November 9th marked 40 years since pianist Jan Johansson died at the age of 37 in a car accident. Though he is unknown to most of the world , he is celebrated in Sweden as one of it's largest and most famous jaxx musicians. From 1961 to 1968 he produced a series of albums using famous swedish and European folk tunes interpreted in jazz arrangements.
Embracing jazz in all it's form as a composer, performer, and writing for film music, children's music and avantgarde. Jan Johansson left us a great repository of music but a life lived for such a short time.
Swedish Radio (SR2) has a wonderful program to celebrate the live of Jan Johansson. You can have a listen to it here. It is in Swedish but has a great overview of his music.
http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/p2/program/amnessida.asp?programID=3015&Nyheter=&grupp=4408&artikel=2415875
For a further look into his life and music please visit his website where you can see some videos, and listen to some music.
