Here’s a real jazz legend who’s also into fly fishing! Check out jazz pianist Denny Zeitlin talking about fly fishing basics and playing his beautiful composition “Quiet Now”, which is one of my favourite jazz ballads. Denny, we’d love you to join us for a gig or a fishing trip! The wine’s on us!
Recording with Anders Hagberg Quartet
Last weekend I was recording with the Swedish flute/sax player Anders Hagberg’s band. We were at the Studio Epidemin in Gothenburg, the same studio where the JFF album will soon be recorded. Johannes Lundberg, the bass player in the band, is also the soundguy in the studio. I was lucky to be the first one to record the wonderful, beautiful Fazioli grand piano the studio has just got! That was fun, and the piano sounds really good!
The Olympics, Dalarna and Juha Mieto
Juha Mieto
Well, we finally got word from Fredrik. Apparently he is cross country skiing in Dalarna, Sweden.
We had an interesting debate about the olympics last night. As you might have noticed, things are not going too well for the Norwegians so far. The Swedes, on the other hand… Here´s our correspondence from last night:
From: Fredrik Hamrå
To: Håvard Stubø; Joona Toivanen; Tapani Toivanen
Cc: Petzi // Petzifilm
Sent: Tue, 16 February, 2010 23:23:39
Subject: RE: JFF site todo list
Hello guys! I´m skiing (what happened with Petter Northug, Håvard?!? I think I remember that you said he was gonna win everything?) in Dalarna. That is why I m a bit absent in this conversation. I´ll be home on sunday, after that there will be action from Fred!
From: Håvard Stubø
To: Fredrik Hamrå, Joona Toivanen; Tapani Toivanen
Cc: Petzi // Petzifilm
Sent: Tue, 16 February, 2010 23:33:46
Subject: RE: JFF site todo list
Northug? I don´t know. The Norwegians are very disappointing so far… Good with Björn Ferry today, though. A Storuman homeboy! And what about everybody´s favourite Swede, Charlotte Kalla! She´s from Tärendö close to Gällivare, which is where they make some of the iron ore which is the reason my home town Narvik exists, so there is a some sort of connection there. I´ve been cheering for her since she came around a few years ago.
Actually, I often find myself cheering more for some of the Swedes than some of the Norwegians. Maybe it´s because many of the Swedes come from Nordkalotten, and most Norwegian skiers are from the south of Norway? Not my all-time hero Vegard Ulvang, though – he´s from Kirkenes. Where in Finland is Juha Mieto from, Joona? He must be one of the coolest skiers ever.
From: Joona Toivanen
To: Håvard Stubø
Cc: Fredrik Hamrå; Tapani Toivanen
Sent: Wed, 16 February, 2010 23:56:02
Subject: Re: JFF site todo list
This is great stuff man! Put it on the blog!
PS! Juha Mieto is from Kurikka
(end)
Speaking of Dalarna, I suddenly remembered this video that bass player Torbjörn Zetterberg sent me some time ago. Enjoy:
Things happening – mostly Jazz and Fly Fishing
As you may have noticed, we added a Gallery tab to the JFF site. It’s still a bit under construction but there are already over 250 pictures covering last summer’s experiences! We’re also making the site more communicative to visitors and networkers.
These improvements will be just a small step on a way to total Jazz and Fly Fishing world domination. In a couple of weeks we’ll be recording an album in one of Sweden’s finest studios and we already scheduled most of summer for some prime fishing trips; This summer we’re going to fish in some of the most exotic remote locations where no jazz band has ever fished before.
Reading Håvards last post about fishing wild arctic char at Ransarån got me really thinking about fishing, summer and good times. Here’s some feelings from finnish midsummer from two years back:
Spring fishing in Ransarån
Vegard Veberg from the Norwegian magazine Jakt & Fiske came with me to the spectacular lower Ransarån in late May 2009. He wrote an excellent article about our adventures , and it was published in the latest issue of Jakt & Fiske. You can se a preview on their website: http://jaktogfiske.net/id/1804.0
PS! Tapani and yours truly are going there in early June this year, and I´m really looking forward to that trip! The fishing there is pretty tricky and very exciting – sight-fishing in crystal clear water with big arctic char and trout cruising along the banks. Poor Joona and Fredrik are busy with other stuff, and cannot make it. I guess they´re kind of jealous… Mohahahahhahahahahah! Mohahahahah! Mohahahahhahaha!
