Getting to Know Copenhagen

Hello!

The airliners don’t make bass player’s lives very easy. When I moved to Copenhagen from Finland just before christmas I had so much stuff that I couldn’t even think of carrying my double bass with me. As you may know, it is a very cumbersome instrument and there are many stories about bass players, who either didn’t get pass the check-in and sometimes even if they did get to the flight they may find their instrument in million pieces when they finally open the flight case. So I was worried as usually.

I did another trip to Finland to pick up the bass, and that time I got it with me. Altough it did take a lot of convincing at the check-in desk and a couple of hundred spent euros. One other thing that many of the bass players experience are the comments when you are carrying the flight-case around: “Do you have a corpse inside?”, “You should’ve picked the flute instead”, or my favorite: “Dad! What’s that big instrument? -That my boy, is a cello.”

Jazz life here in copenhagen has been quite nice and active. I got a nice rehearsal room called Øret (the Ear). I’ve been learning some standards and playing twice a week in jam sessions. If you are in Copenhagen and are into jazz, there are lot’s of stuff happening every week. Now there is of course the Winter Jazz festival, but there are also the Christiania’s jazz club at wednesdays and fridays, Blågårdsapoteket at mondays, Temple Bar or La Fontaine at sundays.

Last tuesday was a really nice evening at La Fontaine. It was a support event for live music, and there was a lot (see the pic) of jazz musicians there. There was a jam beginning with a very nice hammond/guitar/drums – trio led by Kjeld Lauritsen. Later in the session Chris Potter took the stand with the sax. He really was on fire playing the solos. I have to borrow Håvards term describing the jazz musician playing super fast licks with furious emotions: he truly posessed the “Thunder Chops”! The atmosphere was really hot. And what could top that really fast swinging stuff… Yeah. Next up was the Denmarks own Jazz Kamikaze with a funky version of Smells Like Teen Spirit…

Tomorrow I’ll take the train to Gothenburg to meet up with Håvard, Fredrik and Joona. We’re going to rehearse for the upcoming album and maaaaaybe even go fishing!

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