Mattias �str�m -piano Erik Ojala - bass Daniel Olsson - drums When writing and choosing material for this record I realized in the end that three of seven songs were waltzes. One of them sounded in some way Swedish, somehow simple and in the key of C. Another of the songs, �Smaland Detour�, made me think of the accordion. Is there something Swedish about the waltz and the accordion? I don�t know, but �Swedish Waltz� felt like a suitable title for the album.

The trio on this record has played together for a long time. This is our third album, though the first one was never released. We all met in Uppsala and have played together in different bands and gigs for more than twenty years. Drummer Daniel Olsson, from Sala, studied at Gothenburg Academy of Music and has always been in great demand. Bassist Erik Ojala went to Berklee College of Music and was a student of bassist Marc Johnson. It has been a truly wonderful experience to keep on playing with this trio. We recorded this album at Studio Kultivator in Bandhagen Stockholm run by engineer Jonas Olofsson. The recording was made in one day and the goal was to document the trio under good circumstances - with a nice grand piano and studio.

For me, the input from the older generation has always been a source of inspiration. I was lucky to have a great jazz piano teacher growing up in Sm�land - Austrian pianist Wilhelm Bobr lived in Vetlanda, and as a teenager I traveled to Stockholm for bass lessons with Red Mitchell. Later, after jazz education in Skurup, when living in Uppsala, I got to hear and play with some of the older generation of jazz musicians: Bosse Broberg, Roland Keijser, G�sta Rundqvist, Jan Strinnholm, Lennart �berg and Bengt Hallberg. Other inspiration of course came from hearing all the great jazz musicians on records. Maybe what comes out while playing in the end, your style, is a sum of inspiration from others filtered through your own limitations.

The title of the ballad �Letting Go�, is about letting go of control while playing - easier said than done, but maybe that is what jazz is all about?

Hope you enjoy the music!

Mattias �str�m