Andreas Hellkvist

This was the last night of the jazz festival "Sommarjazzveckan". Beautiful venue, an old restaurant in a recreation and swimming area. The first set was just Arnesen blues band, and for the second, Claes Janson joined us on stage. As it often is, I was also asked to talk a little about the Hammond organ…

Last time I played this church was a solo concert (shared with churtch organist Gabriella Sjöström), but it was so nice to be back with Trinity. We haven't played here since 2017. I put out a little snippet from the song "En gång i Stockholm" that you can see below. A suitable song, considering the…

When playing in churches on the countryside, you never really know how many people will show up. But I can happily say that it was far more than expected. It was a nice concert, although my pedals started acting up in the encore, where notes started to hang. Luckily it was just at the end.…

A floating stage! Once you're out there, you'd better play well so they'll bring you back. We had a fun night in Öregrund, playing blues, jazz and some soul. It was bit bit cloudy and rainy during the day but it all cleared up for a beautiful summer evening. Though, it got a little cold…

Last gig of the tour was at Lilla jazzfestivalen (The small jazz festival), in Kastlösa. Having done mostly organ parties with covers and standards earlier in the week I decided to play mostly my own music here. I had quite an early slot in the program which was kind of nice. The day ended with…

When you throw an organ party on the birthday of the crown princess of Sweden, in the same town as she celebrates, there of course will have to be a royal theme! So, for example, since her name is Victoria, I played the Kinks tune with the same name. Worked out well! Also thought the…

New place, new audience. At the beginning of the concert I asked - does anyone know who I am? Hardly anyone put up their hand. So, I'm glad they took a chance to come and see me. And as the evening went along, we got to know each other better and better.

The town of Hultsfred in Småland has become synonomous with the legendary rock festival that took place here in the summers of the 90s and early 2000s. I was there in 96 and 97 and that haven't been here since. So it was nice to come back, and Hotell Hulingen, where I played and stayed…

A fairly new summer tradition in Uppsala is the concerts at Katalin's terrace that has been going on for a few years. I usually do a couple gigs there and this one was the first of this summer. Playing with Cales Janson in Uppsala is somewhat of a guarranteed hit, and that was the case…

It's so nice with recurring gigs. We have been playing in Valbo almost every summer for quite a few years now. I think it gives you the comfort to strech out a little more musically. At least it felt like that. Also more people than usual attended, which was a bit surprising (but nice!), considering…

Like last year, we started our summer tour at the wonderful Bruna Dörren in Ljugarn, Gotland. Such a nice place to play! There's a vibe there that you don't get on many other places. Since we're now in 2023 we added a few songs from 1973 (to keep the 50 year anniversary) to the repertoire…

This was Trinity's first church gig of the summer. The Sunday of Midsummer weekend seemed just the right time! Tour premieres are always exciting, especially when it's a a new place. We haven't been here as a group before, although I played at a rainbow service here last fall. One of the new songs that…

I thought I might be a good idea to cram a gig into my midsummer trip to Dalarna. So I booked Gamla Elverket in Falun for an Organ party. It's a very nice venue, where the local jazz club arranges their concerts. However, the day before midsummer's eve, most people seemed to be occupied elsewhere.…

Had a blast at House of blues in my hometown of Borlänge! A few days earlier I had invited Petra Kvännå to join me and she luckily accepted my invitation. We hadn't played together before but it just worked right from the start. Did some Stevie Wonder songs, some Ray Charles, and even some Jimi…

First time playing at Musikhuset with Arnesen Bluesband! I've been thinking for a long time that this would be a perfect venue for this band and I think I was right. We played as a quartet, and I think we all had a blast!

And so the day came. I had tried, tested and developed my concept of the 4 leslie setup at the HQ for a few months so I knew it worked in a smaller scale. But would it translate to a bigger stage and room? Only one way to find out! There were a lot of…

"Organ party all day long" was the title of of this event. And I can assure you, it was quite an adequate description! It started out at 2pm, when guests were arriving for a national jazz organizer´s conference, hosted by Gävle jazz club. I sat there playing mostly jazz standards, while people where greeting and…

Always fun to be out with the blues band and Claes!

Never played this jazz club before. Always nice to see new places and meet new people! As usual, the Hammond gets a lot of attention and I was asked to do a little presentation in the intermission. I never mind doing those kind of things, it's just nice that people are interested!

Bill Öhrström is somewhat of an institution in Swedish music. He has been involved both as an artist and producer for many years. I have played with him a couple of times over the years, but not extensively. This year he turned 80 and this was a celebration of that. I lended my Hammond XK5…

In the summer of 2022 I was approached by singer Sune Bohlin to make a record with some of his compositions of poems by Nils Ferlin and Karin Boye, as well as some other already existing songs. The result was "Ett omaka par", the first album that was completely produced at the HQ, with me…

En gång i månaden anordnar Uppsala kommun en musikpub för personer med LSS. Detta var första gången jag var med. Konserten delades in i två avdelningar - först ett musikquiz, där arrangörerna satt ihop några frågor om låtar som jag spelade. Andra avdelningen var mer en renodlad konsert. Som vanligt när det är orgelparty fick…

A nice trip to Smedjebacken, Dalarna for an afternoon concert. Karl was occupied elsewhere, but we had a solid replacement in Erik Tengholm.

I love anniversaries! This exact day marked the 25th anniversary of my first concert in Uppsala, and really one of the first "real" gigs. Back then, Tore Berglund put together a quartet just for the occasion to play some good old hard swinging organ jazz. That became my first quartet, and kind of like a…