Last Saturday, the 22/4, the eminent Immanuel Big Band held a short concert of five songs entirely with my music, at Immanuelskyrkan, Stockholm. The concert was held as a part of the city-wide communal event “Kulturnatten”. In a five piece program with two instumental songs, the great vocalist Anders Bergman premiered three songs publicly for the first time.

The band performed on top, with great spirit and interpretation, flavoured by very nice and inspired solistic appearances, while Anders filled the songs and the lyrics with meaning and soul. I’d like to say a warm, heartfelt Thank You! to everyone involved for a very nice and joyful experience.

The three songs premiered were: “Black Cat Blues”, “No Quick Fix For Crying” and “Laughing Pearl”.

I wish all of you visiting here a really nice April ending, and that May will be a lovely bridge between Spring and Summer.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of conducting Huddinge Big Band (picture above) once again performing the full repertoire from the magnificent Diane Schuur & the Count Basie Orchestra record from 1987. This time with a new vocalist, the eminent Camilla Widell, whom performed with dash, skills and feeling well fitting for the songs. The concert, which was held at Scandic Bredden with the production of Bio Sober, drew a large, enthusiastic, and interested audience, made the band play its best and the whole performance a joy and an energizing experience.

A great Thank You to the band for taking on the repertoire and doing it so well, to Camilla for a great performance and show, and to all the friendly and interested people who came to listen.

More events are coming up, and I hope some of you visiting here can come and listen sometime. I’ll notify about those in due time.

So busy have I been this December, that I almost forgot to set up for the December Sale. Now, I got the sale up and running on December 1:st but it got an unannounced start this year, so more than two weeks in I now, finally, state: The December Sale is on between the 1:st and 31:st! Take the opportunity to buy great big band charts at 30% discount on all compositions, and 25% on all arrangements.

There is also a new composition in the web shop, a piece influenced by Japanese modes and scales titled “Childhood Friends”; a slightly melancholic contemplation about seeing how the emergence of the traits and characteristics we all develop as we grow up affect friendships that were founded in childhood and youth. This chart is published at reduced price.

The concert “Standard Story”, that Huddinge Big Band performed the 26:th of November, was a really fun and successful project! The band and Anna Häll, the vocalist, really stood up to the task, the concert was well attended and the whole project was a great preparation for the subsequent “Christmas Cantata” concerts – as well as an over all fun and inspiring undertaking. I think the picture from that concert provided here, shows how elegant and spectacular a well set up big band can be – alas with this picture not showing the eminent vocalist Anna Häll.

I wish all you visiting here a great and happy December! May you all look forward to the upcoming holidays with joy and happiness – despite these perilous times.

On November 16th, Huddinge Big Band will hold the concert “Standard Story”, which means they will perform arrangements I have made from jazz standards and put toghether to tell a love story. Many of these arrangements were originally made for my college graduation concert, to which I chose my favourite jazz standards and arranged them in a way that together with a narrating presentation, they would tell a love story – from beginning to end, and a bit thereafter. The original concert was held at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm (at the “Lilla Salen” hall) in January 2001 and consisted of eight arrangements, but in the years following I completed the concert repertoire with another three, to finalize it to the planned eleven songs.

Now; Huddinge Big Band will perform ten of these arrangements in the story, with the eminent vocalist Anna Häll aiding in the storytelling, and with me as rehearser, conductor and presenting narrator.

Place: The Aula of Huddinge Gymnasium (entrance from the school square)
Day: Wednesday 16/11
Time: 19:30
Admission: 100:- Free admission for kids under the age of 15!
Coffee, tea and home baked pastry will be for sale from 19:00.

Welcome!

P.S

The arrangements that constitute the concert are all for sale here, and in concert order they are:
Days of Wine and Roses
Like Someone In Love
My Shining Hour
I Thought About You
If I Were a Bell
Do Nothing ’til You Hear From Me
This Masquerade
Here’s That Rainy Day
Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
It Could Happen To You

D.S

…of the Summer Sale, that is!

The Summer Sale of this year, ends on August the 31:st. Take the opportunity to buy great charts at a great discount, to kickstart your band’s autumn rehearsals. 30% off on all compositions, and 25% off on all arrangements!

Please, also note that the contact form on the web page seems to be not working. Anyone trying to make contact should use “contact(at)danieleng(dot)com”. I’m trying to fix this really odd problem, but so far I haven’t been able to make it work properly; not even diagnosing the problem causing the malfunction.

In Sweden, we head for a general election on September 11:th, where we elect parliament, regional and municipal representatives. The campaigning from all parties has been feverish and quite unfocused, and it seems like the number of undecided voters – or voters deciding in the last moment, even right at the ballot box – is unusually large this year. We’ll see where it all ends up, hopefully it won’t take as long as after the election of 2018 to form a cabinet (it took 134 days….), but depending on what government we get in Sweden afterwards, there may be changes in the over all conditions for practitioners of cultural professions.