Björn J:son Lindh - 1972 - Cous Cous

Björn J:son Lindh

1972

Cous Cous

01. My Machine 4:06

02. Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues 2:58

03. Bobo 5:17

04. El Henna 2:51

05. Kiki 3:46

06. Elastic Springtime 3:30

07. The Booster Pump 3:22

08. Abdo 10:02

Janne Schaffer - Acoustic Guitar, Guitar, Electric Guitar

Palle Danielsson – Bass

Mike Watson - Bass [Fender]

Nagi el Habashy - Cello

Kofi Aivor - Congas

Malando Gassanna - Congas

Bengt Berger - Drums

Ola Brunkert – Drums

Bobo Stenson - Electric Piano

Kenny Håkansson - Guitar [Electric]

Abd el Rahman el Khatib – Lute

Bahi Barakat - Tabla

Jan Bandel – Tabla

Arranged By - Abd el Rahman el Khatib, Björn J:Son Lindh

Producer - Anders Burman

Engineer - Rune Persson

Swedish flautist Björn Jayson Lindh (later Björn J:son Lindh) was pretty active in the 70s putting out quite a few good jazzfunk LPs with three of them being distributed by CTI. Here's his second and one which received better critical reception upon release than most others, as evidenced in this review over at Vinyl Vulture:

A more composed affair this one, as Björn gets his mate Janne Schaffer in to beef up the axework, which he quickly does on the opening workout 'My Machine': nice chunky funk and a great start. There is much contrast to this and the more laid back tracks like 'Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues', which boasts a certain mellowness and a lovely string arrangement of his own creation. On the same theme is 'El Henna', perhaps one of his most graceful cuts; floating gently along as multi-tracked flute lines weave back and forth like angel's pillow talk. Truly beautiful. This LP also finds Lindh at his most Bob James-like on 'Elastic Springtime', which really is disturbingly similar to the Taxi theme and pre-dates it by some years. Naughty old Bob! And then, just when you are just starting to wonder what has happened to the Turkish Delight, the album finishes with a 10-minute trip down just those streets, which is not at all bad. Could well be top of the heap this one.

Finding this album in the early 90s was a bit of a relief. It helped me deal much better with my secret shame of harbouring an appreciation for the first (and only listenable) ABBA record since Lindh sweded up the horn and string arrangements for his fellow countrymen. One of my musical sins absolved, I could sleep a teensy bit better at night.