It could / If I is the debut duo album of Swedish, Stockholm-based pianist Alex Zethson (of Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra and Angles, and the head of Thanatosis Produktion label) and sax player Johan Jutterström (who has played with Zethson in the Crime Scenes quartet). This duo reimagines jazz standards and songs by Leonard Cohen, Pet Shop Boys, John Lurie, and German 19th-century composer Alexander Fesca in intimate, spacious, and ethereal arrangements. The album was recorded at Hugoteatern in Stockholm University of the Arts in September 2023.

Zethson and Jutterström chose ten songs with titles that begin with either «It Could» or «If I», three of them were penned by Jutterström, and they heavily rearranged these jazz standards and songs into disparate etudes to find new meaning and make sense of these radical arrangements.

Most likely, with such minimalist and austere arrangements, the casual listener may need a few deep listening sessions to decipher the melodic outlines of such the loved standards as «If I Had You» (by Ted Shapiro, Jimmy Campbell & Reg Connelly, covered by Etta James, among many others), «If I Should Lose You» (by Ralph Rainger, covered by Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Frank Sinatra and Keith Jarrett, among many others), and «If I Were A Bell» (by Frank Loesser, from the Guys and Dolls show, covered by Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald); or Lurie’s song for the Lounge Lizards’ «It could have been very very beautiful», Chris Lowe, Ennio Morricone and Neil Tennant’s song for the Pet Shop Boys «It Couldn’t Happen Here», or Leonard Cohen’s «If I Didn’t Have Your Love» (from the posthumously album You Want It Darker, Columbia, 2016). These intimate, contemplative versions flirt with jazz but refuse to surrender to any genre or stylistic conventions, faithful only to the essence of the original themes of love, desire, and anxiety.

Eyal Hareuveni

Alex Zethson (piano), Johan Jutterström (saxophone)