At the start of the hunting season in Sweden 2001 and 2002 we gave some concerts with a project called Viltvarning (Wild Life Alert). The idéa was to have a full evening around wild life, with wild food and wild musicians. A special wild life menu was created by Bengt Carling and we started the evening by hypnotising the audience, coaxing them into experiencing the presence of a live elk passing through the club during the evening. There was even an “elk guarantee”, stating that if you did not see an elk you would get your money back. Since nobody asked for that, an elk must have passed through the room during the evening.
The band was quite spectacular, comprising some of the more adventurous Swedish jazz musicians at the time. Two drummers – Martin Jonsson and Bengt Berger – and two bassists, Torbjörn Zetterberg and Per-Ola Landin, plus the keyboard great Mats Öberg, the guitarist Göran Klinghagen and three of the hotter saxophonists of the day – Thomas Gustafsson, Jonas Knutsson and the late David Wilczewski – the trumpeter and accordionist Thomas Hallonsten and the singer Lina Nyberg.
The 2002 concert on November 14th at the Fasching jazz club in Stockholm was recorded and will be released in full at the commencement of the hunting season for Elk, on October 8, 2021.
When I found the recording, I wanted to pick out the best parts to make as good an album as possible – but the more I listened the more I felt that I’d rather release a documentation of the whole evening. So here is everything we played that evening – only some talk and applause is deleted. Thanks to the digital format, you have two full hours of music here including the possibility of getting yourself hypnotised in the beginning.
Bengt Berger, drums; Thomas Gustafsson, soprano-tenorsax; Tomas Hallonsten, trumpet, harmonica; Martin Jonsson, drums; Göran Klinghagen, guitar; Jonas Knutsson, soprano-alto-barsax; Pär-Ola Landin, bass; Lina Nyberg, vocal, percussion; David Wilczewski, flute- soprano-tenorsax; Torbjörn Zetterberg, bass; Mats Öberg keys, vocal
Set 1:
- Frygisk Hypnos (9:16) Soloists: Gustafsson, tenor
- Fortare (4:04) everybody
- Flabby Dick (3:09) everybody
- Sail Away (5:59) Hallonsten, harmonica; Nyberg vocal
- February March (8:03) Wilczewski, Öberg, Jonsson, Berger
- Dagar, Djur (10:10) Knutsson bars; Nyberg, vocal; Öberg, vocal; Gustafsson, soprano; Hallonsten trumpet; Zetterberg bass
- Ants (5:31) Wilczewski, tenor; Nyberg, Hallonsten, trumpet
- Over The Hill (4:16) Knutsson, alto
- Vesuvio (4:46) Klinghagen, guitar
- Metapolka (2:22)
Set 2:
- Patos och Depression (10:26) soloists: Knutsson, Nyberg
- Livet (9:26) Nyberg, Hallonsten
- Kanakangi / Kakraba Hi-Five (6:38) Landin, Zetterberg
- Magadaskar / Pizza Excess (6:08) Öberg, Gustafsson, Klinghagen
- Zeami (6:57) Hallonsten, harmonica; Nyberg
- Spansk Skiss (4:30) Nyberg, Öberg
- Funk You (5:42) Gustafssson, Öberg
- Spanska Polkan (1:45)
- Vintern Vänder (6:19)
Total time 1:56:00