Photos from a gig we did with Efraim Törnfeldt Quintet at Jazz Club Fasching in Stockholm.

This was actually the premiere for this quintet, and from what I remember it was a really great first gig. All photos are shot by very talented photographer Edwin Rovers.

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We received two great reviews on the concert we did with Neighbourhood at Drömfabriken in Sandviken two days ago.

Photo by Mikael Almehag

So far our debut album tour has been a great success, which also shows in the reviews we have received so far. Swedish newspapers Gefle Dagblad and Arbetarbladet gave the concert in Sandviken a 4 out of 5 and a 6 out of 6 score. Fantastic!

Read the full reviews in Swedish below:

- Review in Arbetarbladet.
- Review in Gefle Dagblad.

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1. More Neighbourhood album reviews

Michael Jackson Honour Concert Poster

November 13th, 2009. Fasching in Stockholm completely sold out. 16 musicians on stage. Everyone there for the music of one man: Michael Jackson.

I love the music of Michael Jackson and I’m honored that I got the chance to take part in a tribute concert to him at Fasching in Stockholm. Playing this night was amazing! Fasching was completely packed with people, the spirit in the audience and in the band was unbelievable and we had such a good time playing!

Unfortunately not everyone who wanted to see the concert could, since it was completely sold out, but hopefully there’ll be more chances in the future.

The goal of the concert was to play the music of Michael Jackson as true to the original as possible, with all sounds there. Not an easy task, his music is full of small details and I think I have never worked as much before a concert as we did before this one, everyone transcribing every little detail of the recordings. I’m glad we did though, because the result was truly amazing. Here’s a show reel from the concert, which I think captures the whole thing pretty well! Enjoy!

On stage:

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Time for a clip where I participate! This is a video from a gig with Neighbourhood, recorded at Jazz Club Fasching in Stockholm this autumn.

Neighbourhood is one of the favorites among the bands I’m playing with. Always great spirit in the band and it’s so easy playing together with Kristian & Jonne in the horn section. It’s a band that always goes ‘all in’, no matter if it’s a concert or a rehearsal, and that’s the way I like it.

We’re releasing our debut album in spring 2010, so stay tuned for info about that!

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The gig with Neighbourhood at Jazzclub Fasching last Saturday was a huge success. Everyone in the band played their ass off, the place was totally crowded and the atmosphere couldn’t have been better!

After the concert we had a great party that ended with some skinny dipping in Årstaviken in the middle of Stockholm at 6 in the morning. Greatest night in a long while!

We’re recording our first album later this month if everything goes according to plan. I’ll keep you posted on that as soon as I’ve got any news to share!

We’re right now working on some videos from the concert, but while you wait for that you can already enjoy this one that a nice person in the audience shot! We’re playing the song Blow My Mind which was the encore of the evening. Enjoy!

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1. Neighbourhood live at Fasching tomorrow!

So, what have I been up to this summer? Well, biggest event was no doubt playing the Stockholm Jazz Fest with Magdalena Konefal.

Magdalena Konefal

Magdalena writes some beautiful music and plays together with a very nice band, The Rebirth Station. Our horn section, Neighbourhood Horns, joined for this gig, and the result came out very well I must say. I hope we get to do more gigs together with Magdalena in the future!

It was my first time at Stockholm Jazz Fest, and hangin’ there really was a blast. The festival area is on beautiful Skeppsholmen in Stockholm, right next to the water. The weather was great the whole week, I saw some wonderful acts (Sonny Rollins, Roy Hargrove, McCoy Tyner, Bill Frisell, Mike Stern, Meshell Ndegeocello, Gilberto Gil, Erykah Badu, Estelle, just to mention a few…), had a daily intake of good food and beer backstage, lot’s of good friends that also visited the festival and so on… Everything was perfect to be honest!

From what I understand they didn’t make a profit this year, but the arrangers still hope for another one next year. I totally fell in love with the festival and really hope there will be more of them. I think a jazz festival is something important for a big city like Stockholm, it’s a unique and very nice event that stands in good contrast to many other things happening in town.

YouTube

I found these two videos on YouTube, the first one is from when we played Nyhetsmorgon (the morning news) in Swedish TV4 before the festival, and the other one is from the actual gig at the festival. Enjoy!

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It’s been a while since my last post here, mostly because I’ve had so much to do in “real life”. One of the things I’ve been up to was a small, three gig tour with Jerry the Cupboard.

Sandviken

Thomas

Me & Thomas

Clas in Borlänge

Thomas

Thomas, Clas & Calle

Thomas

We started the tour off at Drömfabriken in Sandviken, one of the most amazing concert locations I have ever visited. It is run by people with learning disabilities, and just meeting these people makes you happy, the energy of that place effects you as soon as you walk through the door. We felt so welcome and was so well taken care of, and Drömfabriken have a special place in my heart after that day.

Everyone in the band was very inspired when we went up on stage, and the tour got the start we hoped for, with a really nice gig. Unfortunately there were not that many people in the audience, but I think we gave the people who showed up a nice experience.

Swedish newspaper Arbetarbladet wrote a nice review about the gig.

Stockholm

Our second concert of the tour was at Hotel Hellsten in Stockholm. They have a very nice concert series, with a jazz concert in the bar of the hotel every Thursday. Intimate concerts well worth a visit if you’re in town!

Being the second gig of the tour, and after such a great first gig the day before, we had a bit of a hard time really getting into it, but after a bit of a slow start we got it together, and it turned out to be a nice gig as well.

Before the gig I walked around in the hotel and met this Swedish comedian apparently staying there. Since I watch what he does and read his blog regularly, I got the impulse that I know this guy, before realizing who it was. I happily said hello, and by the look of his face I think I surprised him a bit. I guess people like him are pretty used to these things happening, but nevertheless you feel a bit stupid afterwards.

