I went to Sweden the first week of January and allthough it was not a Tin Pan trip per se, I would still love to share some of my experiences on these pages.
Some background: I got hired by Gordon Webster to perform one of Sweden’s top swing dance events called Snowball. It turns out that many of the members of this band happened to be very familiar – most of them having played with Tin Pan at one point or another. Gordon himself played with us at Shanghai Mermaid at least once. Cassidy Holden is one of our go to subs on bass and banjo. Rob Adkins, of course, our steady bass player for more than a year and a half. On horns, Adrian Cunningham and Matt Musselman have both filled in on occasion. My point, I was in good company with folks that I respect and trust.
The scene is Sweden was different from American events that I’ve attended so far. For starters, I loved the cultural diversity. There was the expected diversity in language – I heard a lot of French, Swedish, and more Russian than I expected. There was also more diversity in age and also in background and lifestyle. It was a mixed crowd on many levels and that made it feel even more special when the floor would unify in the dance. The level of daning was also very high at this event. You could tell immediately that the large majority of couples on the floor were reacting intimately with each other and the music at the same time. If you held a note people would flow into a graceful fluid sweep and if you hammered out quarter notes they would get deeper and pulsate. It was a thrill to play a room of that caliber. Another important difference: these people could party!! Most of them were away from home – taking classes all day and then boogie-ing all night long! Oh the Russians! The folks we met there are the most generous partiers and most gracious hosts I have had the pleasure to experience in a long while.
After just a day we all kind of settled into the following sleep deprived schedule: The gig would start at around 10:30pm and we’d play three sets often ending, soaking wet with sweat at around 4am. I’d pop up to the room to put on some dry clothes (still in my suit though!) and although tired – still too wired from an exhilarating show to sleep. Up on the eighth floor was Micha’s room – “The Russian Room.” On our first night I had heard a rumor. The second night I just went up there and saw a few people filling up plastic cups with ice in the hallway. Once in the Russian room I was presented with a dazzling array of rums and vodkas. Just the quantity of empties already amassed near the trash can was staggering. I was at one point presented with a horseradish infused vodka with honey. Please comment on this post and tell me the name of this beverage. It was one of the most interesting flavors of all time. The taste of my people. (My dad’s mom is from this region!) Instant chest hair growth ensued from just one sip! Eventually Cassidy would show up with his guitar and we’d start singing slow draggy blues with a good beat and they’d move the beds back and create a little dance floor and folks would start grinding it.
So now its about 5:30 and breakfast is only an hour away. And you don’t want to miss breakfast because a) It’s frickin’ delicious and deep. Sure, they have eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes for the Americans but they also have five different types of muesli, dark bread, finn crisps, cheeses, charcuterie, and lox, and five kinds of herring! Yes! Five Kinds of Herring! Did I forget anything? Killer coffee! b) it’s free! comes with our hotel stay c) everything else is so god crazy expensive that you might as well fill up. If you miss breakfast, you’re looking at a world of bad felafel. One night at about 5:45am, Gordon, Cassidy and I found ourselves outside the main ballroom with about twenty or thirty dancers who were also making the breakfast vigil. We started singing songs to entertain the troops and wound up getting into stupid version of “4 or 5 Times” called “45 Minutes.” This was a form of the classic “100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” kind of thing where we would just keep making up verses about breakfast and breakfast foods. A couple of the dancers got in on the lyric making part and it was a pretty lengthy collective improvisation. In fact, it became a refrain that punctuated almost every other song that we were doing. Bleary, exhausted musicians and dancers trying to hold on till breakfast. It was worth it.
It’s about 8am before you get to bed and then, if you are a brass player, you must get up to warm up before the 1pm rehearsal – (3hrs sleep). After rehearsal, go to the gym/sauna/pool or sleep some more until the 6pm soundcheck – (2hrs sleep). From 7:30 till the gig at 10pm you have about 2.5 hours to watch a bit of Scarface or The Sound of Music on TV or sleep or get some quick bite to eat. And then it starts all over again.
The music itself was a lot of fun and to Gordon’s credit, he really seems to know the tempo’s and styles that these lindy hoppers are going to dig. Steven and Malcolm (AKA The Rhythm Cats) also selected music that was guaranteed to kill the crowd. A veritable mix of what everyone’s favorite DJ’s would be playing. Much of the music had great vocal harmonies and Steven, Malcolm and I spent many hours getting it as tight as we could. Those guys are so open to fresh ideas and so committed to quality. It was a joy working with them. Overall, I must say that I am quite proud of everyone in the band for performing at such a high level and moreover performing 9 hours of repertoire with only one song that got repeated. Kudos!
If you are reading this blog because we shared that wonderful week together, please comment below and say hi and tell me about your good time! For me, it was a total delight. I met such wonderful people and, in general, felt like a total rock star! I love that.
Ciao for now,
Jesse
