The Sahara of Snow

It's now almost two weeks since IB Expo 2005 ended. I have some wonderful memories from that week that I will treasure forever. When Mats and I started talking about who we wanted to invite to the event, Mick Karn and Jerry Marotta were on the top of our lists. We loved their playing and thought they could complement Isildurs Bane and Metamorfosi Trio (who have a standing invitation to whatever we do) really well.

However, we didn't know what Karn and Marotta were like as social creatures. We have had some run-ins in the past with some strange and difficult people to say the least. I started looking at pictures. Jerry is a drummer, and drummers are known to be violent, aren't they? He does look really pissed off in that Gabriel photo. And what about the cover of Mick Karn's Bestial Cluster album? He looks absolutely dangerous!!! Why on earth did we invite him? I am the one picking Karn up at the airport. Good thing Christian and Luca were to be picked up at the same time. Surely they would stick up for me? And I am the one taking Marotta and his collegue Tom Griesgraber - he looks scary too by the way - to a clinic at the College of music in Malmö. Not only that, but since I do some part-time teaching there, I already imagined myself being asked to leave, kindly but firmly by my former friends.

I needn't have worried at all. Mick turned out to be a soft-spoken suntanned gentleman who charmed everyone during the week with his dry, understated sense of humour and his unique and truly extraordinary bass playing. No one plays bass like Mick Karn, period.

Jerry Marotta was an easy-going and lovable man who got everybody's feet tapping as soon as he came close to anything resembling a percussion instrument. His team leading talents were also very helpful during rehearsals.

Stick player Tom Griesgraber was anything but scary. He was ever so nice, laid back and kind. As a player, he was something else, performing funky bass lines, screaming guitar leads and piano-like passages like nobody's business.

Add to this Christian and Luca, two guys I really love. There's no going wrong with a team like that. To cut a long story short, we couldn't have had better guests.

The concert was very successful with everybody involved keeping the time restrictions and playing wonderfully. I had to pinch myself while watching IB onstage together with Christian, Luca, Jerry, Tom and Mick.

Some highlights:
- Mick's inventive contrapuntal bass lines in "Honey Sweating" accompanied by Klas' perfectly groovy drum playing.
- Jerry & Tom's wonderful interplay during their all too short set
- Christian and Luca's incredible improvisation featuring some amazing dialogue between Christian and Tom, and a mindblowing ending featuring Luca on a plastic tube!

* * *

When I look outside, I see snow. Lots of it. My guess is that we now have 35 centimeters, more in some places. Our garden has turned into a Sahara of Snow.

* * *

Bill Bruford composed and recorded The Sahara of Snow (with a little help from Eddie Jobson) on Bruford's one of a kind back in 1979. One of the strongest tracks on one of my favourite fusion albums of all time. This was a fantastic band! Imaging Bill Bruford, Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Berlin and Dave Stewart recording together and playing on the same stage! Too good to be true. Buy this album if you haven't got it already! Do it NOW!

NP: Ashlee Simpson on Jay Leno. Unfortunately.

Twitchy Hand Mover

Everything is going great at IB HQ. At the moment, Jerry Marotta, Tom Griesgraber, Mats Johansson and Mick Karn are working on a new track of Mick's: "Twitchy Hand Mover". Mick's idea was quickly picked up by Tom and turned into a wild groove by Jerry. Mats will add some crazy synths and Klas may be adding some percussion tomorrow. We will see what it ends up sounding like, but judging from what has been going on so far, it will sould amazing!

Mick is a joy to work with, and he just wanted to make sure that we record the concert. What can I say? Your wish is my command.

* * *

So what does it sound like? It starts with the sound of an orchestra tuning up, followed by some haunting bass clarinet and moves into danceable rhythms. Groovy!

All Together Now!

Currently in Halmstad witnessing a historic rehearsal. Jerry Marotta, Kjell Severinsson, Christian Saggese, Mick Karn, Tom Griesgraber, Jonas Christophs and Luca Calabrese playing together.

It sounds GREAT!

Since they are playing one of the Marotta/Griesgraber songs, Jerry is in charge and leads everyone through with the sheer excellence only an experienced musician can.

Yesterday, Mick's songs were rehearsed, and I am pleased top say everybody was well pleased with the results.

