Young Swedish, Stockholm-based jazz drummer Nils Agnas is part of the well-known Agnas family who has been a big part of the Swedish music scene for generations. Nils Agnas is the son of trumpeter Joakim Agnas and the cousin of the celebrated jazz quartet Agnas Bros – guitarist Kasper, drummer Konard, double bass player Mauritz and pianist Max. Nils Agnas’ debut solo album featured the young Max and Mauriz Agnas cousins, Red House Tapes (Haphazard Music, 2021), who also perform on his sophomore album, Köper sig ur en kris (Buying his way out of crisis), together with the much older and more experienced Moserobie label boss, tenor sax player Jonas Kullhammar.

The Moserobie label tells that Nils Agnas found himself in a personal crisis in 2023. His way out of the crisis, that he still struggles with, is investing all of his fortune in recording his interpretations of five standards, mostly left-off-center standards, at Stockholm’s legendary Atlantis studio, with the in-demand and apparently, expensive to hire Kullhammar. «It might just be the path forward. At the very least, we’re not giving up hope!»

Agnas’ quartet opens with a playful and straight ahead cover of Joe Henderson’s post-bop «Isotope» (originally recorded in Inner Urge, Blue Note, 1966), but surprises with a contemplative interpretation of Carla Bley’s iconic «Ida Lupino», made famous by Paul Bley (and originally recorded in his Ramblin’, BYG, 1969). Max Agnas’ playing on the two grand pianos of the Atlantis studio owes much to the adventurous, exploratory spirit of Paul Bley. Carla Bley’s «Ictus», originally performed by Jimmy Guiffre 3 with Paul Bley (1961, ECM, 1992) receives an energetic, explosive reading, led by the fiery sax of Kullhammar before it slows down and begins to reminisce the introspective one of Guiffre 3. The cover of Ornette Coleman’s «Chronology» (originally recorded in The Shape of Jazz to Come, Atlantic, 1959) does not replicate the telepathic interplay of Coleman’s classic quartet but offers a propulsive Nordic perspective to Coleman’s harmolodics philosophy. The quartet concludes with a beautiful, minimalist and gentle cover of the classic Harold Arlen with Yip Harburg’s ballad «Over the Rainbow».

Nils Agnas is only 29 years old, but as Moserobie tells, he believes in honesty about where he stands in his career. Maybe next time he will invest whatever is left of his fortune in an album of his own compositions, and finally will leave the crisis behind.

Eyal Hareuveni

Nils Agnas (drums), Max Agnas (piano), Mauritz Agnas (double bass), Jonas Kullhammar (tenor saxophone)