Guy Jones (SE) / April, 2016
Mattias Nilsson: Avoiding Johansson’s Ghost
Sweden’s professional jazz community is small and close-knit. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that pianist Mattias Nilsson knows, and has at some time played with, pretty much every contemporary Swedish jazz artist you can think of. Except – because how often do you need two pianists at the same gig? – Jan Lundgren.
“Of course, I bump into Jan now and then at other people’s concerts, and I’m reasonably sure that my father taught him a classical piano class when Jan was studying at the Malmö Academy of Music” Mattias says. “I’ve also played with [JLT’s] Mattias Svensson quite a bit, and with Zoltan Csörsz. Like me, they’re both based in Malmö.”
Having got these bona fides out of the way, Mattias is itching to move the discussion on to his new solo album, Dreams of Belonging, which is being released later this month. FoJL is curious to know more, however, about how he arrived at this position. After all, despite appearances to the contrary, there are actually very few genuinely professional jazz pianists in Sweden – that is, people who compose, perform and record on a full-time basis without having at least some kind of second occupation. Usually, this is teaching music.
“Well, I was offered a place at Malmö Academy of Music in 2004” explains Mattias, who started playing the piano when he was just four. “But I’d been freelancing since I left high school, experimenting with everything from jazz, blues and Latin to gospel, pop and rock. So I turned the Academy’s offer down.”
“My parents weren’t very happy about that, since they thought it would be sensible to get a teaching or similar qualification as a safeguard. My argument was that things were already looking as though they might work out, and I didn’t want to halt my progress by taking four years off to study. I think it was Branford Marsalis who said ‘If you’ve got something to fall back on, you probably will’. It’s a quote I still use when someone asks whether I made the right decision.”
In 2007, Mattias bought a plane ticket to Chile, found a local bass player and drummer, and performed 15 concerts in 17 days right across the country. “Rene Sandoval, the bassist, organised everything incredibly well – it was such a great experience” he remembers. “I was playing the Swedish music I grew up with, but with Chilean guys who added their own unique flavour to the catalogue. I’ve been back two or three times since then, and I love it. On the most recent tour we played at the Swedish embassy in Santiago to Sweden’s then-prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt. It was a lot of fun.”
Back in Malmö after that first Chilean tour, Mattias opened a jazz club called ‘The Way WE Play’. With weekly concerts and jam sessions, the club became increasingly popular among local musicians and other creative people. “But, boy, was it hard work!” he laughs. “Trying to run a jazz venue while pursuing your personal musical career is like begging for a nervous breakdown.”
More touring followed – in Scandinavia, western Europe and the United States – with artists like Butch Miles, Jesper Thilo, Bo Stief, Sharon Clark and Kristin Korb, as well as regular recording sessions. The latter have included albums with Swedish vibraphonist Roger Svedberg, and fellow Malmö resident and close friend, the singer Anna Pauline Andersson. Mattias also teamed up last year with Austrian saxophonist Ray Aichinger for a six-track EP, Silent Nights(European Jazz Records, 2015).
All of which, to Mattias’ visible relief, brings us to Dreams of Belonging. It’s his first release as leader, and it’s a solo album to boot. Isn’t that combination rather brave? “Yes and no” he replies. “I’ve been a professional musician for 11 years now, and I’ve been playing solo more and more. The album centres around the kind of traditional Swedish music I’ve always been drawn to and, although I use plenty of jazz techniques, I hope I’ve been able to find my own ‘voice’ in the material.”
Mattias prepared for the recording by, among other things, putting together a solo piano playlist from Spotify. “The mood was definitely Scandinavian and, naturally, I listened to some Jan Johansson as well – Jazz på Svenska still emits a sort of ghostly aura that influences practically all Swedish jazz pianists. I was determined, though, not to copy anyone else’s style. You can’t escape the melancholy, but there’s a lot of light in this new record too.”
Dreams of Belonging brings together three original compositions by Mattias with both traditional songs – including one that’s best known as Sweden’s national anthem – and tunes by more contemporary Swedish composers. There’s also a cover of the John Hartford song, Gentle on my mind, which was made famous by Glen Campbell in 1967. What prompted Mattias to include it?
“The choice also surprised me at first” he concedes. “I’m not sure why, but the tune had been knocking around in my head for ages. Once I started to experiment with it, I realised the piece has a lot of scope. Gentle on my mind is inevitably associated with country/pop, but I play it slower here than most people are used to. That’s the thing about jazz; you can throw in anything, and I’m always on the look-out for good songs from any genre. The jazz might surface when I improvise, or it might not. But if I’ve got my ‘voice’ right, what you’ll hear is Mattias Nilsson, not Glen Campbell – or, for that matter, Jan Johansson paying homage to Glen Campbell!”
Dreams of Belonging will be released on 22 May. Mattias has no plans as yet to stream the album or to offer it as a download. “I’d like the record to remain a little ‘exclusive’ for now, so it’ll only be available as a CD through my website and at concerts” he says.
What’s next for Mattias? “I’ll be performing in Barcelona when Dreams of Belonging comes out, and then I’ve got three concerts in Paris. There’ll be another tour taking in Scandinavia and the UK soon afterwards. So I’m not exactly sure what will happen next. Let’s just see where the album takes me.”