This is so exciting! And there's lots more to come.

* * *

All Together Now used to be one of my favourite Beatles songs when I was a child. Now? Well, let's just say that it's not in my top ten.

The Disappearing Afternoon

Does time fly or what?

It was only a short while ago when I was walking around our garden in shorts, wasn't it? Now it's cold - but luckily we've got a new heating system installed - dark and almost Christmas. Fancy that!

I am now officially doing the bookings for Jazz in Malmo. Great work, but the hours run by ever so quickly! I experienced a disappearing afternoon on Thursday while overwhelmed with work. All of a sudden it was time for that evening's concert and I still had lots of work to do.

Today, same thing. The afternoon was spent taking nails out of the floor in our future dinner room. A close friend who's good with figures suggested there were approximately 2100 nails in the floor. Now every single one of them is out of the floor and put neatly into a box. Another disappearing afternoon.

On the IB Expo front, things are going well, even though I haven't heard from Jerry Marotta for a while. I am sure he and Tom Griesgraber will turn up. But when? Where? And how? I will find out eventually.

Mick Karn kindly agreed to my friend Klas Assarsson's suggestions on what to play. Three great tracks originally recorded by Mick on Tooth Mother and Polytown respectively. Mr Karn also said he would bring some bass lines with him to work on. This will be excellent!

* * *

The Disappearing Afternoon is a track on BassDrumBone's (Hence the Reason) album. An amazing trio featuring Mark Helias (bass), Gerry Hemingway (drums) and Ray Anderson (trombone). Get the name? I thought so. The Disappearing Afternoon is a playful piece with a good sense of humour included at no extra cost. Hemmingway plays it loose and partly free, but eventually we get a happy ending when everybody unites in a dancable cheerful tune.

Exposure

I am currently administrating a most exciting project which will go ahead in December: IB Expo.

IB Expo is the brainchild of Mats Johansson, composer/musician with Isildurs Bane and myself. Briefly put, it is an opportunity for Isildurs Bane to meet and interact with top notch musicians during a handful of days. To wrap it up, we will put on a concert on Friday December 16 at Kulturhuset in Halmstad, Sweden.

Our guests this year will be basist Mick Karn, drummer/percussionist Jerry Marotta, stick player Tom Griesgraber our dear friends Metamorfosi Trio from Italy. This will be great!

Both Mick Karn and Jerry Marotta have told me that they look forward to our week together in December, and so is everyone involved in Isildurs Bane of course. At the moment we are working on the practical stuff, but soon the musical work will begin and in a couple of weeks, there will be interesting music right. left and centre.

* * *

A couple of days ago, I had the pleasure of attending Jazz in Malmo's 30th anniversary concert. A case of a who's who in Malmo's jazz history performed very short sets to get us from 1975 up to date. Highly memorable performances came from the subtleness of Hakan Rydin's trio accompanying Almaz Yebio and Elisabeth Melander; fierce trumpet solos from the horn master Anders Bergcrantz, a humour-filled double bass duet featuring Mattias Hjort and Mattias Svensson supported by Jan Lundgren; the wonderful spikey weirdness of guitarist Krister Jonsson... I could go on and on about this. I was truly pleased to see so many people of all ages there, everybody enjoying themselves and letting the music soak in.

* * *

Exposure was composed by Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel. I prefer the version on Fripp's solo album on which this song is the title track. Terre Roche belts her heart out over a minimalistic background on this take. Much more interesting than Gabriel's restrained performance on his second solo album.


NP: Mick Karn - The Tooth Mother

Time

It's been longer than I intended since my last blog. A lot of water has passed under the bridge, and I will account for some of the most important things eventually.

First of all, I must mention two truly great concert experiences, both at the concert house in Malmo. First, I heard the Malmo Symphony Orchestra performing Giya Kancheli's sixth symphony. What a wonderful piece of music! Dynamic, lyrical, lamenting, powerful, arresting, breathtaking. The way Kancheli uses silence as a equal to sounding notes reminds me that silence is an absolute necessity in music. Without silence, how can there be any music?

