Bernt offering

I don't know why the Swedes became so good at jazz. Maybe it's the intensity of their fans. I never saw an audience as serious as when I went to a show at Jazz Club Fasching in Stockholm. People were on the edge of their seats, which they took early, and it was obvious that chitchat, ordering a drink or even clinking a glass were not appreciated while the music was in progress.

With audiences like that, a musician is advised to produce. Bernt Rosengren, one of the giants of Swedish jazz, and his quartet surely do on a two-CD set I just acquired from the wonderful Swedish Ayler label. I think it's bound to become one of my favorite free jazz titles.

"Free Jam" is from recordings made in 1972 at improvisational woodshedding sessions in a Stockholm warehouse that was kind of like Minton's for Swedish free jazz players in the early '70s. The CD is listed under South African trumpeter Mongezi Feza's name.

Feza, of whom recordings are rare, is an attraction. He's amazingly fast and evidently wired to play like this. But Rosengren, who plays saxes, flute and piano, and his mates are fantastic as well. The sound is very good, much better than any of the rare Minton's stuff I've heard. If you like things like Coltrane's "Ascension," Archie Shepp's "Fire Music," or Pharoah Sanders' "Karma," you'll probably like this. I do, and Swedish jazz, too.