{"id":155698,"date":"2026-04-06T10:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/interviews-panm360\/john-sweenie-mysticism-for-intellectuals-album-interview-jazz-montreal\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T11:27:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:27:45","slug":"john-sweenie-mysticism-for-intellectuals-album-interview-jazz-montreal","status":"publish","type":"interviews","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/interviews-panm360\/john-sweenie-mysticism-for-intellectuals-album-interview-jazz-montreal\/","title":{"rendered":"We&#8217;re talking with John Sweenie about Mysticism for Intellectuals, an album that will make the &#8220;Best of&#8221; list for 2026."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The Albertan saxophonist John Sweenie has just released an album that I already consider to be one of the best jazz releases of 2026. With <em>&#8220;Mysticism for Intellectuals,<\/em>&#8221; the artist who has been based in Montreal for several years to study at McGill (we hope he settles down permanently afterwards!) has gathered some friends from the city (Rich Irwin, R\u00e9mi-Jean Leblanc, and Jean-Michel Pilc) to create an exciting adventure in groove and refined improvisation, with powerful pulses alternating with delicate atmospheres teeming with subtle details. I spoke with the artist about the album and his own story, as he is still not very well known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/records\/john-sweenie-mysticism-for-intellectuals-album-jean-michel-pilc-remi-jean-leblanc-rich-irwin-bent-river-records-jazz-montreal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">READ MY REVIEW OF THE ALBUM <em>MYSTICISM FOR INTELLECTUALS<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Note that John and his friends will be offering a launch concert on April 9 at The Yardbird Suite club in Edmonton (where the album was recorded) and on May 9, 2026, at Upstairs in Montreal. The Yardbird is a bit far for your humble chronicler, but rest assured you will see me at Upstairs to attend!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bentriverrecords.macewan.ca\/index.php\/2026\/03\/12\/john-sweenie-mysticism-for-intellectuals-album-release-brr-at-the-yardbird-suite\/\"><strong>DETAILS AND TICKETS FOR THE LAUNCH AT YARDBIRD SUITE &#8211; EDMONTON &#8211; APRIL 9, 2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.upstairsjazz.com\/calendar-2\/\"><strong>DETAILS AND TICKETS FOR THE LAUNCH AT UPSTAIRS &#8211; MONTREAL &#8211; MAY 9, 2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"INTERVIEW - John Sweenie - Mysticism for Intellectuals - Album\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NUxC-R3Tzio?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Albertan saxophonist John Sweenie has just released an album that I already consider to be one of the best jazz releases of 2026. With &#8220;Mysticism for Intellectuals,&#8221; the artist who has been based in Montreal for several years to study at McGill (we hope he settles down permanently afterwards!) has gathered some friends from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":775,"featured_media":155694,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":""},"categories":[4628],"tags":[],"genre":[4162],"class_list":["post-155698","interviews","type-interviews","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews-en","genre-jazz-en-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Interview - John Sweenie &#039;&#039;Mysticism for Intellectuals&#039;&#039; - Album - PAN M 360<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"De Montr\u00e9al, John Sweenie, avec Jean-Michel Pilc, R\u00e9mi-Jean Leblanc et Rich Irwin nous donnent Mysticism for Intellectuals, un Best of 2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/interviews-panm360\/john-sweenie-mysticism-for-intellectuals-album-interview-jazz-montreal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview - 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