The other concert was by the extraordinary Kronos Quartet. I have had the pleasure of hearing them twice before, both times in London. This time, they came to my home turf. A great programme: John Zorn, Charles Mingus, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Steve Reich and Peteris Vasks. The Zorn piece ("Cat o' Nine Tails") I've heard before on record and live, but not the other works. I was particularly eager to hear Sy Johnson's Mingus arrangement and Vasks' sixth string quartet. As it turned out, they were the highlights of the set along with Zorn and Reich ("Triple Quartet"). At least until the encores. I was surprised to see that two of the composers attending the concert - Gudmundsen-Holmgreen and Vasks. Just like Kancheli's symphony, the Vasks piece was very impressive and moving.

For the encores, Kronos chose to perform three wonderful pieces that were earthshattering in three completely different ways. The encores began with viola player Hank Dutt taking the spotlight with Ram Narayan's "Raga Mishra Bhairavi". Some amazing playing from Dutt here! Following some enthusiastic applause, the quartet returned to perform Sigur Ros' "Svefn-g-englr", a low-key piece with small gestures. But great music! For the third and final encore Kronos returned with a vengeance with their take on Jimi Hendrix' take on "The Star Spangled Banner". It was louder than anything I have ever heard at the concert house. Between gushes of feedback, frantic glissandi and chaotic variations on Hendrix' soundscapes, parts of the US national anthem could be heard.

In my forthcoming blogs: new work, book offer, december concert, international contacts, organizing, meetings, a bad person in the heating business, a great jazz concert. And then some.

* * *

"Time" by Pink Floyd is a song that starts off in a great way with the ticking clocks, haunting guitar and the contrasting almost happy-go-lucky percussion. The verses are great too, as is the guitar solo - performed tastefully as usually by David Gilmour. The contrasting theme on the other hand has always bothered me. I have problems with major 7th chords. They are simply too cheesy to my ears. Also, Rick Wright's voice is slightly too shakey in my opinion. On the other hand, his voice suits Roger Waters' words perfectly. Tiredness, anxiety and reflections on life work well with the monotonous vocal lines performed with Wright's fragile-sounding vocal performance.


NP: Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm

Neighbours

I am currently in a situation which is not unlike that of a professional juggler, if there are any professional jugglers left in the world. A couple of interesting opportunities have appeared, and I need to consider these while dealing with long-term goals and everyday occurrences such as deciding who will I will ask to put in a new heating system in our house.

It's good to have music in these situations. Sometimes for pleasure, sometimes for work, sometimes to turn your brain inside out with research, sometimes to escape and just enjoy the moment.

Last Friday, I took the car to Ystad and heard Magnus Lindgren's quartet with vocalist Rigmor Gustafsson and the orchestra of the Malmö Opera house. I must be completely honest to begin with. I am not a big fan of Lindgren's. He is a good sax player, he seems to have an open mind and people say positive things about him. But I don't get his greatness. But then again, I don't get Bruce Springsteen's or Bob Dylan's respective greatness either.

But having heard Magnus Lindgren perform his work Music for the Neighbours on TV a while back, I became moreinterestedd in his work. And this was the work that was performed in Ystad, so naturally I took the opportunity to experience it in a live environment. The environment in question was the old and very beautiful theatre in Ystad, situated immediately on the seafront with grand view of the sea, ships and the odd train passing by.

What about the music then? Not bad. There was some nice interplay between the jazz group and the orchestra, and I especially enjoyed the chromatic passages played jointly by Lindgren's quartet and the orchestra. Rigmor Gustafsson's wordless vocals were another highlight. She should do this more often I think. When I heard Gustafsson's own group some years ago, I remember liking the more abstract and wordless parts the best. In Ystad she proved that the good bits had become even better I am happy to say.

Magnus Lindgren played many solos, some were impressive, but most of them didn't move me. This doesn't mean in any way that they weren't any good, they just didn't affect me on this particular occasion. Unfortunately, I liked the playing of pianist Mathias Algotsson and double bassist Fredrik Jonsson less. At least on this occasion, they resorted to what in my ears sounded like dull and polite playing lacking fire, intensity and dynamics. This is one of many common problems that often show up when a jazz or rock group perform with a symphony orchestra. A wet blanket of politeness seems to hover over the jazz or rock players. Magnus Lindgren didn't suffer from this though, and I salute him for that. His enthusiasm on stage really did the performance some good, as did Rigmor Gustafsson during the second set, when several orchestrated standards made the evening take a turn towards more traditional musical areas.

