SUSANNA LINDEBORG'S MWENDO DAWA

[JSngry]

Tonight on the KNTU show "Global Mix", I heard some recordings by a Sweedish quartet led by a woman whose name I swore I wouldn't forget, but did anyway.

She played piano and keyboards, and she had a tenor player, bassist, and drummer. The group's name was (her name)'s (something). The DJ said that her music was totally unheard/unknown in the US, but that she had had released something like 17 (or was it 12?) albums of her own music, mostly on her own label, the name of which was two letters. The DJ thought that the first of the two letters represented her name, and the second that of the tenor player's name. I do remember that her last name ended in "-berg", "burg", "-borg", something with that sound.

The music was very "modern", and not at all "jazz" in the traditional "American" sense. It was, however, very thoughtful, inventive, and full of feeling, and I enjoyed it immensely. The synthesizers at times approximated elements of 20th century "Classical" music, and at other times seemed to use the more "advanced" textural elements of Joe Zawinul's work as a starting point. The tenor player played in a somewhat typical "European" manner, at least tonewise, but I was taken by his use of space, as well as his willingness to play in "bursts" of ideas, rather than in long unbroken strings of notes.

I realize that this is all very sketchy information, and I can probably get in touch with the DJ eventually (he only does the show once a week), but I thought I'd try here first. this was really interesting music, and apparently it has seldom, if ever, been heard on American radio. Any help in identifying this music would be greatly appreciated.

As always, thanks in advance.

EDIT: Thanks to John Couwenberg for figuring out who this was. Now - has anybody heard this music? Pretty interesting stuff!

Edited March 7, 2004 by JSngry

[couw]

Via the links page on www.swedejazz.se, I found out about LJ Records and Susanna Lindeborg.

Reads as if this is what you're looking for.

Edited March 7, 2004 by couw

[JSngry]

This is indeed it, John. Thank you much! Thread has beeb retitled, and hopefully some of our members have heard this group: http://www.lj-records.se/mwendo.html

Discussion/illumination/whatever by those who have would be most welcome!

[couw]

The PDF files on this page contain more info on the albums and actual order forms. Never heard her. I have been trying to find some samples online but thus far without any luck.

Edit: US distribution seems to be handled by Cadence.

Edited March 7, 2004 by couw

[JSngry]

So are you saying that she's obscure even in Europe?

And that I heard her on a college radio program in Texas?

Man, life never ceases to amaze me...

[pepe]

Mwendo Dawa is not exactly a household name in Europe. The group has been together for many years, but I think their main audience is to be found in Scandinavia. The competition in Europe is hard, both from other Europeans and from the US, and Mwendo Dawa never seem to "have made it". Might have something to do with distribution of records - a lot of good European units have poor distribution outside their own countries. (I believe I saw them reviewed at AAJ not long ago, however.) I also have the impression there was slightly more talk about them some years ago - they did many festivals and toured quite frequently, at least in Northern Europe.

Guess our Swedish members can give further comments.

Edited March 8, 2004 by pepe

[mikeweil]

I saw them live once, must have been the late 1970's. A nice band, a real band, not just a "project". They had their own personal thing going fusing jazz with rock influences in a very peculiar way. And they bridges generations, there were twenty years of age between the tenor saxist and the drummer (David Sundby). But their records were hard to get even then - I don't remember if they sold any on the gig.

Nice to hear they're still around!