Welome to the department of redundancy department....

Being new in Blogland, I seem to have posted 2 different versions, typed at different times, of the same event, related below, with minor differences due to thinking I'd discarded the first version...So, Collect Them All!...Finn Fem Fel!..."Dude! I have the earlier lost version!..."The bootleg...

Love to all...

More...

More from Jazz Hörnan...


 

Jazz Hörnan on stage...

25 September...Hans Dietrichson Trio with special guest Ulf Lundberg on saxophone...I love this guy's humor, and his sax-playing, too!...Performed some original compositions, like Pånyttfödese...New birth...a hard time in his life culminates in a newfound desire to play music again...And we are glad!...Mikke Eriksson on bass, with strong, clear solos and a smile, back behind the old grand piano...
We kicked off the new season of Jazz Hörnan in a new way...We got the idea from our friend Peggy to have the whole thing up on the stage...We wondered if we'd lose the cozyness of our usual setting in the foyer-café, if people would know what to do once inside the Big Room...Helena really wanted to go for it...So did Hans, so did I...2 hours left before start-time...We go for it!....Moved the whole café--green plants, sofas, tables, chairs, rugs, pillows--up onto the stage, with room for about 25 people...To guide folk there we put out värmeljus candles, like landing lights at Arlanda, guiding towards the stage and toward the fika...Pink-magenta glow on everything...The angels glowing, too, golden above the music...
Hans was a happy guy at that real grand piano, it's what he prefers, got sound-nuances out of it no circuit-board can reproduce...He performed a few original compositions, too, such as Den som söker...He that seeks...Reminded me of another favorite artist, Esbjörn Svensson...Helena sang some standards, but in her unique way: Moon River, Spring is here...All agreed the sound was better, clearer, balanced, it all felt even more intimate and cozy, I guess because we were all huddled around the band on this wooden raft of warmth and good humor...Next time, we'll do it again, maybe put some extrs tables down on the main floor for those who prefer to arrive more incognito...We were happy!...Fika by House of Michelle, a partner of House of Hanneke...
Patrik Jonsson on drums...Solos informed as much by rock and blues as jazz...Couldn't help but notice the cross backlit over in the corner..The Jazz Corner has a cross in one corner, glowing behind the music, which really is what it's about I guess...In the beauty of the music or whatever artistic medium, one touches ultimate questions and eternal truths, and the concert venue and art gallery become meeting-places for all sorts of people around universal ideas, eternity in our hearts... 

Jazz Hörnan up on the stage...

New Life Church, 25 September...We kicked off our monthly jazz soirées with a guest, Ulf Lundberg, on saxo, filling out the cool sounds of Hans Dietrichson Trio...I love Ulf's humor!...He led the band in some trad songs, but also in two of his own compositions, one was entitled Pånyttfödelse...New birth...after a difficult chapter in his life concluding in a newfound desire to play music again...We're glad he did!...Mikke Eriksson on upright bass with some strong, clear solos, a smile now and then: man do we love bass!...
We got the idea from our friend Peggy to try something different this time, to move the whole café--instruments, green plants, sofas, tables, chairs and all--up onto the stage in the Big Room!...Everyone will be together up there!...Momentary hesitation, would we lose the intimate coziness of the foyer-café?...Looked at Helena: "You want to go for it, don't you? So do I!"... We got 2 hours till start-time: Let's go for it!...Move out all the other furniture, inviting people to come on up front..Set out värmeljus like landing lights at Arlanda, leading to destination fika...Pink-magenta glow on everything, the angels over the arch shining golden, celebrating the beauty...We had 25 people up there, and it was even cozier in spite of the big dark hall, I guess we were all huddled around the band on a wooden raft of human warmth and good humor!...
Hans performed some of his own original compositions, including Den som söker...He that seeks...A more modern, urban sounding piece, somehow reminding me of Esbjörn Svensson, another favorite of mine...Helena sang Blue Moon and Spring is here...New folk were there: our French friend Isabel came with Beth, other new faces...Fika by House of Michelle...Hans was a happy guy at the real grand piano, had sounds coming out of it we haven't heard in a while!...HDT sold all the 7-song CDs they'd brought, too...
Patrik Jonsson on drums, with a back-lit cross behind...Cool jazz in magenta with a glowing cross, that's the deal here!...Patrik provides the beat but also launches into solos informed as much by rock and blues as by standard jazz...Showed us pix of his apartment in Hökarängen...All thought the sound was a lot clearer and especially the sax wafting up into the architecture ...We're gonna do it again next month, set out some extra tables on the main floor...it was hard to remain anonymous climbing up and edging into the sofas!...Walked into the Glenn Miller Café in the middle of a set 3 weeks ago and was immediately 5 inches from Fredrik Norén the drummer and facing 45 other faces jammed in there, I coulda played one of the toms and a cymbal myself...We had more room than they did...

Good to try new things!...And what a beautiful rebirth of another season of Jazz Hörnan... 

Open Mike Night at Eesti Nelipühi Kirik...

So, Ingrid and Margit in our cell group invited us to come over to Open Mike Night at their Estonian church, over on Upplandsgatan, sing some songs, do some comedy, meet their friends...In the cellar of the old St. Petrus Kyrkan, a nice little low-ceilinged sort of "grotto", could be a cool jazz venue...They open up once a month...got great non-alcoholic mixed cocktails (go with the Chalapa: orange juice, grenadine, kiwi and cayenne pepper...you'll sing some wicked RnB with that one!...) Chance to meet some of the many Estonians living in Stockholm: Raymond, Kristofer, Kristin, Elin...Learned the word for smörgås (sandwich)...Vöijleib...Now I can go to Tallinn and order lunch...
Sang some Francis Cabrel (French in a room full of Estonians in Sweden: nearly pulled a muscle in my brain), Springsteen, U2, and a favorite blues number by Los Lobos...In the skit below I popped my D-string (on the guitar, you weirdo!) and so the Cabrel song afterwards was the space-jazz version with a Cm9/6 chord where the C shoulda been...
We wrote spontaneous 8-line song-ettes for a game...ours was in 3 languages and as many keys...I had ten pennies and my cat ate my new hat, which is not half bad in estonio-svenska-engelska!...
Bustin' a Baltic groove in Franco-Estonian, y'all, Ingrid barely visible in the middle of Tallinn's Really Hot Chipotle Peppers...

So FUN !!...Open Mike Night!...We'll be back!...Cool to bring people and cultures together, listen to the Estonian, which reminds me somehow of Finnish with the music turned on, laughter is international...Thanks Ingrid, Margit, Elin, Kristin and Suune...Teretulemast!... 

Open a window...

Window in Dyvik, a house where love lives...
Backpack, ryggsäck, sac à dos...constant companion, I sort of "klang" and "clink" as I walk in the city...Thai silver whale-lock, City-paper, carabiners should I suddenly have to scale the side of a granite cliff-face in Vasastan... 

Woke up...

Woke up today...dreamed that we started serving spaghetti bolognese for fika in New Life, and also tacos...have sore throat and a voice like the SVT1 News-guy from the bottom of a zinc mine in Lycksele...These things happen when you share fried banana with your daughter on the same spoon as she sneezes and sniffles...beautiful September days here with fast-blowing clouds...there are moments when it seems I just seconds ago landed here, the wondrous thrilling foreign-ness of it all hitting like a Scania truck with moose-bars...Thank God for every new waking moment, or at least, half-awake moment...alltjämt odla tacksamhet, vid varje stund...toujours cultiver la reconnaissance, à chaque instant...Nostalgia ain't what it used to be, but I am thankful for here and now, and will be thankful tomorrow for the there and then...

De ljuvliga sensommardagarna...

Café Tubby, Årstaviken, between Hornstull and Skanstull, open as long as the sun warms the dirt, ja mon!...
Bike ride to Isättravik, Åkersberga...

Den lilla röda båten och det lilla gula huset... 

Hey you guys in Billings, Montana...

