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 school, as the other guys were older and more experienced.
I also had the full concert program for March 1998 at Katalin, and I saw that many of the people I play with and know very well today also played there. Claes Janson was there just a couple of days before and after. Also Ulf Johansson-Werre had a date that month. So I thought that I would be fun to have a theme of March 1998 for the whole concert. I actually managed to get my old quartet together, Claes and Ulf were also easlity persuaded. I also managed to get Leo Lindberg to play piano, and Erik Tengholm on trumpet.
So, I had a lineup that would allow for many exciting combinations and settings. A standard organ quartet, trio with piano, organ and drums, duos with piano and organ and drums and organ. Also horn section which allowed us to do songs from Claes Janson’s Ray Charles repertoire. And I didn’t just play the organ. On one song me and Leo changed places with each other, and then I also did one song on the drums!
It was a fantastic night, and I’m so happy I was able to pull it together!
