This Is How It Goes

Lots of activities now. Lots of different things, some really interesting, making my weeks somewhat stressful.

We are looking at doing IB Expo 2006 later this year. Mats suggested an interesting musician I have never heard, but via a sound file on the Internet, I now have. I agree with him, this person could fit very well. So I contacted PK and am now awaiting an answer. My good friend Luis may be a link to another possible participant for IB Expo 2006. We will see. Speaking of IB Expo, I visited Mick Karn's website and saw that he will go on tour. Great! You should go see him! He plays great, writes interesting music and is a really nice guy.

I am also in the throws of signing a licensing deal with Russia for IB. Starting with Cheval, we are looking at licensing the whole IB back catalogue in Russia. There are still some things to be discussed and I will make a few changes in the contract, but all in all, I think our music being distributed in any foreign country is a good thing.

At the department, last week was spent teaching, providing colleagues with statistics and working with the Bologna process (or the Bologna express, as some people call it because it moves along very quickly). My course in Jazz was wrapped up, and generally I thought this group of students was a good bunch. They did the test on Friday, but since I was in Stockholm at a meeting with the board of the Swedish Society of Musicology, I haven't seen the results yet. Tomorrow will be spent correcting exams. At least I hope to get through some of the answers. Unfortunately, the active students are all males with the females sitting passively but - I am sure - having lots of things to say. Why don't they? I will have to try harder to get them to say something on the next course (Rock), which starts on Tuesday.

It's been a busy week at Jazz i Malmo. Jon Balke played with his percussion-based group Batagraf on Tuesday and believe me, they blew people's minds! Ultra tight, groovy, imaginative playing focusing on rhythmic themes, counter-rhythms and general enjoyment both on and off stage. I heard one man say "I will never forget this as long as I live". He's right.

A less memorable concert was Linda Pettersson's Up From the Skies on Thursday. Great singing, great playing, most of the songs were great too, but I couldn't help being bored and lost interest after a couple of songs. With two sets brimful with standards played in a very traditional manner, it wasn't my cup of jazz. Next week Thursday, US piano trio The Bad Plus take the stage at Jeriko. I am really looking forward to hearing this trio live. So far, I have only heard good things about them, and the recordings sound great. This will surely be a good evening.

I have had several responses to my blog, and I encourage you to use the comment function to interact. Only the other day Gicken, bassist with IB and Sounds of Eternity, wrote to me to ask me to take a demo of the forthcoming Sounds of Eternity album to Luis and Nuno in Portugal, since he read in my blog that I will go to the Gouveia festival in early April. Before that, Leif contacted me regarding a recommendation I gave a few months ago in IB's newsletter. I had completely forgotten about a wonderful record called De Opblasbaare Vis, which was very kindly given to me by Ruggero, one of my Italian friends. I will absolutely have to listen to it again very soon!

Back at the house, the bed room is now insulated and the wall is reconstructed after last weeks' temporary destruction. What we need now is some paint and some help painting, and then we can start sleeping in our bedroom again.

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Aimee Mann is one of my favourite songwriters, period. Even though I really like most of her albums, her solo debut, Whatever, remains my favourite. Lost in Space is excellent too, but "This Is How It Goes" isn't one of the highlights of this otherwise fine album. A fairly ordinary pop song with a couple of quirky sounds and some strong melodic hooks courtesy of Aimee Mann. But she can - and really has - done a lot better than this.

NP: Aimee Mann - Lost in Space