Jonas Hellborg

Michael J. Smith was (and stays) a fairly unknown piano player to me, to say the least. I picked up this copy years ago from the sales section (notice the hole in the bottom left corner meaning the record was selected for fast and cheap selling) and was pleasantly surprised. Yes I bought the record because of Jonas Hellborg who I knew from a Mahavishnu incarnation.

Third man in the party is Santana sticks man Michael Shrieve (remember Woodstock). I read an interview with Shrieve once looking back at that recording session. Smith picking up Shrieve at the airport accompanied by a timide young man who turned out to be the bass player for the recording. Little did Shrieve know what a bass player Hellborg would turn out to be.

Side A is a melodic fusion explosion with a fierce take no prisoners approach, side B starts of with a drum evocation by Shrieve, followed by a more free, improvised kind of playing.

Relativity Records, TR 8101
Recorded in Stockholm, May, 1983

A side:

  1. So let it spring
  2. The seventh way
  3. All our steps...
  4. Jonas

B side:

  1. Neap tide
  2. Sense
  3. The virgin bride
Michael J. Smith 'All our steps'