Returning I

You could be excused for believing it's yours truly who's returning, since it has been a while since I last blogged, but that's not what I had in mind.

A couple of weeks ago, IB bassist and major Pink Floyd fan "Gicken" wrote me and e-mail and asked me what I thought about David Gilmour's new album On an Island. Yes, it's Gilmour who is returning. On top of that, guitar great and nice guy Christian Saggese also wrote me an e-mail telling me that he thought Gilmour's album was fantastic, and what did I think about it? I had only heard the promo version of the title track, so even though I had gotten a bite out of this tasty dish, I was hungry for more. "Gicken" and Christian's e-mails helped wet my appetite.



I had planned to get On an Island the very day it was released, but just hadn't had the time to go to my regular record shop - yes, I know I am old fashioned - to get the album until Friday. When I came home and listened to it, I instantly recognized David Gilmour's ulta tasty note choices and his sound-to-die-for after only a couple of seconds into the first track, the instrumental "Castellorizon". This is what good guitar playing is made of!

But, on the other hand, the vocal tracks are a bit of a disappointment, I am sad to say. Sure, it does sound like old Pink Floyd ever so often, and by that I mean older Floyd, like pre-DSotM (that's Dark Side of the Moon for you non-Floyders). I can hear some Beatles influences and some Dylan in there too. But I am not really impressed. Considering it has been more than a decade since the last album Gilmour composed music for (Pink Floyd's The Division Bell from 1994) and considering it's 22 years since his last solo effort, I was expecting more from the man. I find the vocal compositions weak. There's no drive, no hooks, no strong melodies, no interesting changes, no surprises and nothing odd. To really enjoy an album, I need at least a couple of these ingedients - the more the better, but at least two - for me to be happy about an album.

On this album, I like Gilmour's lead guitar playing. No wonder, it's simply beautiful and once more do I understand why he is one of my favourite guitarists. I also like the production and the cover with it's elegant design. Unfortunately the cons outweigh the pros at this stage. But I will give this album more spins, and who knows, maybe I will change my mind.

I have to mention The Bad Plus. On March 9, they played a blinder at Jeriko. Really good guys to work with, nice people with a mission to give people good music. Wheather you want to call it jazz or not is up to you. I would call it jazz. But it's also good music, period. Before they arrived, their rider had caused quite a stir not only in my office, but also at the rental company. Now, this is an experienced rental company who have dealt with mega stars on many occasions, but in this case, they were slightly worried. Why? In one of the paragraphs in the rider it basically said that if we don't provide the drummer with this particular set of drums and these drum skins, "you will have no drummer". This is scary stuff. Sensing that we were worried, both tour manager Jonin and drummer David King put me at ease and explained that this paragraph was a joke. OK. The house was packed with a remarkably young audience who cheered for the excellent trio. Probably the best concert of the year so far.

I watched a documentary on Swedish keyboardist Mats Oberg earlier today. An amazing musician, Mats is able to fit into rock, jazz and folk contexts with surprising conviction and ease. After watching the hour-long documentary, one question remained with me, having seen and heard Mats Oberg waltz through at least a handful of bands playing some really hard-to-play parts: how can he remember it all? Check him out live if you can! I have yet to do so, but I can recommend any recording by Mats & Morgan.

Earlier this evening, to take my mind off correcting a term paper and several papers, I watched another documentary. Touch the Sound on another fabulous musician, percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Apart from being a wonderful percussionist with some interesting ideas, she tends to surround herself with interesting musical partners. No exception in this documentary, where you can hear her play on a rooftop with a wrecking ball and amazing drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez (one of Jack Bruce's current drummers). Even more exciting was hearing her improvise in an abandoned factory with the one and only Fred Frith. Amazingly, Frith played some straight ahead guitar in a way I have never heard him play before. Oozing with lyricism and armed with an electric guitar, a Fender amp, a volume pedal and a Line 6 delay pedal, he really surprised me. Magic. Wouldn't this man be great for IB Expo 2006?

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The headline for this blog is taken from Robert Fripp's soundscape album A Blessing of Tears. This is may favourite soundscape CD on an emotional level. I find it very moving, with many seemingly reflecting lines full of dynamic expression. This goes for Returning I too, of course.

Idiot Wind

Just had a dreadful TV experience. Watched the Swedish finals of the Eurovision song contest. Guess who won? The holier-than-thou (scarier-than-thou would be more appropriate) Swedish charlatan Carola. If you ever need a reason for NOT becoming a christian, she is the reason you are looking for. As if a reason was needed.

