Mattias Roos - Movin' Up (2017)

Hot on the heels of his ‘My Story’ release, Swedish keyboard player Mattias Roos is all set to make his Skytown Records debut with ‘Movin’ Up’, a tight ten-track collection that he writes, arranges and produces throughout. As such it is a glittering showcase for his multiplicity of talents and sure to attract the kind of critical acclaim Roos first enjoyed in 2016 with the run-away hit single ‘Dreaming’.

As well as being a solo artist and a ‘go-to’ keyboard player for a number of top-flight Swedish performers, Roos is also a founding member of the band Soweco that he formed with drummer Peter Gustavsson in 2011. Soweco is well known for fusing smooth jazz grooves with an old school vibe and in ‘Movin’ Up’ Roose has found the perfect vehicle to transfer all of this into his solo performances while still retaining an identity that is very much his own.

Take for example the first single slated for radio, the mellifluous yet zesty title cut for which the unmistakable U-Nam makes some stellar contributions on guitar and Dwayne Smitty Smith holds it down on bass. Another luminary of the genre, Elan Trotman, takes center stage on sax for the spine tingling ‘Just Between Us’ that Roos co-writes with noted saxophonist Greger Hillman. Despite a compelling swagger it is a tune that might best be described as instrumental quiet storm and later, as Roos flips effortlessly between piano and Rhodes, he conjures up the decidedly edgy ‘Stay For A While’.

It is another gem in a collection crammed full of them and, talking of standouts, the deliciously mid tempo ‘Take It Higher’ has the kind of infectious quality that might well get in your head and not go away.

Old school magic is on offer with the sublime ‘Midnight Drive’ where outstanding work on keys is complemented by a splash of beautifully engineered synth horns. It’s a number that checks every smooth jazz box imaginable and as Mattias retains a brassy backdrop for the feel good ‘You’re My Everything’ it provides the chance for trumpeter Markus Asplund to shine.

In terms of top notch keyboard driven smooth jazz then the extremely easy grooving ‘Touch The Sky’ is right there with the best and much the same can be said of the glorious ‘Sunset View’ that is every bit as bright as the title suggests it might be.

Another mood change ushers in the romantically inclined ‘From Me To You’. It is a song that, courtesy of guitarist Samuel Olofsson, builds to a glorious crescendo and when Olofsson returns to add some street-wise attitude to the urgency of ‘City Nights’ he is joined in the venture by bass player Jonatan Lundin and drummer Wictor Persson.

From Sweden, but with a feeling that is right out of LA, ‘Movin’ Up’ is not just the name of the album, it is a statement that here is an artist who is at the very top of his game and Movin’ Up to smooth jazz stardom.