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As it is said in the Renaissance ballet: Now is the month of maying! The time when Spring matures into adolescence while the world is still light green, leaves and straw still look newborn, and the ferns have those small, curled chameleon-tail rolls slowly unfolding into a waist-high foliage. The old Swedish verb “maja” actually means to decorate or adorn something with leaves or greenery, and this is surely true of the month of May – the world gets dressed in greenery. I wish you all visiting here a really nice month of May, and that your summer (or winter depending on where you are, of course!) will be rewarding and relaxing.

Aside from the regular work of performing and conducting, I have also begun composing a new piece for big band, and the completed chart will of course be published here. A movement in a four-part suite about the annual seasons for big band a a female vocalist, this new piece will concern the days immediately after New Year’s eve, when the new year seems fresh and empty of content, and the view of the oncoming year still is unclouded and filled with – sometimes vague and half conscious – hopes, wishes and expectations.

As every year, there will be a Summer Sale. The discounts will be 25% off on all arrangments, and 30% off on all compositions. For what you will get in music and playing for your band, there will between June 1st and August 31st be great prices on great charts. Music that will truly get your band playing and the attention of audiences!

My latest composition, titled “Ghost In the Rain”, is now available in the web shop. Based on Japanese modes and scales and with lyrics of mine that concern grief and mental unhealth, this piece is a ballad for a male and female vocalist duet. Compared to the chart completed before, this composing process was more drawn out and complex, but also personally very rewarding. Partly because the tonality and complexity of the piece were more challenging and demanded more processing work, but partly because I also have had a period of much other work, splitting my focus and the periods of concentrated writing. I do not claim to have any deeper knowledge of Japanese traditional music, but my aspiration is to merge and synthezise what I percieve is characteristic of Japanese music, and culture, with my own cultural context and environment, into something that is a fruitful and meaningful combination. I, myself, am pleased with the outcome, and I hope that others can find meaning, content and enjoyable music in this chart.

Once again, the eminent Immanuel Big Band is doing me the honour of performing my music in not one, but two events coming up this spring. The first is on Saturday the 20:th of April, when they will perform five compositions of mine at a short concert as a part of the Stockholm-wide event “Kulturnatten”, while the second will be the concert “Standard Story” in May but where the date is not set with hundred percent certainty. On both occasions, the fantastic vocalist Viktoria Glans will give voice and soul to the lyrics. More information about these two events will subsequently be posted closer to the dates.

Furthermore, on April 27:th at 16:00 I will have the great honour of conducting the wind orchestra EMP Orkester in their 70:th anniversary celebration concert at Teater Reflexen in Kärrtorp. They will perform a two set concert, and there will be some celebratory mingling and socializing both before, during and after. For more information and tickets: Kulturbiljetter.

Other than this, composing continues and work on a male and female vocal duet, titled “Ghost In the Rain”, is coming to completion and the chart will – of course – be published here when finished and edited.

I wish all of you visiting here a really nice and fine February and that you have warmth, company and comfort, in this on the northern hemisphere usually coldest month of the year.

From today, my latest composition “Mephisto Blues” is available for purchase in the web shop. The composing of this piece was swift and inspired, and I’m very pleased with this chart. Because the December Sale is under way, this new chart is published with the same price reduction of 30% as all the other compositions.

Many (really many, many) years ago, some friends and I saw the movie “The Devil’s Advocate” (the one with Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino). The film made us discussing why there are so many myths about equilibristic musicians (such as Paganini), and espescially blues musicians (Robert Johnson and Jimmy Page, come to mind), making pacts with the DeviI. From that I began to speculate about if the Devil would recognise the concept of blues and what that blues would be – and sound – like.

These speculations coincided with me reading Goethe, and I got inspired to compose a piece that has the twelwe bar form of a blues, with significant chord changes at the second, fifth and ninth bars, but as it is said that the Devil is a deciever and falsifier I worked out a very undefined tonality and ambiguous modality for the song – so one would recognise the ingredients of the blues, but be confused and misled. I performed this song with many small jazz groups, for many years.

Now, I have turned this song into a Big Band arrangement featuring the two lowest saxophones, Tenor sax 2 and the Baritone sax. I really hope I have been able to portray the eerie mood that such a sinister entity as the Devil evokes, without making the song depressing.

Finally: The December Sale is under way! Take the opportunity to buy great charts at favorable, reduced prices – 30% off on all compositions, and 25% off on all arrangements. All to give your band a fresh injection to the repertoire for the spring season’s rehearsals.

Today, Friday December 1:st, should be the start of the December Sale for 2023, instead it seems that something isn’t working correctly. The listed prices do not show any reductions…… What the prices actually will be – and what will be shown – upon checkout, I have not been able to test yet.

Exactly what has happened is not yet clear, but I am looking into it, this far without any significant progress, nor success. Most likely, this malfunction stems from a failed upgrade of my site’s WooCommerce plugin, and the only thing to do then, is wait for a developer-corrected version.

In the meantime, I wish everybody visiting here a really nice and good start of December!