Composer Reacts to Jan Johansson - Visa från Utanmyra (REACTION & ANALYSIS) 

I am swedish. This song gives me shivers. Every time.

It's an old folk song. The album is all Swedish folk songs that Jan Johansson did jazz interpretations of (you've listened to another before, submitted by Cynips for a live stream). His soloing was just what he felt like when expanding on the lead melody I guess. I think he did it gorgeously! This is part of the Swedish DNA. The album is from 1964. Jan Johansson died tragically in a car accident in 1968. His sons Anders and Jens are celebrated musicians within the metal community. Glad you liked the song. That beautiful melancholy is pretty typical for Scandinavian/Nordic folk. Ps! The Google translation "View from Without an Ant" gave a really good laugh 🤣 Ds!

Visa means song ( song from Utanmyra ) Utanmyra is a town, near Falun. Falun is the mining town, which gave name to the famous iron red colour so many barns got.

This is a favourite since my childhod. I must have been about 10 when this, the best selling Swedish jazz record through time, was released in 1964. I had to check it up (eventually I found a radio program about the background of the song). It is Jan Johansson (1931-1968) playing the grand piano and Georg Riedel (1934-) on bass. No others! Johansson found the notes of this old folk song at the library in the early 60s. "Visa från Utanmyra" translates to song from Utanmyra, correctly a very small village in about the geographical middle of Sweden. The song was played or sung in 1906 by a girl, Reser Anna Larsson from Utanmyra, who had learnt it from her mother. The text (yes, there is one) was actually "Oh tysta ensamhet" = Oh silent lonelyness. Written by Olof Dahlin in 1795. The melody might be younger or older. Jan Johansson created this improvisation from the notes. This one and "Emigrantvisa / De sålde sina hemman" was hits from the album, often played in radio. Johansson finally get bored of them. He declared once that this will be the last time I play it. He died in a car accident a few days later.

Ahaahaha, it ends without a resolution. Welcome to northern Scandinavia melancholy. This is that feeling when you're out in the woods a summer night and you watch the sun set over a black forest lake, and the warm air blends with the cool night air on your face. And everything is so beautiful it hurts.

Jan Johansson is (was) like a minimalist version of Bill Evans. He was a student at Chalmers, the Technical University of Gothenburg but eventually decided to go all in for music. Unfortunately he died in a car accident in 1968, 37 years old. I believe the album “Jazz på Svenska” was one of the first albums recorded in stereo in Sweden and contains “jazz” versions of traditional folk songs. There are several good songs on the album and ”Visa från Utanmyra” is the most well known.

This is the unofficial anthem of Sweden.

In this context, "Visa" means song . This brings back memories from early childhood. I think of my mother and father

"Song from Outmire" from album "Jazz in swedish"

This music has been one of my favourites all my life. Utanmyra means outer mire and I belive it refers to a distant place from home, where young women looked after the cattle in the summertime in older times. Thank you for reacting to this one. Jan Johansson tradically died in a car accident in 1967

It's one piano. One bass. Played at once.

This came out in 1964, not 2005. So it's not a modern recording.

Jan Johanssons sons played with Yngwie Malmsteen. The drummer Anders also played with Hammerfall and Manowar. Jens played with Dio and Rainbow and Stratovarius. Both of them are very talented.

Yeah it's contextual, Visa could be effectively translated as "folk song" because that's what it is. By the way, thanks to you I'm discovering a lot of fun stuff and I've discovered I really like some jazz haha. Being swedish and this apparently being jazz interpretations of classic swedish folk songs sign me the heck up, added the album to my jazz playlist, thanks Bryan :D

This is a Swedish folksong. I love that they have not jazzed it totally away. I love that they kept the simplicity. Just like simple and clean scandinavian design.

"visa" means song or tune. "Från" is "from". "Utanmyra" is the name of a place, and it is a composit word. "Utan-" means "without" but it can also mean, as in this case, "outside" or it could maybe even mean "the far". "Myra" means "ant", but in this case the word you are looking for is "myr" wich translates as bog or marsh. (It is a feature of nordic landscape that doesn't perfectly translate into an English word) The ending "-a" signifies that it is an old place name. "Utanmyra" is thereby translated as "the outer marsh" or "(the place) outside the marsh" If you look up "utanmyra" on Google Maps, you find one single place with this name, it looks like it is a small village ore even just a farmstead outside the city of Falun in Sweden.

