Bengt Hallberg Trio, Dinah (Phillips)
When the Swedish pianist Bengt Hallberg died four years ago at the age of 80, most of his obituaries included a quote from a 1950s Miles Davis blindfold test that included Stan Getz’s celebrated recording of “Ack Värmeland du sköna,†(aka â€Dear Old Stockholmâ€).
The piano player gasses me . . . I never heard anybody play in a high register like that. So clean, and he swings and plays his own things…
Dinah, One of Hallberg’s most rewarding trio albums, has seldom made it across the Atlantic. Jan Lundgren says it was important to him as he developed into a celebrated and important successor to Hallberg. CDs of Dinah are hard to find, but an online search turned up a retailer with a small stash of the vinyl albums. (Full disclosure: I have no connection with the seller).