The jury voted for a 70's styled retro song sung by Bono-light charachter Andreas Johnson, and eurodisco act BWO came second with a song featuring lyrics that would make any hair rock band of the 80's proud. How many songs from that era used the words "in the heat of the night"? The right answer is: too many.

Unfortunately, the jury's votes didn't help, because of the obligatory phone-in. And people did phone in. And I am sorry to say, they made a difference in a most negative way in this case. I suppose the fact that Carola won just proves a point made by witty radio personality Nick Abbot back in 1993-94: the masses are asses.

Since I am far from a nationalist, I hope Sweden will not make it to the international finals. Sending a religious nutter to Athens can hardly be to our benefit.

Just had a look at a Nick Abbot site. I must check up on his recent work. I really liked his work on Virgin 1215 when I lived in London in 1993-94.


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I am certainly not a big Dylan fan, in fact I am not a Dylan fan at all. But I can appreciate a good song when I hear it. As I am in a bitter and whingy mood today, I might as well tell you what I think of the song "Idiot Wind". Unmemorable lyrics in the verses with an even more unforgettable melody to help it stumble along. The chorus features Dylan not only making a fool of himself as a vocalist, but also taking the piss out of himself, at least that's the way it sounds. Great title though.

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

DIY

The weekend was spent redoing a wall in our bedroom. My girlfriend had an idea about how to improve the room, which included tearing parts of a wall down. Luckily, my father-in-law was good enough to help us out. In fact, he did the lion's share of the work with me helping out. It turned out that the wall wasn't insulated, so we had to take care of that matter which was unexpected and costlier than expected.

I spoke to Mats who has spent some time resting and recharging his batteries. One of the things we discussed were possible collaborators at IB Expo 2006. A couple of major names have been thrown about, a few well-known and the odd interesting but unknown namn has cropped up too. I will look into this during the coming months.

A busy week ahead: a couple of lectures ending with an exam for the students on Friday; two concerts (Jon Balke's Batagraf on Tuesday and Linda Pettersson's Up from the Skies on Thursday); a board meeting with the Swedish Musicological Society on Friday and a meeting with the jazz clubs of southern Sweden on Saturday.

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"DIY" is one of my least favourite Peter Gabriel songs, taken from his second solo album, one of my least favourite Peter Gabriel albums despite Robert Fripp sitting in the producer's chair. There are no strong hooks, no really interesting lines, the singing and playing is ordinary and not very exciting. A rather dull song if you ask me.

Clarinet Lament

Swedish jazz giant Putte Wickman passed away on February 14. At the concert that evening I announced 32 bars of silence and lit a candle to remember Wickman and his great achievements within jazz.

My favourite recording by Wickman is a CD called Desire/Mr. Clarinet featuring a stellar crew of Sweden's top session musicians: Janne Schaffer, Bjorn J:son Lindh, Teddy Walter, Magnus Persson and Per Lindvall. A very interesting and unusual setting for the more traditionally inclined Wickman, who really shines in this electric company. As far as I can see, this record is still available, and I can heartily recommend it.

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"Clarinet Lament (Barney's Concerto)" is a classic Ellington track featuring the one and only clarinet master Barney Bigard. I would be most surprised if Putte Wickman was not influenced by Bigard. They both play beautiful, lyrical, melodic solos and melodies with tasteful ornamentations. As is almost always the case with the great Ellington, the arrangement is very well done and superbly performed.

NP: Gavin Bryars - Man in a Room Gambling

Papa's got a Brand New Bag

For my birthday back in 2002, I got a Carlton suitcase from my father. He got a brand new bag. For me. It looked - and still looks - like your average Carlton suitcase in all respects. All respects but one. It looks like it's tie-dyed. That's right, tie-dyed. Like John Sebastian at Woodstock in 1969.

For four years, I wondered if I was the only person on the planet with a tie-dyed suitcase. It have taken it with me on tour with Isildurs Bane in the US, Canada, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Holland and Italy. I have looked at airports in these and other countries, but nowhere have I seen a suitcase like mine. Which is fine, because I can find my Carlton case at once on conveyor belts, luggage racks and in lounges all over the world.

Then, all of a sudden, I spotted one while waiting for a bus in Malmo during a snow storm only a month ago. And today, I saw yet another while sitting on the train to Halmstad. So to sum up: not a single sighting for more than three years, and then all of a sudden two tie-dyed suitcases appear out of the blue.