Grew up with that one. A very nice song.

You talk about two pianos. I'm pretty sure it is just Jan Johansson on the one piano. And they seem to have been doing the recording "live", as in just recording everything in one take, all at once. Well, "all" in this case meaning Jan Johansson on the piano, and Georg Riedel on upright bass. So when you hear two pianos, I think you are wrong. But I could be wrong.

The ass in the background is played by George Riedel who wrote songs to Astrid Lindgren and her characters. 😉🇸🇪 May he rest in peace. 🥹

There are lots of comments already, but I'd like to add a thing or two. Jazz på svenska (Jazz in Swedish) was originally released as three EPs in 1962, 1963 and 1964 respectively. In 1964 the tracks were collected as an album (with one of the tracks replaced by another take of the same song). The album was rereleased on CD with bonus tracks and mp3s of the complete sessions in 2005. The music is traditional Swedish songs, dance tunes, wedding marches and one "vallåt" (call for the cattle to come home). Visa från Utanmyra was recorded in Stockholm on February 28, 1962 and originally included on the first EP. The song is also known as O Tysta Ensamhet (Oh, Silent Loneliness) from its opening line. So, it's a sad, "why does nobody love me" type of song. The lyrics referred to in one of the comments were written by Björn Lindroth after Jan Johansson had popularised the song. It was recorded by Monica Zetterlund in 1963 (Great singer and another Swedish artist you need to check out).

Jan Johansson was inspiration for title track Heritage by Opeth.

I would say that this is as Swedish as it gets... listening to this while taking a train through a rain swept Sweden... beautiful and melancholic!

so soft with an ambiant vibe that lead me directly near the end of the 40's with the piano having fun playnig with the theme

Utanmyra means beyond the bogs, its place.. it was even a place at Viking age, where people lived.. on the other side of the bogs! Jan Johansson was a jazz pianist, I dont know if he did have any connections to this place, but its kinda swedish folklore on a jazz piano.

I've been on a jazz kick lately (been exploring the discographies of Bill Evans and Sonny Rollins) so this fits in perfectly with what I've been listening to recently; definitely has something of Evans's delicate lyricism, though it's harmonically simpler than Evans given the latter's influence from the French Impressionist composers. I see other comments have mentioned it's an adaptation of a Swedish folk song and I can definitely hear that, though it's been common in jazz to do adaptations of folk songs since as long as jazz has been around; Sonny Rollins especially loved covering the popular songs of the day. This was definitely lovely and I may try to find a version to buy/download and just throw it on my current playlist.

I grew up in Denmark... next to Sweden and heard this in the late 60's. Loved it as I loved Beatles and so on...

When my husband and I got married, in 1976, when we arrived at our reception, on an island in Oslo fjord (Ildjernet), this was playing. We have loved it ever since, and still have the LP...it is just recently that I have learned Jan Johnasson died long before we were married

That album is unique in that it still sells very well over 50 years after release. The most swedish music you will find.

Visa från Utanmyra is translated as "Song from Utanmyra"

The first music I hear when I came to my country Sweden 1972 was this one. Really Jazz på Svenska. "Jazz in swedish".

Only 1 pianist and 1 piano. One person on bass

This amazing Pianoplayer who wrote the theme for "Pippi Longstocking" gathered a lot of old folksongs from Sweden, som of the songs are named after the location where he found it. For many Scandinavians this album "Jazz in Swedish" is essential in your record collection alongside Kind of blue and Beatles white album. There is only one piano ....

Dostoyevsky said that all the Russian writers had come out of Gogols overcoat / referring, for those who don't know to his novel "the overcoat". I think it's fair to say that all Swedish musicians have come out of Jan Johansson's piano.

It's the calm n steady pill for my craving for the organized simple cleaness.

