1969 Lasse Fernlöf And His Orchestra “The Chameleon” on RCA Victor

Well, since I posted Staffan Abeleen’s“Downstream” recently, upon which Mr. Fernlöf lends his idiosyncratic trumpet to excellent effect, had to pull out this killer soundtrack to the Swedish softcore noir “Kameleonterna”, directed by Torbjörn Axelman. Axelman also directed “Cowboy in Sweden” starring Lee Hazlewood, the soundtrack to which features alt versions of certain Hazelwood hits, all of which is exactly as deeply weird as it sounds. There are basically two kinds of people in the world: deranged Lee Hazelwood fans, and then everyone else, a small percentage of whom are vaguely aware of him through Nancy Sinatra. Anyway, Chameleon is a slick and creative joint with plenty of modal mood and style and a couple bangers. My man Bernt Rosengren (“Notes From Underground”) shows up uncredited to lay some mean tenor over the montages, and it all has a very cinematic feel even if you had no idea that it was connected to a movie. Monica Zetterlund, who has a following not unlike Hazelwood’s, is on a number of extended tracks that appear on the RE, but flutters in and out here. Weird, fun, very Swedish, very hip jazz. Oh yea!