What is the deal?... I hear you were all enthusiastic on meeting our dear friend and sister Bettan when she arrived there at Rocky Mountain from Stockholm, she wanting to experience life there and learn more about herself and the Lord, and then...what? Will you be more than just the fulfillment of one more stereotype people over here where I am have about Americans in general: shallow, superficial, all enthusiastic, go-for-it, at first, then you don't follow through and truly invite people into your homes and lives?...I think you can do better than that! I know you can!...Er, I think I know you can...Besides, you don't know what you're missing...You should get to know this person we here know and appreciate so much!...C'mon...You'll all be the richer for it!...Do people from other lands have to only hang out in the cosmopolitan big cities on the East or West Coast or Chicago to meet open-minded, world-aware folk?...Prove the contrary!...Show 'em something deeper...

Hoppas bara att det här lilla ordet skulle lyckas ändra något åtminstone en smula för internationella förhållandens skull, och att våran syster verkligen ska kunna trivas...idag så påbörjar vi en riktig folksstödsrörelse...Heja!

When shrimps learn to whistle...

Hey! The title is totally unrelated to anything, just a left-over Leo Kottke song I recently remembered...Been away from this space for almost a week while my 4 yr old desktop is out for repairs, have been doing this kinda thing down at my corner in New Life Church, basement in Kungsholmen, Stockholm...Window in Johan's office offers view of sky, building-top, dumpster, and Volvo bumper...Sun's a lot lower even in the last 2 weeks now that fall is about to fall, it will catch you right in the face at the end of a city street round about 7pm, but the folk are still out everywhere...Got Cassandra Wilson's Thunderbird album and Brian Eno's Another Day on Earth intertwining constantly in my soundtrack mind--may be you also have a sample of music in your head at any given moment, I know I do, life as a perfectly scored film, preferably involving Nordic scenery and ultra-modern airports...

Thoughts go out to friends everywhere, thankful for you!...Be back shortly...

Na na na na na na na - NA! Today is your birthday!...

Well, it was Friday, actually...49 years...1957...A great year for Chevrolets!...I am thankful to be here!...Birthday gifts, the first one being a new year, a new day never-before lived...An SMS from my friends Hans and Helena, expressing love and affection on my olive-green vintage Nokia screen...CD from itunes from Patrick: Cassandra Wilson's Thunderbird...A Saab-full of friends I am taking home at 1:00am after we help with inventory at the Västermalm ICA store: Khole puts his hand on my shoulder from the back seat and prays for me as I look for the Sollentuna exit, then reads Psalm 49...Myriam, Maria and Jae-sun chime in with Swedish happy-birthday song with modified words...Happy Birthday from Laura at breakfast...From Patrick, too, as he leaves for school in Täby...New Asics Gel-Odyssey walking shoes, my NBs are shot...Hugs! Oh how I love them: Iris, Kjell, Charles, Helena, Jakob, and hugs on the moving sidewalk down to the Blue Line subway...Cards!...Webcam from Beth...Mechanical pencil from Laura...A phone call from Claire in Lyon, France...Good friend and neighbor Tim and daughter Miranda come over for fika and conversation, with a Swedish Far Side book...Email cards with bouncing airplanes...Prayers...Thank you!...
Next day, ran in the St. Eriksloppet, 21K through central Stockholm, with 6500 other people...Perfect weather, get to see many interesting parts of the city at asphalt level, got rained on, my friend Johannes is by a bridge in Kungsholmen rooting for me...Neo-bohemian Hornstull and Tantolunden areas at Km 15, like running through Haight-Ashbury in 1969...I sing-screech "I must be CRAY-zeeeeH!..." to packed café-terraces and wave to the older woman Heja-ing from her 5th floor balcony...Come in at 2:06:23, not what I'd hoped, but somehow still quite happy and grateful...Family there to meet me and sit among the human sea of red faces, Asics Gel and Mizuno Wave, sweat, and Gain O-Max cartons...Stockholm-beautiful evening begins...walk a bit crookedly to the T-Bana...Happy Birthday!...
Laura in Kungsträdgården, 2 September 2006...