Kulturoasen: Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers

Today there is a concert with Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers at Kulturoasen in Håga just outside of Uppsala. The concert starts at 14 and is free of charge.

Kulturoasen is run by Kent Wennman who also arranges the summer concerts in Parksnäckan.

The photo above is from Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers' concert in Parksnäckan last summer. This is the photo that the band uses on their posters.

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission.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

What do you think of Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers? Please comment.

Stardust with Peter Lind & The Cabaret Band

Tonight the show Stardust will be performed at Parksnäckan
by Peter Lind & The Cabaret Band. The show is about the musicians in Harlem in the 1930's.

The show starts at 19.30 and costs 90 kr (70 kr with UNT-card).

What do you think of Peter Lind & The Cabaret Band? Please comment.

Lars Erstrand Four: Concert photos

After a warm week of sunny weather, Mother Nature (or Thor) decided that a big thunderstorm was in place just before the Lars Erstrand Four started their concert at Parksnäckan. As Parksnäckan is an outdoor stage this made it less desirable to sit under the open sky, but the staff found a solution, they rearranged the band on the stage, which is quite big, and invited the audience on stage where they had put out chairs. This made the concert very intimate.


This was the the 30th summer that Lars Erstrand played at Parksnäckan and the group has found it's format with about half swinging numbers and the other half with ballads. Excellent musicianship from all the band members. I especially like the drumming that Björn Sjödin does, he has so many different ways of accentuate the music. His joy of playing really is contagious. I'd say Björn Sjödin is the best jazz drummer in Uppsala right now.




The band played some songs that they always play. Being a dancer I didn't care too much for the ballads even though they were very beuatiful. I like the uptempo songs like: How high the moon, Stompin' at the Savoy and Flying Home. They also did a latin jazz number that I enjoyed.

Tip: If you sit on the front row you can hear the humorous banter between the band members.

In the band you also have Arne Wilhemsson on bass and Bertil Fernqvist on guitar.

The next jazz concert at Parksnäckan will be Aug 12th when Peter Lind and the Cabaret band performs the show Stardust. Stardust is about the jazz musicians in Harlem in the 1930's and 1940's. Don't miss that.

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

What do you think of Lars Erstrand Four? Please comment.

Lars Erstrand Four at Parksnäckan tonight

Lars Erstrand Four is a really good swinging band that will play at Parksnäckan tonight at 19.30. The tickets cost 90 kr (70 kr if you got a UNT-card).

Take a look at what I wrote about their concert in Parksnäckan last year.

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

What do you think of Lars Erstrand Four? Please comment.

Phontrattarne: Concert photos from Parksnäckan

Phontrattarne is such a great band. I saw their Grand show at Parksnäckan on Thursday and had a blast.

As indicated by the full name of the band: Svenska Showorkestern Phontrattarne, this orchestra is not only there to play solid swinging big band music but also there to perform a show. And what a show it was. I'm so impressed by the band, because almost everyone in the band is also a singer or got acting skills. I really like the expressiveness of singer Lovisa Andersson.

If I wasn't mistaken, the band has made a new arrangement of School days, with a even fuller sound than before. Got to love that song. They played tight versions of One O'Clock Jump and Down For Double.



They did a skit commenting on the tv reality show "Bonde söker fru" (Farmer seeks wife) with new lyrics to Minnie The Moocher. In another number they sang about what women really like about men: their mustash. They had a guest apprearance by the fantastic, stupendous, fabulus and magnificent flute player Mr Bailar, who also seemed to attract the women.



Talking about women, the dancers in the dance troup were great. They got the moves and they are good looking. I lost track of how many costume changes they did. They are hot!

Phontrattarne is right now on tour somewhere in Europe, I don't know where. In fact, when their bus left Uppsala only the tour managers knew where they were going. It will be a surprise for the band members as well. If you happen to see them somewhere on their tour, please let me know.

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

What do you think of Phontrattarne? Please comment.

Phontrattarne at Parksnäckan tonight

Uppsala's absolutely best student orchestra, Phontrattarne, will play their Grand Show concert at Parksnäckan in Uppsala tonight at 19.30.

Expect really good big band music and lots of humour and skits.

Be there!

Tickets are 90 kr.

What do you think of Phontrattarne? Please comment.

