Bernt Rosengren

Greatly influenced by <a href="spotify:artist:1VEzN9lxvG6KPR3QQGsebR">Sonny Rollins</a>, Bernt Rosengren was one of Sweden's most respected tenor saxmen. The big-toned, hard-blowing improviser was 19 when he started to make a name for himself as a member of the Jazz Club 57 quintet, and at 21, he was hired to represent Sweden in the Newport Jazz Band in the U.S. In 1961, his tenor could be heard in director Roman Polanski's debut film Knife in the Water. Over the years, several of Rosengren's albums topped Swedish jazz polls, including Stockholm Dues in 1965, Improvisations in 1969, and Notes from Underground in 1974. It was during the mid-'60s that Rosengren played alongside trumpeter <a href="spotify:artist:6DbqS0X8cSFOPGsvyze2yh">Thad Jones</a> in a sextet led by American pianist <a href="spotify:artist:1CkthcIyaPjnbHLcwhbU7c">George Russell</a>, who was living in Europe at the time. Although he started out playing hard bop and never gave it up, he got more into post-bop experimentation in the late '60s when trumpeter <a href="spotify:artist:3uPWecBPNXAChysw1uOJwI">Don Cherry</a> was in his quartet, and in the early to mid-'70s, when he combined jazz with Turkish and Middle Eastern folk as part of the group Sevda. In 1975, he played regularly with Swedish baritone saxman <a href="spotify:artist:4gquwMHteaMQ0ZQOMj9CsI">Lars Gullin</a> and formed his own big band. The '80s found Rosengren working with American hard boppers ranging from guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:5fWwoLmkatlQXE1p4vDrV4">Doug Raney</a> to pianist <a href="spotify:artist:413WfGS7CgAHEJD4DtAo3e">Horace Parlan</a>. In the '90s, his activities included a jazz salute to the music from Porgy & Bess (The Bernt Rosengren Octet Plays George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess) and being featured prominently on the great Swedish trumpeter <a href="spotify:artist:473T4lqoIfOVYIytLmY0An">Rolf Ericson</a>'s final recording before his death, I Love You So (1995, Amigo). Turning 60 in 1997, Rosengren still played with the energy and stamina of a young man, and he continued to perform and record into his late seventies, releasing Songs in 2017. The curtain fell on Bernt Rosengren's life and career with his death on May 14, 2023; he was 85. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi