition”. The American tenor saxophonist Harry Allen definitely belongs in this category. He is not widely known in Scandinavia despite his more than three dozen releases as bandleader. He is certainly not lazy when it comes to touring on both sides of the Atlantic. He is an old-fashioned traveling musician, happy to be hired with local musicians. Over the years many fine Scandinavian musicians – in this case Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren, likewise Swedish bassist Hans Backenroth, and Danish drummer Kristian Leth – have had the pleasure of Allen’s expertise, and a long-standing touring relationship with the aforementioned musicians has been documented on QUIETLY THERE, recorded during the Copenhagen Jazz Festival at STC
Studios in the summer of 2014.
***
Allen, the American master of melodic, swinging tenor saxophone, and Lundgren, a Swedish pianist of infinite subtlety, make a good partnership. They think alike and clearly enjoy each other’s playing as they immerse themselves in these nine songs by Johnny Mandel. Some of them, like the theme from M*A*S*H, are not obvious jazz material, but Mandel, like his contemporary Henry Mancini, has always been a jazzman at heart and it shows. Two numbers especially, Emily and The Shining Sea, evoke really inspired performances. Bassist Hans Backenroth and drummer Kristian Leth complete the quartet, applying an appropriately light touch. (Dave Gelly, The Guardian)