Hederosgruppen has established itself as one of Sweden’s most hyped jazz acts, both live and on record. This quintet is titled after its founder, pianist and organist Martin Hederos (of Tonbruket and The Soundtrack of Our Lives), and features trumpeter Emil Strandberg, tenor and soprano sax player Andreas Sjögren, double bass player Josef Kallerdahl, and drummer Konard Agnas.

Torsdag 24 april 2025 is Hederosgruppen’s fourth album, and first live album, recorded at one of Sweden’s most legendary jazz clubs, Jazzstudion in Umeå, in a sold-out performance. The album captured the band during an extended tour across Sweden, but with no plans whatsoever to record or release this particular performance. Only a few days after the performance, Hederosgruppen realized that Jazzstudion’s sound engineer had recorded the performance on his own initiative.

This performance captures Hederosgruppen in top form, sharp, smart, with a tight repertoire of eight effective song-like pieces. This quintet evolved into a close collective, with an egalitarian dynamic, and Strandberg, Sjögren, and Kallerdahl joined Hederos in composing the pieces. The performance is built as a dramatic, quite eclectic narrative, swinging between the ecstatic and complex (Sjögren’s «Allt ledde hit!») to the openly emotional and poetic (Sjögren’s «Här kommer en dikt jag skrev i natt»), always serving the melodic themes, but never pushing it too far into experimental edges. The performance reaches its emotional climax with Hederos’ last three pieces, the intense, ironically titled «Mjuk grupp», the relaxed, groove-based «Kniven», and the touching ballad with a beautiful piano and trumpet solos, «Jenny».

Eyal Hareuveni

Martin Hederos (piano, organ), Emil Strandberg (trumpet), Andreas Sjögren (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone), Josef Kallerdahl (double bass), Konrad Agnas (drums)