Jan Slottenäs Storband: In the Glenn Miller Mood

Tonight the Jan Slottenäs Storband performs at Uppsala Konsert & Kongress with the show "In the Glenn Miller Mood".

The band plays the arrangements just like Glenn Miller did. The concert starts at 19.30. The tickets costs 365 kr.

If you like Glenn Miller, this is the concert to attend tonight. I hope they play more swing than sweet music.

Did you visit the concert? What did you think of it? Tell me.

Mississippi Seven at Mosebacke: Concert Photos

On Tuesday, the band Mississippi Seven celebrated its 15th anniversary at Mosebacke in Stockholm. Mississippi Seven plays traditional jazz (dixieland jazz).



Mississippi Seven consists of Bengan Jansson (kornett), Hans B-garden Brandgård (trombone, song) och Anders Alm (saxophone, clarinet, song). The rhythm section includes Bertil Ekman (drums, song), Lars Ireblad (tuba), Gösta Colliander (piano, accordion) and Christer Wiklander (banjo, tenorguitar).

Drummer Bertil Ekman talks between the song about everything and nothing. He has lots of humour. I don't know what he does for a living but perhaps he's a salesman, this night he sold jazz and if you like traditional jazz Mississippi Seven is an offer you can't refuse.



This time they also had a guest player, Anders Nelson on clarinet. Anders is one of the founders of the band.



The band claims that they are the only band that has a river named after them...



The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.



Have you heard Mississippi Seven? What do you think of them? Tell me.

Palladium at Grand: Concert photos

Last Saturday, the big band Palladium played at Grand Swing Night in Uppsala at a dance arranged by Swingkatten. The band plays swing but is also very influenced by jump blues.



It was a very good night and I had fun dancing both lindy and balboa. A few couples also danced foxtrot. Folks, remember that foxtrot can be a good dance to do if a really fast song comes along and you don't want to lindy hop to it but you don't know balboa. Foxtrot is also great for slow songs.



When I took a small break to cool down I photographed the band and the dancers (surprise! not.). I know people see me photograph a lot and wonder where the pictures all end up. Well, some of them make it to this blog and some of them I send directly to the people in them. If you think you might have been in front of my camera lens, send me an email and ask me. I'm still looking for a good way to share more photos.

I'm also selling and licencing my photographs, I might have the picture for you in my archive.

If you like my style you can hire me for a photo shoot. Although I mostly show jazz concert pictures here, I photograph all kinds of things, but I prefer to photograph people.



The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Were you at Grand Swing Night with Palladium? What did you think of the band? Tell me.

Dancing to save your sole: Al Norman

If you have been a long time reader of this blog you might remember the dancer Al Norman and his rubber legs. In the video clip above Al Norman dances in the number "Dancing To Save Your Sole" together with Nancy Carroll. The band is Abe Lyman and his Orchestra.

I think the clip is from Paramount on Parade from 1930 and that the presenter is Skeets Gallagher.

What do think of the video clip with Al Norman? Tell me.

Johan Christoffersson 4: Concert Photos

On Saturday The Johan Christoffersson 4 played at Katalin at an concert arranged by Uppsala Jazz Club. The band plays modern jazz and while my main consumtion of jazz is swing, I really liked their music.

They are very good musicians and what I like most about them apart from the music is the joy of playing that they have, they are having fun on the stage and I love watching the interaction between the band members.



Johan Christoffersson 4 consists of Johan Christoffersson (saxophone), Filip Ekestubbe (piano), Petter Olofsson (bass) and Sebastian Ågren (drums).



In the first set they played Nardis, It could happen to you, Joshua but also some of their own songs like Lucky Number 7 (by Petter Olofsson) and The Hip World of Klaus Wunderlich.



In the second set they continued with a song of their own: Grova händer and then they played songs like Night and Day (by Cole Porter) and Goodbye Porkpie Hat.

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Did you visit the jazz concert with Johan Christoffersson 4? What did you think of them? Tell me.

Johan Christoffersson 4 at Katalin

If you like modern jazz, you should check out the band Johan Christoffersson 4 at Katalin today at 14. They won The Youth Jazz Contest 2007 arranged by Uppsala Jazz Club.

