Light & Shade

Linda Pettersson is regarded by many as one of the most interesting singers to have emerged in Sweden during the last few years. Her ability to interpret a wide range of styles in music written by many diversified composers seems to be unlimited. The range, accuracy and attractive timbre of her voice are all qualities perfectly suited to the selections on this CD. For many years Ewan Svensson has been one of Sweden's foremost jazz guitarists and he has sofar released 11 albums as a leader. He is also a prolific composer and his music is significant for it's strong melodic and harmonic content. In 2004 he added to his excellent trio the renowned French pianist Antoine Herve´ and Linda Pettersson. The group's repertoire consists of Ewan's compositions, to which English lyrics have been written by Dave Castle. The result is a constellation that has been taking audiences by storm not only in Sweden but also in Japan, France and Scotland. Their first CD together: Light & Shade, truly justifies it's title by presenting 15 tracks containing a spectrum of different moods, from intimate ballads to dynamic latin-beat numbers and straight-ahead jazz. Some rewievs: Light & Shade EWAN SVENSSON QUARTET FEAT. LINDA PETTERSSON Nocturne/ Ewan Svensson's collaboration with Linda Pettersson and the French pianist Antoine Herve has resulted in the wonderful album 'Light & Shade', in which Dave Castle's English lyrics elevate the lyrical quality of the guitarist's compositions, all selected from six of his albums recorded 1990-2000. Beautiful ballads and soft Latin rhythms make up easy-to-listen-to but original jazz. The new versions are for the most part a little shorter in length and start directly after a brief intro, as with the oldest tune 'Different'. Linda has an even warmer sound in her voice than before without losing any of her glass-clear precision. Her phrasing alone lifts 'Like It Was Before' and the charming huskiness in the tones of 'No Words' make me think of a young Monica Zetterlund. I like it when Ewan plays acoustic guitar in 'Circles In The Sand' and 'Stranger In The Mirror'. As a soloist he shines most in the bluesy 'Old-Hat' and 'The Sunflower', which like the title tune is absolutely magical, a slow jazz waltz that comes from the album, 'Figures'. Magnus Gran dutifully tones down his busy, swinging drumming but stokes the fire under Antoine Herve's piano solos in 'Too Much Sun' and 'Forty Different Words For Snow'. The funky shuffle 'Makin' It Up', the fast 'More To Explore' and the boppish 'The Blues Are Never Far Away' don't sound quite as natural, but work anyway. Dave Castle has already written lyrics to a further dozen-or-so of Ewan's tunes and I hope that this six-star review will result in another album containing more information. With that, we hopefully will not have to search the web site for details of the original titles and lyrics. Hallands Nyheter Linda Pettersson, Ewan Svensson Light&Shade Since her highly-praised debut CD 'Who Are You?' (Touche Music) Linda Pettersson has now also a follow-up CD in the company of completely new colleagues, guitarist Ewan Svensson, French pianist Antoine Herve, bassist Yasuhito Mori and drummer Magnus Gran. Light & Shade is the title and also one of the 15 songs on the CD. All are compositions from the pen of Ewan Svensson with English lyrics written by saxophonist Dave Castle, both of whom have contributed excellent and inspired work. I had the pleasure of being present when Linda and