Ransarån is just one of the interesting waters in the Kultsjödalen area. Satsån, Vojmån, Kultsjöån, Saxån and the Stekkenjokk plateau are other places where it´s well worth spending a week or two.
You can check out Ransarån and the Kultsjödalen area here: www.kultsjogarden.se/index.php
Ransarån
Ice Age
My computer is a bit strange right now and it does not allow me to upload any pics. Since I’m in a hurry this blog will be a bit weird. The ice is tooooo thick around Gothenburg, we will not be able to fish for at least one month, that is for sure! Aaaahh! The last week I have been tying flies every day. Many flies! The madness i growing in my head! It is not that I need more flies, probably I don’t. But every time I sit down in my little “working room” and create these small monsters, I am back there in the stream or the lake with the rod in my hand. Maybe you can call it… meditation!? Yea, it sounds nice and serious! And now, right now, this second, I really have to go. Tell you more about that later guys! Well, that’s it! By by and see you in one week!
Aaaaaarrrggghhhh!
As the merciless Scandinavian winter slowly moves towards spring, my urge to go fishing is getting stronger by the minute, and I´m scanning the fly fishing forums day and night, googling all over the place for some kind of satisfaction. All this does is of course to make the urge even stronger. I´m getting pretty desperate, and I really don´t know what to do about it.
The weather outside my window here in Oslo is very pretty, with clear blue skies and no wind. The only problem is that the temperature is around -10 C… The meteorologists say that the sea ice hasn´t been this thick and widespread since 1987, so there is no chance for any saltwater seatrout fishing either. You can almost walk between Norway and Denmark. Seriously!
Well – I guess all we can do is wait. While we wait, I have a couple of links for you (all in Norwegian, I´m afraid, but still worth checking out, if only for the pics and vids):
www.utras.net: A brand new Norwegian blog about fly fishing by two guys from Tromsø and Harstad. Mostly about trout and salmon fishing up north.
www.fluefiskesiden.no: This site has a very active forum. The fly tying and entomology stuff there is outstanding.
www.fluefiske.net: Excellent fly fishing site which is updated frequently with news and articles. The forum is also very good.
And then a couple of pics just to put some more napalm on the fire:
Some Serious Planning Going On
We had a really good time in Gothenburg this weekend, practicing new music during the day and having endless debates about where we should go for this summer´s big fishing trip during the night. As usual we didn´t sleep much, but I guess we´ve all learned that it´s naive to expect decent amounts of sleep when we´re doing J & FF stuff. The music and the fishing takes about 20 hours every day, and that leaves us 4 hours for travelling, packing and horsing around, which leaves something like minus 3 hours for sleeping.
Enough whining.
After many hours of debates and votes, we managed to narrow our fishing options for this summer´s big trip down to three (of course with a couple of wild cards still in the mix).
After some additional hours of prolonged arguments, considering factors like: the size of the trout/the natural beauty of the area/the number of other anglers/insect hatches/the access to plan B-locations in case the weather sucks/etc. etc., we sort of reached a conclusion, and I can tell you this much: we´re going all-in, trying our luck in an area where no jazz band has been fly fishing before. We´re talking way up north. We´re excited!
These crappy video clips from last summer´s tour, shot with a cellphone, illustrate what the J&FF lifestyle will do to you:
First you become very, very tired:
…and then you totally lose your mind:
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!
Fazioli Party
Yesterday I was at a very nice party. A recording studio in Gothenburg, Studio Epidemin, had a celebration for their new grand piano! The old Steinway has to make room for a beautiful, exclusive Fazioli from Italy. Oh my god what an instrument! Beautifully balanced, wonderful sound and dynamics I’ve hardly ever experienced! The studio was packed with Gothenburg’s pianists and musicians, taking turns in playing the beauty and sipping the champagne!
I’m very excited since I will be recording in that studio soon with the flute/saxophone player Anders Hagberg, and a few weeks later it is time for the Jazz and Fly Fishing/Tight Lines Quartet album recording in that same studio. I can’t wait!
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