VILTVARNING – Live at Fasching 2002

Bengt Berger

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VILTVARNING – Live at Fasching 2002 – CEX33 – release date 20211008 at the start of the hunting season for Elk.

Wild life alert! On November 14th, 2002, we gave a concert at the Fasching jazz club in Stockholm.Â

The event was labelled “Viltvarning” (Wild Life Alert) and the idea was to have a full evening around wild life, with wild food and wild musicians. The 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 Pär-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 Tomas Hallonsten and the singer Lina Nyberg.

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.

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“The title of this terrific, two-drummers-led session from Stockholm’s legendary Fasching club could be translated as “Warning: Wild Life” ….The music of this “wild-themed” evening – an evening which included a suitably prepared menu for the patrons at Fasching – begins with Berger-s tongue-in-cheek vocal hypnotising of the audience. And the entrance fee for the gig came with a money-back guarantee, if an elk had not at some point in the evening wandered into the club…” – Michael Tucker, Jazz Journal.

“….almost two hours of festive and jubilant music that blended ecstatic free jazz with electro-funk, swinging polkas and seductive cabaret songs. Bengt and his little big band knew how to build emotional, evocative drama and how to lead the audience after the mysterious elks throughout this performance. You can sense clearly the joyful-communal spirit that enchanted the musicians and, no doubt, clearly hypnotized the audience. The two hours of fine music fly fast and only then you may remember that you missed your promised elk dish.” – Eyal Hareuveni, Salt Peanuts

1. Frygisk Hypnos (9:16)
2. Fortare (4:04)
3. Flabby Dick (3:09)
4. Sail Away (5:59)
5. February March (8:03)
6. Dagar, Djur (10:10)
7. Ants (5:31)
8. Over The Hill (4:16)
9. Vesuvio (4:46)
10. Metapolka (2:22)
11. Patos och Depression (10:26)
12. Livet (9:26)
13. Kanakangi / Kakraba Hi-Five (6:38)
14. Magadaskar / Pizza Excess (6:08)
15. Zeami (6:57)
16. Spansk Skiss (4:30)
17. Funk You (5:42)
18. Spanska Polkan (1:45)
19. Vintern Vänder (6:19)

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