Christmas with My Friends V Nils Landgren with Sharon Dyall

• 1 Morgenstern und Morgenlicht 02:02
• 2 Let the Stars Come out Tonight 03:27
• 3 Joy to the World 02:30
• 4 Baby It's Cold Outside 02:31
• 5 Everyday Is Christmas 03:21
• 6 Go Tell It on the Mountain 02:51
• 7 Sleigh Ride 02:48
• 8 O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf 03:05
• 9 Auld Lang Syne 03:06
• 10 Love Is Born 03:30
• 11 Gläns Över Sjö Och Strand 03:23
• 12 Hosianna 03:37
• 13 Härlig Är Jorden 02:42
• 14 Seven Stains from Christmas Eve 03:05
• 15 There Is No Rose 03:22
• 16 Kokles Christmas 03:24
• 17 Now the Time Is Here 03:46
• 18 Bereden väg för Herren 04:07
• Total Runtime 56:37

Info for Christmas with My Friends V

There is a synonym for the words diversity, curiosity and zeal: Nils Landgren. “Mr. Red Horn” swings brilliantly from one perspective to the next, also because he needs this constant change. Landgren embodies not one but two souls: When the audience sees him with his “Funk Unit”, the Swede shows himself from his masculine and distinct, relentlessly grooving side and acts the jazz action hero. However, there is also a gentle melancholic, highly sentimental Nils Landgren. He can be seen during Advent time, for example, when the instrumentalist and singer celebrates “Christmas With My Friends” or in his ballad projects, in which he intones on the trombone with incomparable smoothness and his highly individual, fragile voice touches the heart and the soul with a remarkable sensibility.

Fans of Nils Landgren will know him as Mr. Redhorn. This dare-devil Action Man drives his Funk Unit heroically from the front, sweat bejewelling his forehead. That, however is just one of the many sides of this popular and immensely likeable Swedish trombonist and bandleader. The master of the in-the-pocket groove also has a much softer, more romantic side. This sentimental mode found its most natural and effective method of expression in a thought he had exactly ten years ago. Landgren’s idea was not just a good one, it was a keeper: he would gather good friends around him, and they would celebrate Christmas together, through music. So, in 2006, on went the red satin dinner jacket for the very first time, and “Christmas With My Friends” was born. The concert in the ancient Odensala Church in Stockholm was recorded, and then issued as...

Nils Landgren, trombone & vocals
Sharon Dyall, vocals
Jonas Knutsson, saxophones
Jeanette Köhn, vocals
Eva Kruse, bass
Jessica Pilnäs, vocals
Ida Sand, vocals, piano & school organ
Johan Norberg, guitars & kantele

Recorded December 20 - 22, 2015 at Atlantis studio, Stockholm
Recording engineer: Lasse Nilsson. assisted by Janne Hansson
Additional recordings by Johan Norberg at Krubaston studio
Mixed and mastered by Lasse Nilsson at Nilento studios, Kållered
Produced by Nils Landgren
Co-produced by Johan Norberg
Executive Producer: Siggi Loch

Nils Landgren
With his smoking, hard-hitting "Funk Unit", the man with the Red Horn has been responsible for a bunch of successful CDs over the past years. His concerts from Stockholm to Beijing have been met with ecstatic acclamation. In duo with pianist Esbjцrn Svensson, he has elevated Swedish folk music to the level of subdued works of art. As the artistic director of the 2001 Berlin Jazz Festival, designed a state of the art presentation of Scandinavian trends and moods. In May 2002 Nils was honored with the Tore Ehrling-prizeґ by the Swedish Society Of Popular Composers for "His outstanding contribution to spread swedish jazz music around the globe".

He is a world-class soloist and artist with heart and soul: Nils Landgren.

Jazz and church music shaped his childhood. As cornetist, Nils Landgren's father brought US jazz into the house. The traditional Swedish chorales and songs came from his grandfather, who was a preacher. Nils Landgren was born in 1956. He began playing drums at the age of six. At 13 he layed his hands and lips on the trombone and was hooked for life.

Between 1972 and 1978 Nils studied classical trombone at the music college in Karlstad with David Maytan and at the university in Arvika with Ingemar Roos. During this time he also met the legendary Swedish Folk-Jazz pioneer Bengt-Arne Wallin and the fantastic tromboneplayer and proffessor of the Graz Conservatory in Austria, Eje Thelin. These two men completely changed the way for Nils to go; from a strict classical player to an improviser with his own idea of what to play and why. After his graduation Nils moved to Stockholm to work as a professional tromboneplayer. First the life of a struggling jazz musician, making no money but gaining loads of experience. Then the call that totally changed his life: an offer to go on tour with Sweden's most successful pop star of that time Bjцrn Skifs who at that time was at #1 in the US pop charts with Hooked on a feelingґ. The money was ok, the vibes were cool and the band was simply great! Ever since that time Nils Landgren has been involved in a variety of music styles and projects. These include jazz, rock, soul, hip hop, big band's, studio sessions, and by his own reckoning, at least 500 albums. Mostly, for natural reasons with Swedish artists but also with such internationals stars as ABBA, The Crusaders, Eddie Harris, Bernard Prettyґ Purdie and Herbie Hancock. Nils even plays on the first Wyclef Jean solo album, titled Carnivalґ.

In 1981 Thad Jones invited the Swede into his new Bigband project Ball of Fireґ, to take the lead-trombone chair. The band was built up around such great musicians as Jerome Richardson, Jerry Dodgion, Tim Hagans, Bobby Burgess, Roger Kellaway, Sahib Shihab, Dusko Goykovich, and Benny. "A fantastic band, sad that it did not work out in the end", Nils says about that expreience. Two years later Nils debut album Planet Rockґ was released, followed by Streetfighterґ in 1984, You are my Nr 1ґ in 1985, Miles from Dukeґ with Bengt-Arne Wallin in 1987, Chapter Two 1ґ, in 1987, Chapter Two 2ґ and Follow your heartґ in 1989. Between 1985 and 1987 Nils also performed as actor, singer, trombonist, and dancer in over 360 performances of the Swedish "play of the year", SKЕL, as well as appearing in several TV-films as an actor.

1992 saw the first performances and recording of the Nils Landgren Unit; the recording was called Red Hornґ, and was mixed by the legendary sound engineer Bruce Swedien. (re-release 2001 as "The First Unit", ACT 9292-2). That same summer the band performed at the Playboy Jazzfestivalґ in Los Angeles, hosted by the great Bill Cosby. The final breakthrough outside of Scandinavia came first in 1994: it was at the Jazz Baltica Festival in Germany that the Unitґ became the Funk Unitґ. The album Live in Stockholmґ (ACT 9223-2) with guest star Maceo Parker was released that year and was the foundation for the collaboration with Siegfried Loch and his young ACT label.

Booklet for Christmas with My Friends V