"Country & eastern" is the amusing phrase that
Bengt Berger used to describe
All Time High. The country part is debatable--nothing on this CD sounds anything like
Merle Haggard,
Tom T. Hall or
Patty Loveless--but the eastern part is certainly accurate. On this unorthodox, delightfully quirky effort,
Berger fearlessly combines jazz with everything from Arabic, Jewish and East European music to Swedish folk, blues and zydeco. It might be hard to imagine that many different forms of music co-existing under the same roof, but in fact,
Berger and his band the Bengt Berger Old School (which includes, among others, saxmen
Jonas Knutsson and Thomas Gustafsson, bassist Mikael Fahleryd and vocalists Catherine Hansson, Mats Öberg and
Pelle Lindström) see to it that all of their quirky experimentation is successful.
Berger takes a lot of chances on this unpredictable CD, and they pay off handsomely.