„Butterfly Effect“
Magnus Lindgren and John Beasley met at the Java Jazz Festival where they started a conversation and found out that they are not only instrumentalists but arrangers and conduct jazz orchestras. By coincidence, Beasley was invited to bring his MONK’estra charts and conduct Sweden’s Blue House Jazz Orchestra which is led by Lindgren, the Artistic Director. Their musical chemistry was evident during that concert that led to five more unique projects over five years.
The first concert Jazz Across Continents was a septet of all-star global artists to illustrate how “the act of musical collaboration hopes to show the power of music to diminish borders.” It included Dhafer Youssef (Tunisia), Keiko Freitas (Brazil), John Patittuci (Italian-American), China Moses (African-American-French), Magnus Lindgren and Peter Apslund (Sweden) and John Beasley (American).
While working on Jazz Across Continents, Lindgren and Beasley started to realize the infinity to each other’s imagination and creativity; how their harmonic and melodic voicings were complimentary; and how experimental they can be if they harness their potential synergy. Their cross-pollination created their signature voice. Lindgren and Beasley went on to write like a tag team Charlie Parker’s music for an album “Bird Lives” with Stuttgart’s SWR Big Band which would go on to earn three GRAMMY nominations and a win.
Their next challenge was to work with the 90-piece Bielefeld Philharmoniker featuring Wayne Shorter’s music. This led to a commission the following year for an original symphonic piece. In 2023, Lindgren and Beasley reunited to arrange the music of Herbie Hancock’s “Secrets” album with an African twist, featuring Benin guitarist Lionel Loueke with SWR Big Band.
Before the year closed, Beasley was invited to perform at the Ystad Winter Piano Festival in Sweden. He called Lindgren to explore pairing down from orchestras to just sax and piano. What resulted was a showcase of how deeply interconnected they are musically; how they have this telepathic musical relationship and as a duo, they create a butterfly effect.
Magnus Lindgren and John Beasley present a duo album, Butterfly Effect, of 10 songs angling their musicianship through a series of imaginative original music and a variety of spirited improvisational conversations.
In this intimate duo setting, the music highlights the complexity and soul of their musical personalities. In our distracted world built on clicks and likes, Butterfly Effect is a rich, poignant reminder that even small harmonious albums can change the larger landscape of our musical universe.
About John Beasley
John Beasley is a versatile pianist, composer, arranger who began his career in his 20s backing jazz icons Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard. Since then, Beasley has performed with a wide range of artists, including Dianne Reeves, Christian McBride, John Patitucci, Chaka Khan, Carly Simon, to name a few. He was music director for international tours with Steely Dan, AR Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) and Queen Latifah and co- MD for Chucho Valdes La Creation tour.
As a recording artist, Beasley has over a dozen albums and has earned 11 GRAMMY nominations.
About Magnus Lindgren
Magnus is a highly talented and respected soloist on tenor saxophone, flute and clarinet. He is also a prolific arranger, composer and conductor, with countless musical arrangements and compositions for big bands, symphony orchestras and other ensemble formats. On the European jazz scene he continues to work increasingly as a conductor.
As a musician and composer, Magnus has the vision to continually explore the limitless possibilities by painting with brushes of „self-composition“ and „classical music“, an approach also explored by his role models such as Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, who are part of his influence in his efforts to delve into the universal world of music.