Gig at Cordiale’s
I have been so extremely busy with branding Shilohh I haven’t posted in a while now. Got some catching up to do!
We went with our horns to Cordiale’s at Ventura Blvd where we were invited by Paulie. Apparently Gerry Brown, former drummer with Stevie Wonder who we already have met down at Harvelle’s was supposed to play there. He was not there, but fear not, another former Stevie Wonder drummer made it there. Donnell, a fantastic drummer also a photographer. Brenna Whitaker, a girl originally from Kansas City was the main feature of the evening. We listened to the first set and were invited up to play with them after a few tunes. Travis Carlton on bass and Bill Steinway on piano laid down some serious grooves and both Mattias and me got to play a lot. great fun. I made a few photos from the evening, check ‘em out. And make sure you click the link on Brenna and listen to her music on myspace!
St Patrick’s Day
After getting ourselves another car at Rent-A-Wreck (of course the car we had showed to have bad brakes) we went down to Santa Monica for the weekly R’n'B jam session at Harvelle’s. It was St. Patrick’s and everybody are wearing green coloured clothes and necklaces allover town. we stopped at a nice looking place called Cafe 50’s. Total nostalgic approach with old school foods, jukeboxes and lightly dressed waitresses. Good times. We got ourselves food, beers and milk shake and enjoyed the Irish atmosphere. The place was covered in green all because of the Irish holiday. Even my beer was green! I brought the camera, here are some pictures.
After food and good times we continued to Harvelle’s down the street. We were way too early there but at least cought the house band playing all their sets. We got up to play a good hour with the guys. Had a great time, played all kinds of tunes and backed some great singers. Good evening…
Wayne Bergeron Big Band
Sorry for the blackout last couple of days. I know there are some Kyrkhult based readers that are fanatic readers and look for more frequent updates… Promise I’ll try to keep up better. But now I have some news from the past week. First off is our visit to a jazz club we haven’t seen before, Vibrato, a beautiful place in Sherman Oaks, hidden in the hills. Mattias had an issue with the car so we missed the opportunity to go see a masterclass with Bill Watrous. Seems like all things happen for a reason. We have wanted to see the famous trumpet player Wayne Bergeron since we got here and when we experienced the Big Phat Band without him, this concert came as a pleasant surprise. We also noticed when we got there that most of the LA studio scene was in the band, including our hero Andy Martin that we yet have not seen playing. We were up for a treat!
Trombone section was Andy Martin, Charlie Loper, Alan Kaplan and Bill Reichenbach, all people we know of, amazing to see all these guys in the same section. When Rick Baptist and Gary Grant were in the trumpet section meanwhile Wayne Bergeron plays in front of the band we realized there can’t be any recording sessions going on at all this evening. All guys are HERE!
The concert was great, so much good music, by far the best big band we’ve heard this far. The danger of hearing way too much high screaming trumpet playing was present but did not happen. A very tasteful Wayne playing beautiful solos and lead lines. Good evening for sure. Here are some pictures of the evening.
The Disney Concert Hall
I took the subway down to Civic Center today to go see the the coolest concert hall I’ve heard of. Weather was beautiful, it is becoming really warm here now finally. I met a group of students from the photography department of the Art Institute who were there on assignment so I was not alone shooting. Since I needed to get away from the trombone for a bit it was good with a creative session. The garden behind the concert hall had some orchids and stuff, so I spent some hour there too. Check these ones out!
Oh, forgot to mention that I have an 16Gb iPhone coming. It should be coming any day now. Such a cool thing! Here is a picture for those of you who don’t know it…
Barbeque in Santa Monica
We were invited to a party a friend of Paulie’s was hosting in her house down in Santa Monica. Peach had the most amazing house you could imagine, totally big and furnished. We arrived at 4pm (they always start parties early in LA we’ve noticed) and people were already there cooking and preparing the food. Of course a big cooking island in the middle, full of italian food. Lots of people stumbled in during the evening, we got lots of new friends.
