Ive been a musical-ear-based musician (my instrument is guitar not piano) for 26 years, and I can read just over 70% of every phrase he plays, as a language. Hes the only musician I can do this with, and I know my music. Its literally a conversation. His beautiful mind chooses to play a phrase, and I know what he means. He holds back just slightly, I hear it. He compensates, I pick up on it. We ponder, we wonder, we laugh, he leaves very subtle puzzles, plays with the lack of resolution, checks that Im following, makes a joke, asks a question, and sometimes even adds filler - but in a deliberate way, and he settles on it, knowing that it will be his next platform from which to pounce. Into the irreplaceable, red pill-offering, continuously pioneering, completely natural genius that is and always will be, Esbjorn Svensson.
This man played his music from his heart.He came and went out of this temporary realm and some of us did not know about him until we heard about his passing.His art is a manifestation of the essence of beauty,may we all vibrate with that resonance while we are still here and beyond!!
Oh man, he was just the greatest. My favourite ever pianist and trio, I am a jazz drummer. I love Magnus Ostrom’s work, they are all on the highest level of musicianship.
