Song Lyrics

Dreams ( Lyrics by Tomas Karlsson, Music by Anders Östling)

If you let your mind flow free maybe before you know
Dreams will start to grow
Treasure these thoughts, keep them deep in your heart
May your dreams and you never part

Dreams will keep you going, day by day
So don't walk away when they like -
Silent angels land in your hand
Keep them and let them take you to another land

Humor

What to Do When You Have a Gig and Don't Have Time for a Rehearsal

• Choose a tune for every letter in the alphabet.
• Have a copy of the same fake book for each band member. Take turns opening it at random and play the tune that comes up, no exceptions.
• Play 12 blueses, one in each key, chromatically upwards. You can throw in the occasional minor key for variety. Heads are optional, not obligatory...
• Play as many different versions as possible of the same tune. Take for example Solar by Miles Davis and play it as a bossa nova, jazz swing, reggae, tango, whatever...

All of the above have actually been done on a gig. I'm not going to mention by whom, unless asked to ( thanks guys, you know who you are!)...

My Testimony: How I Got Into Jazz

Four records are responsible for me getting into jazz. The first one was Weather Report's Heavy Weather. I remember hearing Birdland on the radio. My instant reaction was something like: "Holy shit... What is this?" Shortly thereafter I heard Speak from Miles Davis' Star People - also on the radio.

The year was 1983. After reading an interview with Jim Hall in Guitar Player I bought George Shearing/ Jim Hall's First Edition. I went to a jam session with some local jazz musicians in Pietarsaari. They played Sonny Rollins' St. Thomas. I was thrilled and ran and bought Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus and discovered another gem: Blue Seven - with one of the most wonderful improvised solos ever recorded... "The rest is history", so to speak - I was completely sold...

Poems

Fly Away

Fly, fly away, fly away little bird, fly, fly...
Fly, fly away, fly away little bird, fly, fly...

The bird can't fly, it's just the wind in its feathers
makes it look like it's still alive.

The bird has flown, it's taken off on its final flight
to heaven or never-neverland, the place where everything's light.

There, where the skies are always blue,
the little bird's light-hearted life can start anew...

Not Much of a Poem

These few lines
are not much of a poem.
They have neither reason nor rhyme.

Ode to John Cage

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