It would have been more interesting if there had been more interplay between the jazz group and the orchestra. As it was, the parties met briefly, but there was no mingling and networking. And then there is the ever present question aboutwhetherr or not you should push players to play things they didn't know they could. In this case, I think it might have been a good idea every now and then, just to add some nerve to it. On the other hand, I could have done without the orchestras attempts to join Lindgren's sax lines. He swings, they don't. And who can blame them? They weren't made for that and to swing like a jazz musician, you have to have years and years of experience. Swinging takes plenty of practice.

What stood out the most was an absent musician: Magnus Persson. He took part in the performance of Music for the Neighbours in Stockholm, but was not present in Ystad. Too bad. He is a great percussionist who can play a truly funky groove and really invigorate a performance with some zest. All in all, a good performance, but certainly not a contender for concert of the year.


I was 14 when I first heard the Rolling Stones song "Neighbours". I liked the song instantly. It was loose but moving forward like a steam train that's picked up some speed. Jagger sings with quite an attitude and Richards or Wood (I am not sure who) plays a simple but great solo towards the end of the song. You can find it on Tattoo You. And the video is enjoyable too. It reminds me of why I decided to move house.

NP: Joanna MacGregor - Play

More of that Jazz

After my positive experience with Steve Vai and his merry band of musicians, I had the pleasure of encouting Bobo Stenson's trio featuring the excellent Stenson on piano, double bassist extraordinarie Anders Jormin and new hot shot Jon Fält on drums.

Being on the board of Jazz in Malmö, many tasks can come your way. I was asked if I could go to the airport to pick this dynamic trio. I obliged, of course. As it turned out, the guys were ever so nice. Even better, they are truly amazing musicians! The interplay between Stenson and Jormin in particular is dynamic, creative and always interesting to the listener. Fält is the new man in this team, but as he really is a coming man within the Swedish jazz scene, he fits in nicely with his Monk-ish/Motian-ish mad drumming. And I mean mad in the nicest and best way possible.

The material performed proved that jazz can - and is - lots of things nowadays. Starting with a polska from Abbekås, then onto works by Monteverdi and Ives and onto original compositions by Stenson and Jormin, everything came together as great music. Not necessarily jazz, not art music as such, not simply improvised music. Just beautiful, intense, exciting music.

Any recording by Bobo Stenson trio comes highly recommended. Why not try the latest, featuring the splendid drumming of Paul Motian, Goodbye.


I spent the evening looking through some old concert and documentary footage of IB. Unfortunately, the only existing footage from the Cheval tour is patchy and filmed with a single handheld video camera. The live material is cut up and fragmentary. Still, having missed the tour myself, I was happy to at least get a glimpse of what the stage set looked like and what IB & Hallandsensemblen sounded like live.

I am currently watching IB performing live at the old fire station in Halmstad. This is a concert from 1993, and the band are really hot (pun intended). This was a line-up that existed for no more than a year and a half. Pity. Bo N. Roth is playing really well, managing to merge technical brilliance with matured restraint. His tunes aren't half bad either. Klas Assarsson was the new guy at this point and he certainly had his work cut out, taking care of the cello and the piano parts on The Voyage.

It's also great to hear songs such as "Nimis", "Factory Man" and "Initiation" by this line-up. And when can we hear Mats play a Picassiette live again? Please?

As I watch this concert - unfortunately filmed with only one camera - I realize that this was the last version of IB that worked with theatrics on stage. Personally, I miss this aspect. I think it really added to the music.


"More of that Jazz" is the last track on Queen's fine album Jazz. A great track that sums literally sums up the whole album. Not jazzy at all, but based on a heavy groove and some mean singing by Freddie Mercury.

NP: Isildurs Bane - Live at Brandstationen, Halmstad

The Attitude Song

It's been a busy concert week for me. Steve Vai on Friday, Bobo Stenson trio on Tuesday and Magnus Lindgren Quartet with the Malmö Opera Orchestra yesterday evening. I will deal with these concerts in three separate installments Here's the first one

Vai I have heard twice before. Once with G3 featuring Joe Satriani and Robert Fripp, and once with David Lee Roth back in the late 80's. The former gig was OK, the latter was great (apart from the fact that Roth let keyboardist Jesse Harms to all the singing Roth couldn't handle). This time the venue was appropriate - KB in Malmö, the band was hot (with one exception), the house was packed and the music was excellent.