After food and beers the party continued inside Peach’s recording studio where we all unpacked our instruments and started jamming away. Lots of blues and good times. Everybody crammed inside the studio on the floor listening to the “concert”. Man when did we attend such a party at home? Check out some of the photos…
Valentine’s day
Today we explored the subway system and took a ride down to Hollywood/Vine to listen to a big band rehearse. It is great, the subway day-pass (all day subway/metro riding) costs five bucks! 30 swedish crowns! To ride a whole day. Perfect. We walked around Sunset Blvd strolling the walk of fame. Many names we recognized but even more we’ve never heard of. Beautiful area down there, lots of old landmarks. Take a look at the pictures!
Later on we continued down to Charlie O’s to celebrate both Valentine’s day and Pete Christlieb’s birthday. Pete is a legendary tenor saxophone player known from a ton of records and was playing with a group of friends on his birthday at the jazz club. The band and especially Pete played incredible.
Since it was Valentine’s day the place was decorated with hearts and red color; they even hosted a valentine-raffle. We ended up winning one CD, one set of champagne glasses, a bottle of champagne and a huge heart-shaped cream cake.
Emil Richards All-Star Big Band
We went again to rehearse with the Bob Stromquist big band that we now do regularly at Mondays. Easy going, it is really fun to play big band again! Paulie then took us to Charlie O’s jazz club again to see the vibraphonist Emil Richards perform with his All-Star band. We got to see Bill Reichenbach at bass trombone and Charlie Loper on lead bone. Some great solos were played by the trumpeter Bob Summers, the legendary tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb and Emil himself. We were enjoying hearing the Big Phat Band, Gordon Goodwin-drummer Ernie Dresel play. God what a drummer that is, far amongst the best big band drumming we have ever heard. Check the concert photos out!
When that finished, we continued down to the famous Larry Carlton established joint “the Baked Potato” down on Cahuenga Blvd, to go rip some tunes at the jazz/fusion inspired jam session. Both Mattias me and Paulie got to play some tunes there and laid down some backgrounds for the vocalists. Great fun, we’re for sure going back down there again next week.
Today we got hold of the trombone player Bob McChesney via email who sent us his playing schedule. Luckily he’ll be playing with the Don Menza band on Monday, following with his quintet the Wednesday after. Good times, exciting to finally get to hear him play live! That’s it for today!
Few quiet days
We have had a couple of days with some relaxing on the schedule. We have both been practicing our horns a lot and walked around in the neighborhood. We have explored the local foods available in the area; we had an expensive experience at a sushi place close-by, but some better ones including hamburgers… They really can make burgers in this country. Mattias and me have been out walking a lot in the ‘hood - to get exercise but also to give each other some free time at home to practice alone. Our house is really small as you might have already heard. I have been out in the wonderful weather focusing a bit on creative photographing.
We spent the evening at Mama Juana’s, a latin/salsa place that had a live band playing. The place was packed, we got ourselves great latin food and some fantastic music from the band, Son Mayor. Good times. Maybe the avarage female age was a bit higher than we hoped for…
Oh yeah… I jumped into the pool today as well, the weather is warm!
Now selling prints of my photographs
I have opened up a gallery online where you now can buy prints of some of my chosen photos. You can choose what size you want, and what frame you want to use and get it sent home. It is not expensive either. This way you get a cheap way of getting a photo you like to have hanging on your wall delivered to your doorstep. I even get some small credit for the whole thing which is a good thing! I am working on putting some proper photos there right now so within some days the gallery should be up and running properly. Click the link below or on the images to the right to see the gallery and your different options.
UPDATED - Cruise Photos!
I have finished editing and organizing all the photos from my cruise ship contract and put them all inside the album. When you reach the gallery from clicking the link - go to page 2 and look from there on to see all the new photos you have not yet seen. Thank you for sharing my experience, and feel free to drop me a line if there is something you like!
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This is the place where you can read about where I am and what I currently am doing. My calendar is on the left.
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