Oh! Oh! Oh! - What a little T-shirt Can Do!

(Swedish original article published in "Tradjazzpulsen" N:r 2/2000. Content relates to conditions around this time and might not be relevant when you read this, slightly shortened, version. But it is a great story! Go ahead!)

Actually, I dislike using shopping bags with advertising for the shop I just left. Likewise T-shirts with printing, giving the impression, that the bearer has something in common with the University of California or is sponsored by Nike, Bagheera or Björn Borg.

But I have one exception: T-shirts from jazz festivals or some connection to jazz. And this may be worthwhile - I can tell, for it happened to me!

Some years ago, me and my wife intended to spend a winter holiday in our favourite place on the south of Gran Canaria: Puerto de Mogan - an idyllic spot just a few miles west of the wild amusement area of Puerto Rico. We arrived with the charter transport at midnight - and were met with the happiest trad jazz, live, from the square nearby! It was the final number of a nightly concert, and the next day was the end of a two week long jazz festival, where five British trad and swing bands had shared the time between them; four of them giving concerts every day and the fifth having the day off. One of the bands was similar in character to our Trattbandet; they even had a few odd tunes, that we also have but which we have not heard any other bands play. This was Brian Cotton´s Cotton Club Band. There was not much time to learn to know the musicians this time, but I got time for an interview for the radio with the initiator of "The Bar Marina Jazz Festival", Mr. Liam Dennehy . an Irishman, who was the first to settle down with his Bar Marina and fishing service. In the beginning of the 90´ies he invited some British jazz musicians to come down and play, and even if this showed to be a very nice thing, he had no response from the community or from the other innkeepers around the square, so it took a few years until he dared to try again.

The choice of bands has since been rather similar, with five British bands, invited to fly down for two weeks with family members, free lodging, free beverages in the bar - but pay for the food! Take it as a nice holiday with some playing! However, the Festival has become more and more popular, and Liam had a discreet wish to have Europe´s Biggest Trad Jazz Festival some day! This might be far off, but there have been Festivals held both in March and September since then, alas not in the weeks when we have our winter holidays, but by exchanging holidays we had a chance to get one of the weeks this year.

Well - but where does that T-shirt come in? Take it easy - this magazine needs space fillup, so we´ll soon get to it!

My wife suggested, that I should go down alone to the next festival, but there were no charter to Mogan any longer, so I took a "Sun Chance"trip and got a hotel on the diametrical counter location on the island, with 80 km bus ride to come to Puerto de Mogan - and 80 km back! Minimal baggage - but including my soprano sax - just in case! I found that every evening at 17.30 there were jam sessions with a mix of musicians from all the bands, and anybody was wellcome to sit in. This was for me! After the first sit-in there were others, and then I got invitations from some bands to sit in with their bands´ own concerts, and this was extra fun!

And in that way I easily got aquainted to all the colleagues! I remember the trumpeter Arthur Brown in the Pete Allen Jazz Band. He was dressed in a T-shirt from the Karlshamn Jazz Festival in south Sweden - and that gave me the inspiration to take one of my festival shirts on. More on that later on! I will make the story shorter by not telling more about certain musicians, but the other three bands were the Wes Jesmond Rhythm Kings, the Northside Jazz Band and The Heart of England Jazz Band. Once when I performed with that band, I was asked if I perhaps wanted to sing. I had not intended to do that, but when they asked, I took the opportunity and said: "Since we are in Spain but the audience is international, I will sing "Pennies from Heaven", but in order to let everyone understand , even those who don´t speak English, I am going to sing it in the International Language Esperanto". This evoke great hilarity - but afterwards a lady came up to me, thanking me in Esperanto! And - she was English !

Quite aside from the Festival, another restaurant announced "Jazz entra Amigos". There were two young Cuban men, one on keyboard, with a good Cuban beat and advanced harmonies,'' and the other with bongos - and with a marvellous voice. In the break the keyboardist came down to my table, saying: " I know you. I´ve seen you play- won´t you come and play with us?" I could not resist - and nor could a French guitarrist and a German flutist, and this little latin jam session was a good balance to the jazz festival!

But - the T-shirt...?

Here comes: After one jamsession, an evening when I stood packing my soprano into the case, a big white-haired man called to me from some tables away. "- I can see you´ve been to Sweden" he said, pointing to his breast and to mine. I noticed that I had the T-shirt from the Häggvik Trad Jazz Festival at Mannaminne in Northern Sweden on. "- Yes, I have! I AM from Sweden!" I answered -"Oh, you ARE Swedish!" he said in Swedish. Then the ice was broken: I was invited to his and his wife´s table, and we became good friends and got together several days. When I left for Sweden, I gave them a demo cassette, promising, that when I got home, I should send them the Trattbandet CD.I sent it in the end of March, and "that was that". ...until August, when I got a letter from France. - "Dear Kaj! Thank you SO much for the CD! We are now on our estate in France. We have many guests, and we have played your CD no less than 30 times, and everybody here think it is extremely good! I think you should take contact with my good friend, who is a secretary on that large luxury resort ANFI between Arguineguin and Puerto Rico. They would perhaps be interested in a visit!"

A letter to the secretary and in return a phone call from her Managing Director. No,they had no use for music during the Jazz Festival time - but could we perhaps be interested in coming for their big Millenium Anniversary Festival? We could! After negotiations we learned, that they would pay all transport for the band with families (16 persons!) lodging in luxury family apartments for a full week (no less is possible when we use charter transports). Our service in return would be to play at ANFI`s big festival for 800 people the last 4½ hours of the old millenium, and one night at "Garbo´s" in the Bahia Feliz-resort., where we would be a part of the "Wallmans´Saloons Show", a show of High Quality already without our help... This week was a dream, that can´t be surpassed! The Millenium Festival was unbelieveably lavish. The entertainment was varied, and not in level with the luxury. Two Norwegian ladies spontaneously said: "What a lovely music your band is playing! It would be better with that all the time instead of that shit!" The general opinion could not have expressed it better. What we played was good Dixie, mixed with some Dance Hall music, and it had been all enough as a complement to the culinary buffet! It was, after all, no jazz festival we played at!

We had a wonderful family week, and we could play our music without stress and people liked what we did. We must say: This was a Once-In-A-Lifetime Gig, that we´ll never forget!

The moral is

A Jazzy T- shirt is what I dig;
It gave us once this Super Gig!


Kaj Stridell.