I believe it helped that I went with a A who is a Vai enthusiast. A even owns an Ibanez 7-string JEM guitar (which Vai helped design). Having gone to loads of concerts on my own, I am usually not bothered about going on my own, but in this case I think A made a difference in a positive way.

While walking to KB we talked Vai, music and guitars. Fun!!! I got a bit of a flashback to my guitar freaked late teens. Not that I ever would like to be in my teens again, absolutely NOT, not even if I could. But there was more time to be a bit of a music nerd, more time to practise and I had several friends who shared this slightly introverted streak.

A and myself agreed that Passion and Warfare was Vai's greatest album so far, to a large extent because of the compositions. We also agreed that the Alcatraz album Disturbing the Peace is criminally underrated. Pity that they only released one album with Vai.

I am not going into details on the concert. Suffice it to say that I liked the high level of musicianship from Vai, Sheehan and MacAlpine, the well-planned visual stunts (Vai's finger lasers, the smoke appearing at the right places at the right time, the good time interaction between the band members), and the generous length of the show - more than 2 1/2 hours. Even if I would have loved Vai to have played more of his early material, I fully understand if he wants to go on and play his later stuff. He did play a handful of older songs, so I shouldn't complain really, should I?

What struck me at this concert, as many times before, was how unfair it is that the press in general refuse to appreciate the qualities of musicianship. It is OK to rave about athletes, football players or whatever and go on and on and on about how technically brilliant they are. So why do these values not transfer to music? It is a complex matter to go into, but Allan F. Moore's article in Popular Music a couple of years back touches on this matter: authenticity. If you play rock music of any kind, you will be judged by the level of your authenticity wheather you like it or not. A lot of the time it is more about if the music critics percieve you as authentic or not. If you are a rock musician that can play technically great, you are in trouble. Personally, I would like to hear more good musicians in rock. I am convinced that the music would be all the better for it. Partly it is an attitude problem on behalf of the many ignorant music critics that know little or close to nothing about music itself.

A big thanks to Raimond for putting me and A on the guest list. You're a great guy!


Unfortunately, Vai did not perform "The Attitude Song", my favourite Vai song. It was the first song by Steve Vai I ever heard, on a flexi single given away with with an issue of Guitar Player magazine back in 1983 or something. I was floored upon hearing it and listened to it repeatedly while reading Vai's accompanying transcription in the magazine. The wang bar antics, the chromaticism, the rhythmic subdivisions were all truly eye opening to a 16-year old Swedish guitarist. Shortly thereafter, I found the Flexable album at a record shop in Halmstad (Pet Sounds) and bought it immediately. There were more strange things going on on this record! Unbelievable!

NP: Buddy Miller - Midnight and Lonesome

The Times They are a-changing

After moving from the city to a smaller place - I am still not sure what to call it: a town, city, village? - I have noticed several things that are very different. I sleep much better now, I worry more about costs, I enjoy the fresh air, I try keeping the heating off as much as possible, I appreciate the friendliness of the locals and I am really pleased with the fact that you don't have someone living on top, next to and under your confined living spaces. I can play any music I like as loudly as I like. Well, at least when A is not at home and as long as Livingston and Fassbinder - the budgie team - don't disapprove.

One that I noticed early on was that the shops had strange opening hours. At least they were strange to me. Some shops opened at eight or even seven o' clock in the morning! I can understand it in a way, because these are shops were construction workers get their stuff, and they tend to start their day early in the morning.

But today I was made aware of the most bizarre opening hours while walking past the video rental shop. In Malmö, they tend to open around mid-day and close at midnight. So do the video shops in other places I know of. Not in the place I call home nowadays. The open at 6.30! Yes, they do. I had to actually go up and check the opening times when I passed on my way to the train this morning. 6.30 it was. Inside was a guy sleepily browsing a newspaper. I wonder how many customers they have before noon? Very rarely have I felt the urge to rent a movie at that time of the day.

Spoke at lengt with M yesterday. He phoned me up on my mobile while I was walking from work to the train. I changed trains, still talking to M, and was approaching home when the signal was cut off. 49 minutes. I don't blame M. He has been going through some rough patches for some time. Since last summer I suppose, but the problems keep on coming. At least one of the problems got solved in the best way possible the other week. One down, too many to go.