Johan Christoffersson 4 consists of Johan Christoffersson (saxophone), Filip Ekestubbe (piano), Petter Olofsson (bass) and Sebastian Ågren (drums).

The concert costs 100 kr (If you're younger than 25, you'll get in for free!)

And don't miss to come and see and dance to Palladium at Grand Swing Party tonight.

Have you heard Johan Christoffersson 4? What do you think of them? Tell me.

Louis Prima - The Jungle Book

Did you know that it's Louis Prima who is the voice behind King Louie in the Disney movie The Jungle Book.

Enjoy this video clip from the film where Mowgli and King Louie dances to the song "I Wanna Be Like You". I really like the fact that the bear Baloo can't resist the swinging music and starts to bounce to the rhythm.

I would also like to show you this behind-the-scenes video clip from the recording of I Wanna Be Like You.

I think these video clips is a perfect example of the power of swingin' music, you can't resist it but are compelled to move to the music. "The music made me do it".

What do you think of the videos from the Jungle Book with Louis Prima? Tell me.

Palladium plays at Grand Swing Party

On Saturday Feb 23rd the big band Palladium here from Uppsala will play at Grand Swing Party.

Grand Swing Party is Swingkatten's big swing dance nights at Grand that we have about 6 times a year. We always try to have a live band.

Palladium played for us last time at Kulturnatten (The Culture Night) in September last year and it's good to have them back.

The photo above shows the band leader of Palladium, Mikael Jansson.

So come and dance on Saturday at Grand. It starts at 20 with a dj, the band starts at 21 and plays until midnight then you can hear me djing the late shift after the band until it's time to say "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here".

The price is 80 kr. I'll see you on Saturday!

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license it.

Will you attend Grand Swing Party with Palladium? Is there any song you want me to dj? Tell me.

Royal Garden Blues by Chris Barber

Sometimes I try to illustrate musical concepts (like for instance call and response) and here is a perfect example of drum tags when Chris Barber and his band plays Royal Garden Blues. A drum tag is a drum solo just before the ending of the song (often 4 bars) and then the bands ends with four more bars. In this video clip the drummer Alan "Sticky" Wickett does not do only one but 14 drum tags which makes the ending of the song nearly half of the song. He lays down great rhythms and I'm sure all drummers could get inspiration from him.

I also like the somewhat unusual use (in connection to dixieland jazz) of an electrical guitar by guitarist John Slaughter.

Read more about Chris Barber at his website.

If you like to know more about different kinds of traditional jazz, check out the Traditional Jazz Educators Network's Traditional Jazz Style Guide.

What do you think of the video clip with Chris Barber and his band playing Royal Garden Blues? Tell me.

Hey Mr Jesse - February 2008

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you should already have downloaded the February podcast of Hey Mr Jesse, since it has been available for a couple of weeks. I'm sorry I haven't mentioned it until now but I figured that you maybe are hooked on the show like me and downloaded it immidiatly when it became available. Hint: You can subscribe to Hey Mr Jesse on Itunes.

Download Hey Mr Jesse, Feb 2008 (~50MB, mp3)

Alright, moving on to the contents of the current episode of Hey Mr Jesse. (Read the show notes for all details)

The 8-count swing countdown features classic swing tunes and has a favorite song of mine: "Afternoon Of A Moax" by Charlie Barnet. You can hear that tune often when Jonas or Trina are djing as well as Mary's Idea and Summit Ridge Drive.

The show has a good interview with Paul Tillotson & The Love Trio and plays one song, "Blues For Stephanie", from their new album targeted at the dancing audience: Lindy Hop Blues: Live At Jelly Roll.

I love hearing a new killer diller version of "Blues For Stephanie", especially the piano playing, mmmm! You might also be familiar with George Gee's version of the song, that is one solid version that you never can go wrong with. If you as a swing dj have played a song that really didn't go well and the dance floor became empty, put on "Blues For Stephanie" with George Gee and I'll promise you'll have a full dance floor again in no time.

As always I try to write in to Jesse and Manu and provide some comments and swing music recommendations, this is what I wrote (and what they were kind enough to feature).

