Anders Boson Jazz Ensemble - Kärleken (2021)

Anders Boson was previously a member of the Gothenburg pop soul band Fibes Oh Fibes !, which from 2003 and a few years onwards praised and updated the 1980s synth soul in a particularly wonderful way. After two ballad-oriented albums with a more jazzy touch, he has finally ended up in pure jazz with this sympathetically soft-swinging album.

With her bright voice and lyrical trumpet playing, it is of course difficult not to think of Chet Baker, but if you let go of both that and the comparisons you can make with Amanda Ginsburg, there are both elaborate songs and solid musicality to discover. Everything nicely arranged by Erik Dahl.

A mischievous blues - titled Bluesen - I could easily have done without, but otherwise the melancholic coziness is strongly present both in Boson's own songs and the album's two covers, The World Outside (a speeded up and texted version of the Carla Bley song Lawns) and the folk rockers Bon Ivers Blindsided.