On the IB, I feel there will be some interesting developments soon. The plans are solid and artisticaly valid. We are currently waiting for the financial part to be solved, then we can move on.

The Times They are a-changing is one of a relatively small number of Bob Dylan songs I like. Some of his songs I really like (Love Sick, Masters of War and Don't Think Twice It's All Right), this one I just like. I am not a big Dylan fan. Frankly, I sometimes wonder what all the fuss is about. He certainly has written some memorable songs, some fine lyrics and I can even stretch as far as saying that some of his performances of his songs are good. But as far as I am concerned, give me Richard Thompson any day. Or Van Morrison. Or (fill in the name of your favourite singer/songwriter here). I prefer Dylan's live versions of The Times They are a-changing. They tend to be grittier, more venomous and with more attack than the studio recording. I strongly feel this performance attitude really underlines the lyrics. And with Dylan, the lyrics tend to be more important than the music. Maybe that's why I prefer Richard Thompson? Or is it just because I am an anglophile?

NP: Grant Green - Idle Moments

I'm So Glad

I have been in a very good mood today. This is based on some good news I got yesterday.

'Nuff said.

"I'm So Glad" is a song made well-known by Cream. Originally though, it was performed on record by its composer, Skip James, in 1931. The Cream version of the song is the first track on the brand new DVD of Cream's reunion shows at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year. Certainly not my favourite Cream track by any strech of the imagination, but very appropriate to my current mood.

NP. Henry Kaiser interviews Derek Bailey.

Above the Roofs

As an inexperienced house owner, you get to experience many interesting situations. Yesterday, for instance, when I wanted to try my hand at heating the house by lighting a fire, I only managed to smother the flames and fill the basement with smoke. It's a good thing we have windows in the basement.

My good friend Mats, a man very experienced in this area, advised me to check for birds' och wasps' nests in the chimney. Having had close encounters of the third degree with wasps twice this summer, I was slightly hesitant to get up on the roof of the house. But somebody had to do it, so I did.

While there, I brought some tiles to replace a couple of absent ones. Luckily, there was no wasp nest, at least not as far as I could see. I must confess that I was none the wiser after looking down the chimney. One thing is certain though. Santa will not come down this pipe. Not unless he is less than 9 cm wide. Maybe an elf?

After securing the new tiles, I took a good look at the surroundings. I could see as far as Söderåsen in one direction and in the other direction, I could almost see the sea. At least with some imagination involved.

I spent most of the day finishing IB's newsletter. It's done now except for a picture that is still missing. This is due to Mats' scanner refusing to work.

Above the Roofs is an Isildurs Bane song, composed by Mats that has been slightly neglected I think. It's a beautiful composition with its long melodic lines and relaxed pulse.

NP: Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes

Can I Play with Madness?

Lately, madness has surrounded me indirectly. My good friend M has suffered from several people with strange or even bizarre behaviour. Even though I have encountered these people too, they have not behaved strangely towards me. But yesterday, lunacy struck me, almost literally in fact.

Normally, my work at the department of musicology at the university is very undramatic. I do research, read articles, lecture, advise students on their future, attend meetings and so on. Very rarely does anything out of the ordinary happen. Much to my surprise, my collegue T came to my office to see me. T was obviously upset, completely white in the face and muttered something about a student that was going to sue the department.

Following T came the student who was not a happy customer. The short version: the student was very upset because the student had bought the sixth edition of the literature required for the course. All the students had been informed that there is a brand new edition - the seventh edition - available, but the previous edition is still good enough to be used on the course, and the department could sell this edition to the student at a price (including a book on music history, 12 CDs and two anthologies) almost 1000 kr below the price of the seventh edition in the shops. Even though we have copies left of the sixth edition, we recommend the students buy the latest edition. The books in question (yes, they are plural) are currently used at departments of musicology all over the world. According to the student, we had forced the "poor students" (to quote the student) to buy the earlier edition. The book was "old rubbish" and the student said the department would get sued.