Thanks for a great January podcast of Hey Mr Jesse!
I thought I would give you more tips about some swingin' European music. This time though, it's jump blues rather than pure swing.

First off, it's Joe Jackson, an Englishman who has done all sorts of music, who decided in the early 1980's to make a swing album. In 1981 he released the album Jumpin' Jive. It has songs like "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't (My Baby)", "We the Cats Shall Hep Ya", "Jack, You're Dead" and of course the title track "Jumpin' Jive". It also have a very special version of Tuxedo Junction.

This was way before the swing revival in the mid 1990's (can you belive that it's 10
years since the height of the swing revival?!)

Talking about the the swing revival, I got to mention the Polish band Shakin' Dudi Orchestra which is more of a rock band but in 1999 they where inspired by the Neo-swing bands elsewhere and put out an album called "Swing revival" which has some crazy jump blues energy. Just listen to the song "Mniam, mniam, mniam".

What do you think about Hey Mr Jesse, February edition? Tell me.

Hacke Björksten 3G: Photos

Last Saturday the spring season of Uppsala Jazz Club's concert series started with a bang when Hacke Björksten 3G took the stage at Katalin and all that jazz.

"3G" is short for the 3 generations of jazz musicians in the band. Hacke Björksten, the band leader and saxophone player, is the oldest man in the band. He knows how to talk jive and the introduction of the songs is often done with great humour.



Karl Olandersson on the other hand is the youngest musician and he's a really talented trumpet player. I've heard him play in several bands and it's always great to hear him.



Ulf Johansson Werre on piano had a very busy day. When the concert ended he had about 40 minutes to get to his next gig together with Toots Thielemans at Uppsala Konsert & Kongress. Luckily it's only 200 meters between the places. If you've been following this blog you know that Ulf is one of my favorite jazz musicians.



In the first set they played the songs: Three Generations, All Time Blues, I Hear Music, Autumn In New York, On The Alamo.

In the second set they played Free Kick, Polska från Gemåla (a fusion between Swedish folk music and jazz in the style of the late piano player Jan Johansson), Someone To Watch Over Me, Horse Power, Scrapple From The Apple.

Several of these songs are available on Hacke Björksten's cd.

Above you see a picture of Arne Wilhelmsson, the bass player and below a photo of the drummer Mattias Puttonen.



They ended the concert with a really swinging version of Duke Ellington's Things Ain't What They Used To Be.

Things may not be be like the swing era anymore, but this is pretty darn close! Catch the band if you have the chance.

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Were you at the concert with Hacke Björksten 3G? What did you think of them? Tell me.

Toots Thielemans at Winter Jazz: Photos

You know an artist is popular when he gets standing ovations by just entering the stage. That's what happend yesterday when Toots Thielemans arrived on stage in the second set of the Winter Jazz concert at Uppsala Konsert & Kongress.

The audience loved him and he loved them back. Of course he played the song that he is most known for in Sweden: Bluesette. He seemed to be in a good form although he is 86 years old. He first visited Sweden 50 years ago.

The whole set he was backed up by the Claes Crona trio with Claes Crona on piano, Petur Island Östlund on drums and Jörgen Smeby on bass. They are a fantastic jazz trio. I last saw them last spring at a concert at Katalin together with singer Vivian Buczek, who also sang with them this evening.



A large part of the Swedens very best jazz musicians played in the first set. What a treat! The MC was Uppsala's own Ulf Johansson Werre (piano and trombone).

My favorite part of the first set was the two songs featuring the singer Viktoria Tolstoy and trumpet player Peter Asplund. There was a good chemistry between them and I really liked their versions of Round Midnight and It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).



At the jazz concert there were also two guitarists: Andreas Öberg and Ulf Wakenius. Ulf Wakenius played over ten years with Oscar Peterson. A friend that I met at the concert said about Ulf: "It's not possible for a human to play the guitar that fast, but he does it anyway!".



In summary: It was a very good night. If you read Swedish, you can read what Upsala Nya Tidning, the local newspaper, wrote about the concert.

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Were you at the concert with Toots Thielemans? What did you think of it? Tell me.

Hacke Björksten 3G at Katalin tomorrow

There is a lot of things happening tomorrow. One of the things are the first jazz concert arranged by Uppsala Jazz Club for this spring.

