Two decades after his Swedish Standards became best jazz album of the year, the pianist Jan Lundgren (1966) presents an homage to Jan Johansson the pioneer of Swedish jazz who passed away early. The program consists of fresh renditions of Swedish, Russian and Hungarian folk tunes from the legendary 1960s Johansson albums with new arrangements for piano, bass and string quartet.

Just like Esbjörn Svensson and Bobo Stenson, another two great figureses of the innovative Swedish jazz pianism that already performed at the Belgrade Jazz Festival, Lundgren was awarded the Jan Johansson scholarship. This pianist skilfully blends various influences into a compact, fascinating whole, he always gives priority to his musicality than to his undoubtedly fantastic technique. Whether it is contemporary classical music, the inexhaustible northern folk tradition or the pulsating groove of jazz; gentle or powerful performance; a classic trio format or the Mare Nostrum band with Paolo Fresu (trumpet) and Richard Galliano (accordion) – in all these areas Lundgren achieves the highest results.