Claes Jansson and Nina Rydberg + Teamwork Big Band: Photos

Here are a couple of photos from yesterdays concert at Parksnäckan. A solid performance by the vocalists Claes Jansson and Nina Rydberg and the Teamwork Big Band.



What do you think of the concert with Claes Jansson and Nina Rydberg + Teamwork Big Band? Please comment.

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

Teamwork Big Band in Parksnäckan tonight

Tonight the Teamwork Big Band featuring Claes Janson and Nina Rydberg will play at Parksnäckan.

The concert will celebrate the life of Povel Ramel, a Swedish entertainer and comedian who sometimes used jazz songs.

The concert starts at 19:30 and costs 90 kr (70 if you got a UNT-card).

I took the photo above of saxophone player Madeleine Tråvén at a Grand Swing Party night last December when Swingkatten arranged a dance night. Since there will other vocalists tonight I don't think that the singer in December, the very good Susanne Ottebring, will be there. Therefor I'll post a photo of her below.


What do you think of Teamwork Big Band? Please comment.

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

Parksnäckan: Summer jazz in Uppsala

There are plenty of jazz concerts this summer in Parksnäckan, the outdoor stage in the City Garden of Uppsala.

The jazz concerts are arranged by jazz promotor Björn Sjödin. The concerts will start at 19:30 and cost 90 kr (70 if you got a UNT-card).

Here is the list of summer concerts:

July 3: Teamwork Big Band featuring Claes Janson and Nina Rydberg.
The concert will celebrate the life of Povel Ramel, a Swedish entertainer and comedian who sometimes used jazz songs.

July 24: Svenska Showorkestern Phontrattarne
Here is another chance to see their Grand show that they produce each year. Phontrattarne is a really good swinging orchestra combined with lots of humour.

July 31: Lars Erstrand Four
Lars Erstrand Four is a swinging quartet consisting of Lars Erstrand (vibraphone), Bertil Fernqvist (guitar), Arne Wilhelmsson (bass) and Björn Sjödin (drums).

Aug 12: STARDUST by Peter Lind and the Cabaret Band
A musical cabaret with stories and anecdotes about Harlem, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Hoagy Carmichael and the other great stars of the swing era.

Aug 19: Solskensorkestern
A big band that doesn't play jazz but other old time music from the 1930-1940s, a musical style that in Sweden is called schlager.

Aug 21: Good Morning Blues
The oldest blues band in town (41 years!), Good Morning Blues, does their traditional summer performance in Parksnäckan. The band consists of Claes Janson, Bosse Broberg, John Högman, Anders Johansson, Jan Wärngren, Thomas Lindroth and Björn Sjödin.

What do you think of these summer jazz concerts in Uppsala? Which ones would you like to attend? Please comment.

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

Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers at Parksnäckan tonight

Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers will play rhythm & blues tonight at Parksnäckan. The band invites the dancers to join them on the stage!

The concert starts at 19:30 and costs 90 kr.

I took the picture above last year when they also performed at Parksnäckan. You can find the picture on their band poster. Since then they have a new piano player, Fredrik Hammarström (to the far right) has left and Kalle Sjölin has replaced him.

Read more about what I've written about Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers.

What do you think of Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers? Please comment.

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

Viktoria Tolstoy + Uppsala Storband at Parksnäckan tomorrow

The summer season at Parksnäckan, Uppsala's outdoor scene in the City Garden, has started. Tommorow the jazz singer Viktoria Tolstoy backed up by Uppsala Storband will play at Parksnäckan at 19.30. Tickets cost 150 kr.

Take a look at previous concerts at Parksnäckan.

Stay tuned for a program of all the jazz concerts at Parksnäckan this summer. Oh, yeah, but don't forget that there are many other concerts there as well.

What do you think of Viktoria Tolstoy? Please comment.

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

STORK - Student Orchestra Festival in Uppsala

This weekend Uppsala is filled with student orchestras from Sweden and Scandinavia since it's STORK, the student orchestra festival. The bands and orchestras play in the town squares, at the student nations and at Parksnäckan (the outdoor scene in the city park).

There are all kinds of bands, most of them play jazz, but there are brass bands, bands who play soul and funk and there's even a choir that sings songs from the former Soviet union.



Some of the bands has also their own dance troupe (or has cooperation with one). Patriciabaletten is one of the best dance troupes.