I explained very calmly that the book was not rubbish. We have used this book for some years now, and musical history hasn't changed enough to discard the books. As for us forcing the students to buy the sixth edition, that accusation is simply out of order. We have never forced any student to buy this book from us. There have been no complaints from any other students on this matter. As for being sued, I don't lose any sleep over that matter.

When the student understood that I would not give the student any monetary refund for the book, the student very dramatically threw the book on the floor with some force. Interestingly, the student proudly claimed to have hit me over the head with the book. No such thing happened, which is very lucky for the student. I could have reported the student to the university or even the police had I been hit.

"Can I Play with Madness" is an Iron Maiden song I don't particularly care for. Not one of their best, but certainly a most suitable headline for this blog.

NP: Wayne Krantz - 2 Drink Minimum, a remarkable guitarist with his excellent trio on a very hot live date in N.Y.C. Highly recommended for anyone into original guitar playing, good fusion music or just great musicianship.

Our House

Ah, it's good to be back! Since my last blog entry, almost a month ago, me and A have moved from an apartment to a house. Yes, a proper house. This also means that we have had problems with the phone (we were phoneless for almost a week) and with the Internet (we still haven't got our ADSL connection). I can not recommend Spray as an Internet supplier by the way. We have had a wide range of answers to our questions regarding our ADSL connection. Everything from a letter saying you can not get ADSL to a friendly Norwegian voice who assured me that we already have it. In the end, none of this turned out to be true. But we are still waiting.

In the meantime, things have been starting to move again on the IB front. Hopefully, I will be able to send out the next IB-newsletter by the end of August from my new and improved office at home.

Tonight, I am off to listen to Juliette & the Licks at KB in Malmö. I have no idea what to expect. But I will let you know!

For me, Our House is a good tune by Madness accompanied by a funny video, not a CSN&Y song. It's part of my teenage years when I sort of liked Madness, but never admitted it in public and never bought any of their albums. Maybe I should have? After all, I am a bit of an Anglophile.

Tupelo Honey

In my last blog I mentioned that I was impressed by Swedish TV's recent willingness to show quality concerts. Tonight, I have enjoyed a concert with vocalist Cassandra Wilson and her excellent band. I had the great pleasure of hearing Wilson live two years ago at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. Excellent stuff then, excellent stuff on the telly now.

Cassandra Wilson is one of my favourite vocalists ever. In her case, it's because of her husky low voice and her impeccable and flexible sense of rhythm. Very laid back, relaxed and self-assured. Having good songs always helps. As does a remarkable presence onstage. Ms Wilson's got 'em all.

My girlfriend and me only have a few artists we both like a lot. Björk, Peter Gabriel and Cassandra Wilson are three examples. We also agree that with Cassandra Wilson, you should go for the Blue Note albums. On these, you will find the best versions of The Monkees' "Last Train to Clarksville" you are likely to hear as well as Dylan's "Shelter from the Storm" done far better than the grumpy old man himself and modernized versions of old blues chesnuts. And yes, her take on "Tupelo Honey" is sweeter than Van Morrison's original version.

Iron Maiden

I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that Swedish TV were going to show Iron Maiden live from Ullevi, Gothenburg. Not that I am a big Maiden fan, I really am not. Way back in 1981, I was thinking about seeing them in Gothenburg, but in the end, I didn't. Since I was a very young man, I probably didn't have the means to go.

The reason I think it's great that Swedish TV transmitted a live concert with Iron Maiden (and a taped performance of AC/DC yesterday) is that this is a sign of democracy. For years, hard rock and heavy metal has had a very large fan base, even during the punk and new wave years when, according to some journalists, the music scene was supposed to be dominated by youngsters with safety pins stuck through various body parts. The truth is that there were many types of music that outsold punk, but punk just happened to be fashionable at the time (and disco even more so). Anyway, during the second half of the 70's, many great hard rock bands made fantastic albums. Thin Lizzy, UFO, Rainbow, Whitesnake, Gillan and The Scorpions made lots of fans and sold many records during these years. During the 80's hard rock and heavy metal made it really big, but you saw very little of it on TV. There were radio shows and a couple of shows that dealt with metal, but not in proportion to the enormous popularity of the bands.