This is a signifikant part of my childhood. Wery much Swedish folk. Please find it with sorg…. Monica Zetterlund , and tell us what you think…. Pax! /ToZ

Interesting to listen to this review from one who just dives into something unkown and from many decades later than when it was recorded. Since I have listen to this music from time time for 55 years about, seen Jan Johansson and George Riedel live several times, both in Swedish Radio Broadcasting Studio in Stockholm and in the Concert House in "my town", Norrköping, one tme in the 60s, read a lot about him, about the recording of the album, listened to the music and pals talking about him in radio programs..so it was amusing to listen to what a serious muscian like you could figure out about it. // The recordings in later days are often done in another faschion than what was the tradition in the 60s, so I guess you were a bit suspicous about how this was produced, how "authentically" it was. // The sound in the room was something Jan worked a lot on, I have read, he did not want a drummer! although Egil Johansen who use to play with him in the Swedish Radio Jazz Group was/is a terrific drummer, but those transients flowing out in space would have been disturbed as Jan had it, so that was his reason to keep it so sparse.// For me who lived a bit north in Sweden when I was young, this is exactly how I feel about the melancoly with the forests, lakes and very few people there, as I see many in the comment field talk about. // After this was recorded, Jan had doubts about if it was good , if it was even anything to release...!? well...there are always so many options, why this?...why not somethng els...?...I think of Duke Ellington saying...just give me a dead line please, otherwise I will be changing it forever..like...// Those who worked around Jan, like e.g .Arne Domnerus, saxophonist, had the opnion that Jan was the only genius we have had in Sweden, or other pals would consider him genius like...his appropriation on the tangents was personal and unique, and when he was asked about it, he did not think it was anything special, he said that when you had hit the tangent you could not do much about the tone/note...well maybe the pedals then...but he put those "grace notes" in to make the inteferences of the oscillations make something happening instead. // The recording that you listened to seemed to be the original recording to me, Jan's sons...good and famous musicians on their own have made a remix of that album that I for myself is not fond of, that mix have the bass too thick and the room sound too spacy for me...I do not get the feeling of that melancholy that I can recognize from living in Norrland sparsely populated area. // Okay this became long, but this music have a place in my heart, although I do not listen to it each and everyday, but now and then. Thanks for the review! I will put a link to a live in studio, so people can see how they handle everything live under here.

As I said in a recently common it's probably hard to appreciate this music if you haven't grown up with cold, dark winters and isolation. But in a way it's a good thing that you can't. Benny Andersson in ABBA has spoken about this sentiment as the key to understand ABBA. Sweden produces good music in an astonishing rate, and the special melancholy tune can't be copied. The Swedish music tradition has not only given birth to artists as ABBA, Europe, Roxette, the Cardigans, the Dirty Loops and many many other worldly appreciated bands and solo artists, but have many other artists that sings in Swedish and are considered just as good and inspiring for Swedish artists. As an example a pop guy unknown for the world, Jacob Hellman,made an LP that was chosen as the best Swedish LP by the biggest Swedish newspaper by the year 2000. My point being: only Scandinavian artist has access to this unique source of inspiration, so they will always be able to shine in a unique way with an expression that can hardly be copied. And Jan Johansson is one of these national/regional house Gods that will always keep inspiring us. I think you can hear it in the piano parts in the Dirty Loops song Work shit out for example. Any Swede who listens to it will immediately say: "Jan Johansson!"

Yeah, you didn't get it. I don't blame you. It's about darkness, snow and solitude. You must have had that experience to tune into this song, I guess. If you listen to ABBA playing super trouper on Wembley, Benny Andersson pays tribute to this musical tradition and even to Jan Johansson in the synth intro to the song. Another folktune but similar.

I haven't seen any good translation from the Swedish Wikipage in the comments, so here comes a summary. The melody was written down at a musical Event in Gesunda 1906. The melody was performed by Reser Anna Larsson who lived in Utanmyra on Sollerön, hence "Song from Utanmyra". The wiki page doesn't really say, but I believe it was an old traditional melody. Reser Anna Larsson was playing Cow Horn Bugle. Wiki page doesn't really state it, but most likely it was perfomer on Cow Horn Bugle at the event 1906.

I love this recording. Its two of Sweden's best jazz instrumentalists ever, Jan Johansson on piano and Georg Riedel on contra bass. Its based on an old folk tune, Song from Utanmyra. I do not think you can learn to pronounce the name Utanmyra. The U and the Y have sounds not existing in English at all.

You get if you're Scandinavian.

It is in a key that my music teacher called "Melodic Minor". Slightly different from ordinary minor. A melodic minor: A-B-C-D-E-F-G#-A. Jan Johansson collected old Swedish folk songs before they were forgotten and mixed them with jazz. It is as Swedish as it can get. A reminder of the hard times when people mixed bark in the bread when they starved. When people decided to go to America. Listen and you hear it.

