Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2026 January 09 • Friday

Stockholm is one of the best record-store cities I've ever been to. And if I had to select a favorite shop, as much as I love Pet Sounds and Djungel & Jazz, my pick would have to be Record Mania.

Since we don't make it over to Stockholm that often, I decided not to hold myself back at Record Mania and to buy just about any record that had guitarist Rune Gustafsson on it.

(There was actually one such record that I decided not to buy because, well, it looked like it was probably not very good. The owner of the shop gave it to me for free.)

This turned out to be one of those trips where I bought so many records that the bag I was carrying in them fell apart. Luckily we made it almost the whole way before that happened.

But months and months later I'm still working my way through these albums. And some of them are shockingly good. Right now the most exciting one is In Pleno, by jazz pianist Jan Johansson.

This is a record that can hold its own against any number of classic US jazz records from the '50s or '60s. Johansson might remind you of Bill Evans on one tune or Horace Silver on another or Hank Jones or whoever. You can't really pin him down because he has his own voice.

The material ranges from West Coast-style jazz to some more avantgarde and interesting tracks, as well as an exciting take on the traditional "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho".

The band is also more than impeccable but brilliant. The musicianship and ensemble feel are extraordinary. Rune Gustaffson is on here, of course, drwaing favorable comparisons to Jim Hall and Kenny Burrell. The other contributors are Georg Riedel on bass, Egil Johansen on drums and Rupert Clemendore on percussion.

I hadn't been caring much about jazz recently but In Pleno reignited that particular flame for me. I left the record on the turntable and just kept listening to it.