During the 90's and the 00's, hard and heavy rock music has developed and kept a big audience at the same time. A quick look at the Swedish charts tells us that bands such as Audioslave, Candlemass and Iron Maiden are top-10 chart material. Just like in the 80's. Another thing that has changed - to the worse - is the exposure of metal on Swedish radio and TV. Why is it that you can hear metal being used in commercials, but not being played regularly on daytime radio, nevermind TV? It's not like this music is percieved as rebellious anymore now is it?

So, that is why I applaud the decision to show AC/DC yesterday and - even better since it was a show going out live - Iron Maiden today. I hope this is just the beginning.

Alive and Kicking

My first thought when I heard about the explosions in London was: I hope nothing has happened to my good friends the Bereza family. A few minutes ago, I got an e-mail from Andy confirming that everything was OK. Phew! Along with 99,99 % of the rest of the world, I shake my head at the insane acts of violence that have hit London today. My heart goes out to the victims of this vicious attack.

On a happier note, I spent the afternoon with my oldest friend Peter today. We haven't seen each other for... I don't know, more than half a year. There are various reasons for this, but we made up for it by having lunch and a good chat after me selling him my old car, Drafi. Drafi is a Mazda 323 inherited from my Grandfather. My sister and me were the custodians of this elderly gentleman (he's from 1987), but since both of us are driving newer cars nowadays, poor old Drafi has been resting in a parking lot. I offered Drafi to Peter for a very reasonable price indeed, and he certainly knew a bargain when he saw it (and drove it). It's good to know that Drafi will have a good home in the future.

After a few minutes at work sending e-mails, we headed off for our lunch mentioned above. Discussions on music, Peter's stupid co-workers, music, heating, music and... eh... music followed. We must have bored the people at the café. When we came it was crowded, when we left there were only two other people there. We headed home to Peter's flat, watched a Kim Mitchell DVD and remembered the 80's when we were both buying second hand copies of Mitchell's work with the excellent Max Webster. Kim Mitchell was clearly the leader of this slightly bizarre and funny Canadian hard prog rock band. As Frank Zappa famously said: "Does Humor Belong in Music?". Listen to Max Webster and you will find out that the answer is the affirmative.

As I am writing this, I am watching The Last Waltz. Frequently regarded as one of the best rock movies ever, but I am not so sure. I prefer The Band's first two albums. If you ask me, it all went downhill after those two fine examples of Americana. Isn't it ironic that it took a Canadian band to do it properly? And the other performers were either better before or after The Last Waltz was shot. Not bad, not bad at all. But not that good. Personal highlights include Joni Mitchell's performing "Coyote" and Van Morrison actually coming as close as ever to being a bit of an extrovert.

I have never been a fan of Simple Minds. They recorded "Alive and Kicking" on their Once Upon a Time album in 1985. The best things about the band at this point were probably their drummer Mel Gaynor and, even better, the great bass player John Giblin. Check out the man's work with Brand X!

NP: The Last Waltz (but you knew that already)

It's a Shame About Ray

I've just watched the blockbuster Ray which, of course, deals with the life and times of Ray Charles. Not bad at all. Jamie Foxx is great as Ray, the music grooves along nicely and there's a great story in there. Somewhere. It's just that I have problems with"the American dream". If I never ever saw a movie, read a book or heard anyone sing about this subject matter again, I would be a very happy man indeed.

On the DVD version, you can choose between the cinematic version and a longer version. In the longer version, deleted scenes are edited into the cinematic version. This means that you occasionally get to see parts of some scenes twice. At one point in the film, we get more than we bargained for. The same scene is shown about ten times. Luckily, it's a short scene, but it's annoying. A clear case of misjudgement if you ask me.

As much as I appreciate some of Ray Charles' music - his recordings on Atlantic - he treated the women in his life terribly badly. That's why it's a shame about Ray.

Evan Dando wrote "It's a Shame About Ray". I've never liked the song, but it makes a good headline for today's blog, doesn't it?

NP: Ellery Eskelin/Andrea Parkins/Jim Black - One Great Day...

Leaving home ain't easy

Leaving home ain't easy is one of my least favourite Queen songs, but a fact for me these days. After living in Malmö for ten years and seven months, it's time to move. Luckily, I am off work and my extracurricular activities are temporarily put on ice until I have settled in the place I will call home: Skurup.

In the meantime, my days consist of packing, packing and more packing.

NP: Andy Summers - Green Chimneys