Borlänge

Our third and last gig of the tour was at Jazzclub Bolanche in Borlänge. A nice thing about this club is that it’s situated in the same building as the hotel, making it very easy to get there, you can almost take the elevator from your floor and step out on stage. Luxury!

I really liked the vibe of the club, it has a bit of a country & western style to it, making it a little different to an ordinary jazz club. Everyone at the club were very helpful and nice, which of course makes our life easier, but also makes it so much more fun to play! Sometimes you wish that more clubs would think about this, they would gain a lot from it.

As a musician I have to say that we often tend to do our best concerts at clubs with a good reputation (among musicians), where you know you are treated good and professionally. Since time on stage maybe is 20 percent of the total time you spend at a club, of course the time off stage effects the mood we’re in when we get up to do our job, and of course the audience can pick up on how the musicians feel.

Happy club -> happy musicians -> happy audience -> repeat cycle…

After sound check we had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant and then it was time to get up on stage. In the first song I immediately felt that this would be a good concert, the music was filled with so much energy and we had so much fun playing from the first note to the last. Inspiration was on top and afterwards we all agreed that this was our best concert of the tour.

The audience was the kind of audience you wish you would always have the pleasure of playing for, people of all ages, really listening and concentrating on the music.

After the concert there were lot’s of happy faces in the band, the staff and the audience, and we are very grateful that we could finish our tour in such a nice way with such a nice gig. From what I understood the club also recorded the concert on video, so hopefully I can upload some video clips from it in the future.

To finish this post off I would like to thank everyone coming and listening to us, and also a big thank you to Thomas, Clas and Calle for some great days together, let’s do it again soon!

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The day before yesterday I substituted for saxophone player Klas Toresson with Rickard Lindgren Quintet, on a gig at Glenn Miller Café.

Glenn Miller Café, Stockholm. Photo by: Andrea Paraggio.

The concert was very well visited and the atmosphere was great, as usual at this place I might ad. At GMC you usually play three sets of music, which we also did this evening.

Overall the concert was a good one, with inspired playing from everyone in the band. Personally I was pretty satisfied with my first and last set of the evening, I had a little bit of a dip in the middle one. Since I were just jumping in for this gig I didn’t know the material as well as I would have preferred, and I had to struggle a little on a couple of occasions, but hopefully the audience didn’t notice…

In the band were, apart from me, Rickard Lindgren on trumpet, Erik Lindeborg at the piano, Kenji Rabson on the bass and Moussa Fadera behind the drums.

I have played with Erik and Rickard before, but it was my first time playing with Kenji and Moussa, something I really enjoyed and hope to get the chance to do again. Unfortunately Kenji had some problems with his bass and had to borrow another one, and it’s never fun being forced to play on another instrument than your own.

The audience seemed to enjoy the evening, we had a good time and the atmosphere was nice, so I think I sum this one up as a good one. Thanks to all of you who were there and listened to us!

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My musical 2009 couldn’t have gotten a better start! The day before yesterday I had my first gig of the year, together with my friends in Jerry the Cupboard at Glenn Miller Café here in Stockholm.

GMC is the most intimate jazz club in Stockholm, and perhaps in whole of Sweden, with a great atmosphere between the musicians and the audience.

I think we were able to catch the interest and attention from the audience from the first note of the concert to the last, and the atmosphere was electric, at least that’s how I felt it. Personally I was very satisfied with the way I played this night, and for those of you who know me, this isn’t always the case. I’m pretty good at beating myself up after a gig, something I think is pretty common among musicians. A stupid thing, and I’m trying to get better at not being so self judging.

Anyway: I really felt inspired this evening, everyone in the band played fantastic and it was just a matter of fastening your seatbelt and join the ride… :) At these occasions, when the music flows like that, it’s almost as if you’re invited in by the music, it’s in charge, deciding where to go. That’s the feeling I always strive for when improvising. I was close on some occasions this evening.

This really was a great first concert of 2009 and I really hope the trend continues throughout the year.

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We really had a great evening at Underbara Bar yesterday, the spirit within this band is fantastic and it’s a pleasure every time we meet, on stage as well as private.

Neighbourhood

All clubs so far have been great, we have played our asses off every time and the guest artists have been marvelous, but I still think we managed to top it off last night.

In contrast to the great evening, the day didn’t start to good. Our drummer Sebastian took a taxi with his drums to the gig, but didn’t get very far before they were hit by another car. Luckily nobody gut hurt, but it’s always shocking when a thing like that happens, and it makes you think what actually could have happened.

Despite the circumstances we still finished our sound check on time, with some invaluable help from Stefan Hansson who kindly set us up with some sweet sound this evening.

The concept of Club Neighbourhood is that Neighbourhood play one set of funky, soulful instrumental tunes written by Kristian Persson, followed by a second set with a guest artist, last night singer Mattias Andréasson (dmaSOUL).

Mattias Andréasson

Our first set really was a blast, we had so much fun playing. All tendencies to autumn depression were quickly cured with the amount of endorphins rushing through my body, that’s for sure! With that start the second set almost played itself, we just kept on surfing the wave we had started in the first. Mattias and his background vocalists, Joel Humlén & Linda Stenmark did a great job, fantastic singing, and Mattias really writes some great tunes!

Would also like to aim a big thank you to Joakim Simonsson who, in a wonderful way, substituted for Edvin on the piano.

The atmosphere of the evening was really nice, everyone seemed to enjoy the show, and the gathering of some great friends afterwards really topped it off. Thanks to all of you!

Have a listen to the music of Neighbourhood and the music of Mattias Andréasson.

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