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For a long time now, maybe closer to thirty years, I have carried the Holocaust with me as an almost daily thought and awareness; ever since the day when my then piano teacher held a lecture for me and my schoolmates about how she just the other day had recovered many of the repressed memories of how she was sent to Auschwitz with her mother and sister, got led into the gas chamber, and actually got out again due to some miraculous malfunction in the normally industrial process of murdering people that the Nazis had constructed and administrated.

My piano teacher was a short woman, with a neat and rather small voice, but when she for the first time since it happened told us, about the arrest of her, her sister and her mother, how they were sent by train to southern Poland, the disapperance of her mother, the brief but scarringly terrifying moments in the gas chamber with her little sister, the emptying of the camp when the Red Army closed in on it, the death march they were led out, and abandoned on, the rescue by accidentally being found by a British patrol, her and her sister’s sickness from all their catastrophic privations, she filled the room with something larger than life and her voice riveted all of us – students and teachers alike – until she ended her story and we realised we had been sitting perfectly still several hours in complete silence, and shock. I will never forget that lecture.

It is absolutely imperative that we preserve the memory of what the Holocaust was, how it came to be, who constructed and pursued it, and lastly: what it is today, because we still live with its consequences and the vile heritage of the mindset that made it possible. This is why this date, the 27th of January, to me is a day of contemplation and sorrow. Other days may be dedicated to memories of all sorts of sad or happy events, but no other remembrance date is for remembering a crime in the scale of the Holocaust.

Between December 1:st and 31:st there will, as usual, be a sale. The discount is 30% on all compositions, and 25% on all arrangments.

Take the opportunity to buy great sounding, stimulating and exciting charts at lowered prices. Maybe as a Christmas gift, or to reinvigorate your band’s repertoire for the spring season.

Stay safe everybody! Lets hope that the pandemic is declining, despite these new mutated variants coming up.

The Summer Sale ended with August but – at least here in Sweden – the summer did not. Though we’re soon into October, the weather is still warm and sunny and today I even saw bees buzzing around the still flowering plants in the garden. Weather-wise it feels more like late August, than late September.

As well as the bees, I have been busy too. Just the other day, I finished work on a new composition based on Japanese scales and modes, titled “The Frog and the Banana Tree”. It’s a vocal composition, for a female vocalist, and the lyrics is inspired by Matsu Basho‘s writings and haikus. Right now I’m editing the hand written draft score – seen here to the right – in Finale and when the score and the parts are finished this new chart will be published in the web shop.

Other than that, I hope that lifting of the restrictions in many countries will not lead to an increase in infection spreading again, so that societies all around the world slowly can go back to more normal conditions for everybody.

Still: Stay safe everybody, and be careful! This Corona virus seems to be able to spring nasty surprises on us, but I hope the pandemic really, really is subsiding now.

While this summer’s sowings grow and mature, like these sweet (and cute) tomatoes on my balcony in the picture, the Summer Sale of 2021 has one more month to go. Until August 31:st prices in the shop are reduced by 30% on all compositions and 25% on all arrangements.

Take the opportunity to buy stimulating and great sounding charts for your band at reduced prices, to get an energy injection to the repertoire and the musicians after the vacations.

I wish all of you visiting here a great summer, and to stay safe through what can come from this wretched pandemic – that still tries to hang on to us.

I have always had a liking for the Gershwin brother’s song “A Foggy Day”; something about the melody, the chords and the lyrics make me feel like it’s the perfect, light-hearted jazz standard. Now I have made an arrangement of this song, for Big Band and a male vocalist, that from today is available in the shop.

My version is a little uptempo, with the song alternating between a pedal ostinato and the regular chords, where I try to illustrate a drizzly, deep grey, murky and foggy London morning, which unexpectedly ends with the sun breaking through – maybe both literally and figuratively. This chart could work as a dance chart, and I hope others will find that I have made a stimulating and challenging arrangement.

There will also be a Summer Sale between the 1:st of June and 31:st of August. Because the pandemic has had such a devastating impact on the Big Band culture, I’ve decided to keep the greater discounts this year too. Prices will therefore be reduced by 30% on all compositions, and 25% on all arrangements. Take the opportunity to buy great sounding, fun and stimulating and unique charts at good prices!

Stay safe everybody! I hope we can put an end to the pandemic very soon.