In Halmstad, Mats and myself had a good meeting with LE of the local council. We discussed planned IB activities for 2006 in Halmstad and agreed that we will do three projects in alliance with the local council:
1) Workshops in the autumn
2) Music at the inauguration of the library in Halmstad on April 22
3) IB Expo 2006

Mats has rediscovered Yes, and we listened to some of the old stuff: Fragile, Close to the Edge, Relayer, Yessongs and The Yes Album. I suggested to Mats that one thing that separates a good prog band from a bad one is if the music swings, grooves or whatever you want to call it. You can tap your foot to Bill Bruford but hardly to Mick Pointer. Also discussed which CDs I am to bring to the Gouveia Art Rock festival at the beginning of April. I was there last year, met nice people and sold lots of DVDs and CDs. It will be great to go back!

Mats played me some of Mariette's songs he has added his magic keyboard touches to. I wasn't too impressed, but I will wait and see what they sould like when they're finished. A lot can happen between the demo stage and the end product.

After a while, Mats discovered that he needed a power supply for his computer and phoned Jonas, since he has the same computer. Jonas appeared after finishing his sushi and joined the Yes discussions. Jonas has now moved most of his recording activities to his flat since he bought a laptop a few months ago. On the other hand, Mats has moved some of his gear from his Ataraxia studio, because it is too cold during the winter and also because his son Xerxes has moved into the Ataraxia premises.

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One of James Brown's best known songs, Papa's got a Brand New Bag is quite a funky little number, one of Brown's first really funky songs based mostly on one chord. I have heard many unfortunate covers of this track, but no cover has even come close. It's like they don't get the main features: the grooves, the sounds, the grain of Brown's voice. Ain't it funky now?

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NP: Mick Karn - More Better Different

Train Time

I had a busy day today. I started off at the department of musicology preparing my lecture on Wednesday, attending a meeting, dealing with e-mails, sending off papers, booking a flight to Stockholm, rescheduling lectures in March and April and making copies.

In the afternoon, I took the train to Kastrup to pick up Marc Johnson, Eliane Elias and Victor Lewis. It turned out that their flight left earlier from Oslo to Copenhagen. (Does this happen often?) When I arrived, they had already eaten and were ready to leave for Malmo with loads of luggage (ten items, most of them large and heavy). And then there was the matter of the non-arrival of the train on the right platform. To start with, the train was supposed to leave at 15.36 from platform one. The train was delayed and moved to platform two. So we moved too, with all the luggage. I felt embarrased although I had nothing whatsoever to do with the delay. Next, the train was delayed for nine minutes and - would you believe - moved back to platform one. So we had to take all the stuff and go to platform one. Now I was really embarrased, apologized and pointed out that I am not Danish and that such a thing would never happen in Sweden (ahem). And then, without telling anybody waiting why, the train was cancelled. Luckily, the trains run every 20 minutes. I mean, they are scheduled to run every 20 minutes.

In Malmo, we had to take a rip-off taxi to the hotel. At the hotel it turns out that the agent hadn't informed me that Johnson and Elias share rooms. In other words, I had booked one room too many. The suite booked for Marc Johnson was quite cold, especially for someone used to the warm Brazilian sun. An electric radiator solved the problem. To help Johnson & Elias with their jetlag, I got them some fruit, yogurt and crackers in case they need something to nibble on if they wake up in the middle of the night. Also set a new time for soundcheck, the delivery of the bass to be borrowed (courtesy of local bassist Mattias Svensson) and negotiated with the restaurant at Jeriko about the food for Johnson/Elias/Lewis. I am looking forward to the concert tomorrow! If the CD Shades of Jade is anything to go by, it will be a most enjoyable evening tomorrow night. Judging from ticket sales, we will get a good crowd in. Great!

Following my catering work, I was interviewed by Alexander Agrell for southern Sweden's most read newspaper, Sydsvenskan. He was impressed by the artists booked by Jazz i Malmo this spring. He is right of course, there are many big names, and it will be great to hear them during the coming months. It will be interesting to find out what I said to Alexander. It will be in tomorrow's paper. Interesting fact: Alexander lectured classed in jazz and rock at the department of musicology. From 1996 onwards, I have been in charge of these classes. Alexander is one of few music critics in Sweden whose opinion I value.

On the train back the the place I call home, I met L who recently moved here. It's good to talk.

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On Cream's Wheels of Fire you will find Jack Bruce's Train Time. Hardly his best work, but a reasonable time piece.