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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!

Last Sunday, October 15th, the eminent Immanuel Big Band once again gave me the joy of performing my music. In an extensive two-set program under my conducting, the band teamed up with the fantastic vocalist Viktoria Glans and the previously introduced, equally nice Anders Bergman, to perform both instrumental and vocal music – in genres from jazz to funk and folk – entirely of my production. In front of a large audience the band and Viktoria premiered three songs from my pen: “Good Morning to Me”, “Childhood Friends” and “Floating Head”, all were played for the very first time with excellence, precision and energy. Anders Bergman joined in the second set, to help end the concert in the duet “The Terrible Absence of You”, which showed how well both the vocalist’s voices matched and complemented each other in the most natural way.

The rehearsal period was short; intense and sweaty, but the band pulled through and performed on top, with focus and skill, and the total is an energizing and creativity-boosting experience for me – and hopefully for the band too. Though nothing is planned, I already look forward to doing a new project with them.

A heartfelt and sincere Thank You! to the band, Viktoria and Anders, for a great performance and a really enjoyable project time!

Other than the above, the post production of the tracks that Big Engband cut in August is under way. With the mixing and add-ons almost done, mastering will be scheduled, and after that five tracks from my pen in a constellation of Big Engband, will be published for public access and listening. Preparations for The Winter Sale are also in the works, with the annual December reduction of prices coming up as usual. Finally, a new composition for Big Band and female vocalist, titled “City Bird”, will also be published here soon. More information about all this, will subsequently be published here.

As you can see, there is a lot going on and I hope this will keep me warm and moderately busy during the now seriously onsetting Autumn. I wish you all visiting here to stay warm and cosy during these dark Autumnal evenings, and that we all (on the northern Hemisphere) will get a nice winter to embed us until spring.

Just the other day I noticed that there was a mistake made in the edited notation of the promotional score “Good Morning to Me”. In the score and in the Tenor sax 2 part, there is a flat symbol missing in the outro of the song. The correction is that Tenor sax 2 through bars 106-112 should play a notated Eb (sounding Db and written as such in the Concert Key score).

This notation error is now promptly corrected, and the adjusted chart is now available. See the corrections below:

There are only a few days left of this year’s Summer Sale. Sieze the opportunity to buy great sounding charts, that are fun to play and pleasing to listen to, at reduced prices for the upcoming autumn rehearsal semester. Until August the 31:st the reductions are 25% on all arrangements, and 30% on all compositions.

The last recommendations I give for this summer, are for those who look for charts that are difficult enough that not many bands can pull them off. If your band wants to show its skills, stamina and technique Iraqi Blues is a medium-up 5/4 meter piece that demands all that; with a prefered Piccolo Trumpet lead and a sax- and a shout- chorus that both require some serious rehearsing. Mister Ostrich is a fast piece in 17/4, most often subdivided 5-5-7, that due to its sheer tempo takes a really good band to play and perform, while Ge Mig (with Swedish lyrics) is an uptempo song that switches between 4/4 and 6/4 with a counterpoint shout chorus, that demands skills and an acute awareness of form in both the band and the female vocalist. Just Friends, is a difficult and demanding chart; not only from being in the key of E, but also from a long outro and intro with vocalise and reduced ensemble that takes some practising to master. Check these charts out to give your musicians a real challenge come the start of the rehearsing season!

I wish all of you visiting here a really nice August, and a great start of the oncoming Autumn!