The bands will play in Parksnäckan today between 11 and 17. Free. The weather promises to be sunny and warm so this seems to be a perfect way to spend a Sunday.

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 visited STORK? What is your favorite band? Tell me.

Svante Thuresson & Great Sweet Orchestra: Photos

Yesterday I visited a concert with Svante Thuresson + Induss & Lagerberg Great Sweet Orchestra at Parksnäckan.

Svante Thuresson has had a long career as a singer and you can tell that he is a great artist and a great performer by the way he expresses the songs. He has more expressions during a song than other artists has during a whole concert.

Great Sweet Orchestra has many good jazz musicans which of several are professional musicians. The orchestra has high musical ambitions and the music has a lot of intricate arrangments.



The orchestra played songs like: Especially For You, Waltz For Debbie and Stockholm Sweetning. I enjoyed Pussy Wiggle Stomp which has a 7 beats/bar meter where the drummer and band leader Tobias Lagerberg showed off. My favorite from the concert was "Dat Dere" written by Bobby Timmons, Svante Thuresson sung the Swedish lyrics by Beppe Wolgers and then the song title becomes "Mamma, vad e de?". With my background in swing music I of course liked the extra number Let The Good Times Roll.

Since I'm the official photographer at Parksnäckan I took more photos from the concert, if you like you can also watch pictures from other concerts in the gallery.

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

Where you at the concert or have you seen Great Sweet Orchestra before? What do you think of them? Tell me.

Lars Erstrand Four: Photos

Last week I listened to Lars Erstrand Four when they played at the outdoor stage at Parksnäckan in Uppsala.




They played the songs: "Beautiful Friendship", "Cherokee", "The Things We Did Last Summer", "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans", "I Want To Be Happy", "I Found A New Baby", "Satin Doll", "It Might As Well Be Spring", "When You're Smiling", "All The Things You Are". My favorite song for the evening was "Timme's Blues". A really swinging song with great rhythm.

The featured guest, jazz fiddler Gunnar Lidberg, was great and played some songs by Svend Asmussen.



During the talk between the songs I found out that there have been an outdoor dancing place a few hundred meter south of Parksnäckan where there nowadays is a mini golf course. The dancing place was run by a woman named Saga Hedén. I would be fun to know more about this place, do you know something? Please tell me.

It would be nice to have an outdoor dancing place here in Uppsala during the summer. We dance at quayside every now and then but a place with a roof in a sunnier location would be great. A place for dancers of all kinds of dances to use. I have an idea that I would like to pitch to the city council, but that would take some work, if you're interested in helping me, let me know.



Lars Erstrand have met his idol Lionel Hampton several times and one time Lionel Hampton gave him this advice:

"If you got an audience that doesn't want to go home, just play a really slow ballad."

Consequently, the band ended the concert with "A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square".



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 Lars Erstrand Four? What do you think of them? Tell me.

Lars Erstrand Four feat. Gunnar Lidberg

Tonight Lars Erstrand Four featuring Gunnar Lidberg will play at an outdoor concert at Parksnäckan in Uppsala.

The band consists of Lars Erstrand (vibraphone), Bertil Fernqvist (guitar), Arne Wilhelmsson (bass) and Björn Sjödin (drums). Gunnar Lidberg plays violin.

The concert starts at 19.30 and costs 90 kr (70 kr with UNT-card).

The photo of Bertil Fernqvist is taken by me at Uppsala Winter Swing and may not be used elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license it.

Have you heard Lars Erstrand Four before? What do you think of them? Tell me.

Good Evening Everybody: Photos

Last week I saw the show Good Evening Everybody at Parksnäckan. The show is about the music and life of Louis Armstrong.




Good Evening Everybody is an entertaining and educating show. Beside hearing a lot of good jazz music you'll also find out a lot about Louis Armstrong and also about jazz history in general.

The band members take turns telling stories and band leader Peter Lind provides explanations of why Armstrong was called "Satch"; where the song "Muskrat ramble" got its name and how you really pronounce his name: is it "Louie" or "Louis"?



They talked about Louis Armstrongs tours to Sweden and how his music not always was understood by the music critics.

Nowadays most Swedes understand English, but in those days they wrote new lyrics to the song so that the general public could understand, often the lyrics became much more trivial.