On stage is Hacke Björksten 3G. 3G refers to that it is three generations of jazz musicians in the band.

The band consists of Hacke Björksten (saxophone), Karl Olandersson (trumpet), Ulf Johansson Werre (piano), Arne Wilhelmsson (bass) and Mattias Puttonen (drums).

I've heard all of these jazz musicians before (except the band leader) and they are great. I think that this concert will swing much. I don't know exactly what style they will play but I hope it's very danceable.

The concert starts at 14 and is located at Katalin. Note: If you're under 25 you'll get in for free. What about that!



The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Will you go to the concert tomorrow? Tell me.

Toots Thielemans at Uppsala Konsert & Kongress

What a concert there will be tomorrow at Uppsala Konsert & Kongress! The fantastic harmonica player Toots Thielemans is coming to town and he is backed up by the elite of Swedish jazz musicians.

The musicians are Ulf Johansson Werre, Claes Crona, Vivian Buczek, Jörgen Smeby, Petur Island Östlund, Viktoria Tolstoy, Ulf Wakenius, Peter Asplund and Andreas Öberg.

If you have the opportunity you should really attend the concert that starts at 17. The tickets cost 325 kr.

Here is a video clip of Toots Thielemans playing Bye Bye Blackbird.

The photo above is taken by Jos L. Knaepen.



What do you think of Toots Thielemans? Tell me.

Miss Dance, will you be my Valentine?

Amberlynn over at DancerPrimer talks about dance as a A Perfect Valentine.

How true.

I spent the night dancing, what did you do on Valentines day? Tell me.

Jazzen anfaller at Reginateatern

Tonight it's premiere for the show "Jazzen anfaller" (The Jazz is attacking) at Reginateatern in Uppsala with Peter Lind and his Cabaret Band.

This show chronicals how jazz made its entry into Sweden and how it was received. Peter Lind is an amazing entertainer and his band is full of top jazz musicians. An extra singer has also joined the band: Eva Forsgren.

The band consists of Björn Sjödin, Claes-Göran Skoglund, Kjell Grundström, John Högman, Mats Josephson.


I saw their previous show "Good Evening, Everybody" and I think that this will also be a great show. If you have the opportunity, you should go and see them.

The show is at Reginateatern Feb 14th and 15th at 19.00 and on Feb 16th at 18.00. The ticket costs 220 kr.

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Have you seen the show? What do you think of Peter Lind and his Cabaret Band? Tell me.

Henrik Eriksson is djing swing at Cats Corner tonight

Just a reminder: Cats Corner has been taking a break for two weeks but now it's back again. Join us tonight for a great night of dancing.

I will be djing great songs for you. I've found some great new stuff that i'm eager to play.

There is also a taster class in Balboa at 19 by Jennie Norrman & Jonas Pettersson.

Come dancing tonight! Or as Louis Jordan put it:

"Hey everybody. Let's have some fun! You only live once and when you're dead you're done. So, let the good times roll!"

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license it.

Will you be there tonight? Do you it's strange to talk about yourself in third person? Tell me.

Ella Fitzgerald - I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm

Outside it's unusually warm for being February, could it be an effect of global warming or is it love in the air for the upcoming Valentines day, I don't know.

However, here is a video clip with Ella Fitzgerald singing "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" together with the Count Basie band and Roy Eldridge with a trumpet solo.



What do you think about the video clip with Ella Fitzgerald singing "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm? Tell me.

Uppsala Jazz Club: Spring Program 2008

Uppsala Jazz Club has released the concert program (pdf) for the spring. A lot of good concerts are coming up:

Saturday February 16th
Hacke Björkstens 3G (Three Generations)

Hacke Björksten, saxophone
Karl Olandersson, trumpet
Ulf Johansson Werre, piano
Arne Wilhelmsson, bass
Mathias Puttonen, drums

Saturday February 23rd
Johan Christoffersson 4

The winners of Youth Jazz Contest 2007
Johan Christoffersson, saxophone
Filip Ekestubbe, piano
Petter Olofsson, bass
Sebastian Ågren, drums


Saturday March 8th
Lars Erstrand Four

Lars Erstrand, vibraphone
Bertil Fernqvist, guitar
Arne Wilhelmsson, bass
Björn Sjödin, drums

Saturday April 5th
Emily McEwan and Kjell Fernström kvartett

Kjell Fernström, piano
Ola Botzén, drums
Per Nilsson, bass
Claes Askelöf, guitar

Saturday April 19th
Gerschwin on Guitar

Andreas Pettersson, guitar
Daniel Tilling, piano
Martin Sjöstedt, bass
Daniel Fredriksson, drums

Which concerts are most interesting to you? Tell me.