Visa means song or verse. "från" means "from". "Ut" means "out" "Myr" means marsh or bog or something like that. So outbog or outmarsh, so think wilderness or something like that, not really owned by anyone. It's also the name of a city in Sweden.

Thank you. This is one of my all time favorite pieces since I was a toddler. One of the musical magicians up there with Jimi Hendrix for me. The beautiful blend of melancholic music from the US and Sweden really pulls at my soul. At our wedding, for her bridal march, we chose the fifth song on this album: Brudmarsch efter Larshöga Jonke. It presented her perfectly

View from without an ant - yes, that is the title! Spot on.👌

And this was my actual pick for that livestream some time ago. So you’ve heard it before!

This song is strongly associated with Gotland where me and my entire extended family (on my grandfather's side) are natives.

Us swedes holds the olympic gold for melancholy in music. You can hear it not only in folk and jazz but also in pop such as ABBA or Ace of base. The list is long but Kent and Weeping Willows are super sad in the most beautiful way.

You talk about how it ends on tension, without resolution. There's lyrics to this song, about love lost. Or maybe about a girl who was used and left behind. "Only once did I meet the man who changed my world. He broke my rose and laughed. And then he walked". So maybe it ends on tension on purpose? One version with lyrics here, in Swedish of course, though: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tGj0vnMgRsw.html

I think there is a soft snare hit at 1:59 of your video, so the steel brush hypothesis is probably correct!

Nooo Utanmyra. Means outside mire...a little villigage outside Falun.( Myra also means as ant but not in this context)Mire= myr.Myra is dialect in this name.

The best album in history.

If one wants to check out Jan Johanssons technique, there's a video of Emigrantvisa (different song on the same album) here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ej4P6m7L-4U.html

Visa = Show something But also Visa = Musical piece

The title means ”Song from Utanmyra” Utanmyra is a place, visa = song, often folk song, when it comes to music. Visa can also mean ”show” like in ”Let me show you this..” Your translation was hilarious though 😅

The Swedish Soul: modernistic with its roots in forest fairy lands.

"View from without ant"? That was a mistranslation! Well, no, it is kind of a correct translation, but just as the English word "spring" can mean at least three different things (water, bouncy thing, or a time of the year), this is more of that. As others already pointed out, "visa" in this context means "song". Or more specifically a traditional folk song. And that "från Utanmyra" part means "from (the village of) Utanmyra". I suppose the village is near a bog or swamp or something, because the village name means something like "outside the swamp". But that is not important here, it's just a village name, no point in trying to decipher that. The title of the song comes from a researcher who was writing down old traditional songs before the last traditional performers died out, about a hundred years ago. And this song was written down in a tiny village named Utanmyra. It just happened to be the village where the researcher heard the song. It might very well not be the place the song originally came from. But he wrote it down as "Song I heard in the village of Utanmyra". And now it is the name the song has here in Sweden.

A collegue and I used to define jazz as the most unnecessary playing between two bars ... but this is very much the opposite - minimalistic jazz. And definitely enjoyable.

Just wanted to say that the title of the album translate to "Jazz in Swedish", and the song is his 'freestyle/jazzy version' of a classical Swedish folk-song. And it in turn translates to "Song from 'Utanmyra'", where 'Utanmyra' is a place/village in Sweden. Jan Johansson is a Swedish legend within the Jazz- & Folk-song scene, still! He's a national 'treasure'. And no - this is a 'live' duet, Bass and Johansson on piano. Didn't see anyone else in the comments provide the correct translation. Cheers from Sweden.

only one pianist

6:04 That "translation" is way off.

Utanmyra means “on the outer margins of the moore”. Myra and moore are related words. “Utan” basicaly means “on the far side of”. The girl in the song had no chance protecting her virginity (here “rose”) when meeting a man “on the outer side of the moore”.

Suggestion: check out Lars Gullin, swedish jazz icon of the fifties. He played Baryton saxophone and was bandleader. Listen to "dannys dream" or "summertime". You find it on youtube.

for me that is one of the best instrumental ..........

Nice guy..........but I gave up with him trying to understand this 60's Swedish jazz classic piece!!! Obviously if he knew his stuff he'd get this right away......But being a snot-nosed music college kid he's never heard of Jan Johansson.!!.....such a shame. But we accept that nowadays......he's probably never heard Herbie Hancock's "Mimosa" either!!!.....