Berger Knutsson Spering Schultz: BLUE BLUE (CE34)

After 19 years as a trio, Berger Knutsson Spering found a fourth member and its Max Schultz. Here is our first album as a quartet!

Drummer Bengt Berger, saxophonist Jonas Knutsson and bass player Christian Spering formed the Berger Knutsson Spering trio in 1996, a trio that has six cd albums to its credit, has performed everywhere, was voted Swedish jazz group of the year more than ten years back and is still growing.

We have collaborated with classical musicians, authors and played with a lot of guesting musicians but there is one that over the years has become a favorite of ours, guitarist Max Schultz. Max also happens to be one of the most loved guitar player in Sweden by listeners as well as among fellow musicians. So having played with Max on a number of occasions, when we decided to do this album we wanted Max as a star guest and invited him to become a member of the group.

The trio has mostly done live albums but now we wanted to make a real studio album and since we wanted the best, Janne Hansson at Atlantic Studios was the obvious choice. So in two days in May 2015 we recorded 12 pieces composed by all the members of the quartet, and, with the wonderful atmosphere within the band and in the studio, they are all first takes.

We will play three concerts around the release:
September 10: Jazz i Umeå
September 11: Pygméteatern, Stockholm
September 12: HiJazz, Uppsala
Then, on September 30, the trio will take off for India to play concerts in Mangalore, Shirali and Panjim as part of the centenary celebrations for Pandit Taranath.