Wooster and Jeeves sings Minnie the Moocher

During the past weekend I was once again reminded of the excellent tv series Jeeves & Wooster. So what could be better than to show you a clip from the very first episode of Jeeves & Wooster. Here is Bertie Wooster playing the song Minnie The Moocher and Jeeves reluctantly helps him with the call and response part: Ho-de-ho-de-ho and Te-de-he-de-he. Hilarious if you ask me. Hihi.



If you liked this video clip, you should also watch Wooster play the song Nagasaki.

What do you think about the video clip with Wooster and Jeeves singing Minnie the Moocher? Tell me.

Svenska Showorkestern Phontrattarne at Uppsala Winter Camp

For the third year in a row the big band Svenska Showorkestern Phontrattarne (or Phontrattarne for short) performed at the big Saturday night dance at Uppsala Winter Camp.
The image above is from the dinner entertainment where the singers who were siamese tripplets performed the song "Me, myself and I". If you look closely you see that they have just one big pair of trousers and a giant shirt.

As you might have figured out from their full name they like to put on a great show as well as playing fantastic. The musicians always do something funny while they are not playing for the moment. Yey for jazz musicians that aren't shoe-gazers. It was a great night.

If you are a student you can dance to the band at Norrlands nation February 15th and March 14th.

I heard that they have a new cd out now, but I didn't have a chance to have a look at it.

Read what I wrote about Phontrattarne last year.



On a dance night at Grand you might have to catch your breath for a while. There a two options at Grand, either the cafe upstairs where you can get all kinds of cakes, tea, coffee and sodas and sink down into a comfortable sofa while listening to slow blues music.

You could also visit the bar downstairs (pictured above) which has plenty of water. Have a quick sip of water and you're out on the dance floor in no time. Just be sure to mark the cup with your name, othervise it will be lost immediately.

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Were you at the Saturday night dance at Grand where Svenska Showorkestern Phontrattarne were playing? What did you think of the band? Tell me.

Twentyfour Robbers: Skye and Frida at UHLS 2007

Last week at the Friday night dance at Uppsala Winter Camp I djed the late shift which meant: after the band stopped playing and until there were no people left on the dance floor.

I told the dancers that I was happy to take specific requests if they had any. Most times when you ask dancers what they like to hear, they answer: "Good music". Hmm. Then you ask: Ok, what tempo? Answer: "Just right" (In Swedish: Lagom). Not much direction to talk about.

I did get one request: "Twentyfour Robbers" by Fats Waller. Unfortunatly I didn't have it in my cd bag right then. Sorry.

The request was inspired by the video clip with Frida Segerdahl and Skye Humpfries dancing in a contest at the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2008. Take a look at it.



Frida and Skye really makes the most out of this song, they acknowledge all the highlights in the music and their dance matches the dynamics in the song wonderfully. On top of that they also use the floor space very well. No wonder they won the competition.

What do you think about Frida Segerdahl and Skye Humpfries dancing to Twentyfour Robbers by Fats Waller? Tell me.

Ellen Arkbro Kvartett at Uppsala Winter Camp

Last Friday night the Ellen Arkbro Kvartett played at Uppsala Winter Camp. The quartet has won a national Swedish jazz contest for young musicians. The band played jazz standards with a modern style.



Ellen Arkbro kvartett consists of Ellen Arkbro (song), Kasper Agnas (guitar), Björn Lindberg (bass) and Konrad Agnas (drums).



The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.
Were you at the Friday night dance at Uppsala Winter Camp? What did you think of the Ellen Arkbro kvartett? Tell me.