TRUMPETER Bent Persson, in town this week with the Swedish Jazz Kings, is reputed to be one of the most
convincing exponents of the early Louis Armstrong style — the 1920s and early '30s.
"That period of Armstrong's playing has a great influence on me," he says. But what qualities does Persson try to capture in his own playing?
"It's the rhythmic aspect, mainly. It's very versatile also, compared with later years, when Armstrong went to a simpler, more majestic kind of playing.
In the beginning it was more fun, more improvised playing, and that's what interests me in Jazz.
"Of course, I'm also interested In other trumpet players, like Bix (Beiderbecke) or Henry Allen, or Cootie Williams. I'm not only playing the
Armstrong style."
Bent Persson's Armstrong admiration is such that he has made albums
copying solos Armstrong recorded for Edison cylinders but which had only been preserved on paper.
He says he avoids allowing admiration to lapse into imitation by adopting the original style, rhythms and some of the melody,
"but the improvising very seldom is copied. That wouldn't be right, because they never played the tunes the same from one time to the next".
He admits Armstrong occasionally followed a set routine on some songs, and there are some pieces where he feels obliged to follow suit,
such as the famous 'West End Blues'. "That solo is almost like a composition. You have to approach it like a concert piece for
classical trumpet if you are going to achieve the same feeling as the original.
Improvisation remains the central element, he stresses. "It's what distinguishes jazz from most other music."
The regular bassist with the Swedish Jazz Kings was unavailable for this tour and his place will be taken by Melbourne's Howard Cairns.
Mr Persson has not yet heard him, but is unconcerned. "Jazz is very international
now, the language is common and there is always some kind of dialect that comes out.
"You can put the guys together from anywhere all over the world and if they know all the tunes, you just start | playing and it works."
The Swedish Jazz Kings will play at Doctor Jazz on Wednesday and Thursday.