But songs didn't just travel from America to Europe, some songs travelled in the opposite direction. Peter Lind and the Cabaret band gave examples of songs like that: Just a Gigolo (orginally a song from Austria) and Mack The Knife (from Germany). Take a look at Louis Armstrong sing Mack The Knife.

Peter Lind commented on the fact that there are too few movies on tv with Louis Armstrong in them: "When was the last time you saw Cabin In the Sky?".

If you have the opportunity I recomend you to see the show.

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 Good Evening Everybody? What do you think of it? Tell me.

"Good Evening Everybody" at Parksnäckan

Tonight there will be a performance in Parksnäckan in Uppsala called Good evening everybody by Peter Lind and the Cabaret Band.

Good evening everybody was the opening phrase that Louis Armstrong always used and the show is about Louis Armstrong, his music and his life. The band will tell anecdotes about Louis Armstrong but will also talk about the how he has influenced them. Peter Lind is an amazing storyteller and he is backed up some of Uppsala's (and Sweden's) best jazz musicians: John Högman, Björn Sjödin, Kjell Grundström, Mats Josephson and Claes-Göran Skoglund.

I think this will be a really awesome show, it starts at 19.30 and costs 90 kr (70 kr with UNT-card).

Uppsala Nya Tidning has an article about the show.

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

Have you seen the show "Good evening everybody" before? What do you think of it? Tell me.

VSOP: Concert at Parksnäckan: Photos

Yesterday VSOP played at an outdoor concert at Parksnäckan in Uppsala. VSOP is an acronym for "Vocal Organ Sax Project". The band leader Kjell Öhman (on Hammond B3) has arranged songs for this somewhat unusual mix of instruments. The band consists of Claes Jansson (vocals), Ulf Andersson, Johan Hörlén, Alberto Pinton, Håkan Broström, Hector Bingert, Karl-Martin Almqvist (everybody playing saxophones), Jan Ottesen (guitar), Hans Backenroth (bass) and Jocke Ekberg (drums).



This was the bands premiere performance that starts a small tour. Jazz singer Meta Roos joined the band for the premiere evening, that had not been announced so it was a nice surprise.



Kjell Öhman's arrangments were very good and the band was really swinging. A great full sound. The vocals by Claes Jansson and the guest singer Meta Roos was also excellent.

I liked Kjell Öhman's own song: Blues for Anne-Marie and the Benny Goodman song Soft Winds. Öhman had also done jazz arrangements of Can't buy me love (by Beatles) and I'm Walking (by Fats Domino). In the extra number, I finally found out the name of a great song: Black Nightgown (composed by Johnny Mandel).

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

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

Good Morning Blues at Parksnäckan: Photos

About two weeks ago I visited a concert with Good Morning Blues at the outdoor stage called Parksnäckan. I was only able to get there in time the for their second set. I really liked the first song: Work song written by Nat Adderly. I also enjoyed the last song, their signature melody, Good Morning Blues. In this song the rhythm section really kept it in the pocket all the time and the the whole band had great energy. I would have liked more uptempo songs in the set instead of the more mellower songs. But maybe they played those in the first set that I missed?



Good Morning Blues consists of these musicians: Jan Wärngren (piano), Thomas Lindroth (bass, song), Björn Sjödin (drums), Claes Janson (song, guitar), John Högman (saxophone), Bosse Broberg (trumpet) and Anders Johansson (guitar).

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

Have you heard Good Morning Blues? What do you think of them? Tell me.

Summer Jazz & Blues at Parksnäckan

There is going to be a lot of jazz and blues in Parksnäckan in Uppsala this summer. Besides the official program sponsored by the city council, there are going to be concerts arranged by jazz promoter Björn Sjödin.

Tonight the band Good Morning Blues is going to play. The band has been playing together for 40(!) years.

Other upcoming concerts are:

• July 12th - Öhman & Jansson VSOP
• July 26th - Good Evening Everybody by Peter Lind and the Cabaret Band
• August 2nd - Lars Erstrand Four
• August 9th - Solskensorkestern
  

In the official program you should see:

August 22nd: Svante Thuresson with Induss & Lagerberg Great Sweet Orchestra

The photo of Björn Sjödin is taken by me at the Swedish Swing Society concert at Katalin. The photo may not be used elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license it.