I just ordered...

Dick Heath wrote: Have just berated others on a keyboard thread for not looking/listening beyond the obvious suspects, I thought I better put my money where my mouth is, and just ordered some more  Johansson bros material: JOHANSSON: the last viking BENNY JANSSON: flume ride JOHANSSON: the j:son brothers + sonic winter

Is he that good? Thought he was ok with Malmsteen, but nothing special. Am willing to change that opinion with eveidence though! Have yiou heard the album he did with Holdsworth?

Snow Dog wrote: Dick Heath wrote: Have just berated others on a keyboard thread for not looking/listening beyond the obvious suspects, I thought I better put my money where my mouth is, and just ordered some more  Johansson bros material: JOHANSSON: the last viking BENNY JANSSON: flume ride JOHANSSON: the j:son brothers + sonic winter   Is he that good? Thought he was ok with Malmsteen, but nothing special. Am willing to change that opinion with eveidence though! Have yiou heard the album he did with Holdsworth?

The Johnassons are sons of a notable Swedish jazz pianist of the 60's Jans Johansson, which explains some of their range. There is one website which states Jonas Hellberg rescued the Johansson brothers from the mediocrity  of Yngwie Malmsteen - too right, although YM's Inspiration's stands head and shoulders above the rest of his catalogue IMHO.  (And I can only assume the mediocrity or worse of Stratovarious, is paying JJ's pension?). Hellberg used both Johanson brothers together and separately for a number of his experimental bands at the end of the 80's and early 90's and can be heard on record (mostly the Hellberg owned Day Eight Music label, and a few on the Johnasson's Heptagon label - both labels are Swedish based) . Danbo cites the excellent, acoustic set  Unseen Rain with Ginger Baker as leader. Two very different sides of a coin musically are The Jonas Hellberg Group : 'E' - power Hammond organ lead trio (which tends to make Niacin sound like a palm court trio in comparison) and the near-perfect metal thrash on The Shining Path's No other World - same line-up plus vocalist but completely different music. The two albums the brothers did with jazz rock guitarists Heavy Machinery (Holdsworth) and  Fission (with Mike Stern and the late Shawn Lane) are amongst the best. However, the little known (and to me unpronounceable) Fjäderlösa Tvåfotingar , puts Johnansson into the superleague. I love both the albums he did with Mastermind (and  differ from each other considerably) Excelsior! - the Mahavishnu one - and Angels Of The Apocalypse (more the ELP one). And be surprised at Ander Johansson's drum skills on his solo album Red Shift - does his own Black Page, but every track is different and multi-cultural (and Hellberg and Jens appear on a few too). To my ears, listening across a fullish range of Jens Johansson's recordings,  the major keyboard player emerges (alas there too many better known inferior recordings), and I would propose he has the class and range of Jan Hammer.

I may have a home-made  sampler of the Johanssons if you contact me separately.

http://www.panix.com/~jens/parse.cgi/records.par