Post by lordjagged on May 4, 2011 15:39:46 GMT -5
I recently received a rather kind birthday gift from the redoubtable Bobinbed - so here's the review, should anyone be interested.
For those who don't know, Mr Schaffer is Sweden's premier session guitarist with a career spanning from the early 60's to the present day.
This exhaustive 10 CD and 3 DVD box set is a chronological showcase of an extraordinary career in music. Bobinbed could no doubt tell you more about his early bands in the Stockholm area, but I'll settle for giving you an overview of this release.
I'll apologise in advance for not having the correct squiggles, umlauts, asterisks and quantum question marks for the Swedish language titles.
The fun begins with the first two albums on one disc, "Halkans Affar" from 1973 and "Janne Schaffers andra LP" from 1974. On these albums Mr Schaffer shows exactly how diverse he can be, sliding as effortlessly as an oiled herring from Jazz Rock to the sort of James Gang funkyness beloved of the great Joe Walsh.*
I'd go as far as to say that Mr Walsh, alongside a certain J. Beck might well be influences on the Swedish wizard, there's a quirkyness and humour in these compositions that make them particularly endearing.
Schaffer pursues the Jazz Rock angle over the next two albums, "Katharsis" from 1975 and "Earmeal" from 1978, both great records retaining the humour of the previous two. He's got a great playing technique and lovely note choice, always playing just the right thing - a perfect examle of "lagom." You might want to Google that word non Swedes.
Then it all goes horribly wrong.
After these albums, as the years go by, it all gets increasingly bland. Subsequent releases sound like the sort of thing played in a dentist's waiting room, soporific muzak to deaden the screams of root canal work. Imagine an instrumental Eurovision Song contest entry from 1981 - that sort of thing. Drum machines, nasty synth samples and the kind of arrangements that make Dire Straits sound like Slayer abound.
Yet, there's still gems to be found among them. It's as if he has to sneak them on to the album while the producer is having a pee or polishing his Volvo with a herring. That said, I bet they were good selling albums, aimed I suspect at the yuppy dinner party crowd, background music for the fondue tasting and wife swapping set.
The 3 DVD's chart a similar course - young and blazing, full of ideas on the "Karhuset 1974" show, show off virtuoso Jazz Rocker on "Montreux 1980."
Of the last DVD, "Julstamning" I leave you with this. At one point a multitude of angelic violin playing children join Janne on stage for a version of the Christmas Carol "Away In A Manger" that would make the Archbishop of Canterbury a Satanist.
Fortunately no herrings appear in this section.
*Oiled, not fermented.
For those who don't know, Mr Schaffer is Sweden's premier session guitarist with a career spanning from the early 60's to the present day.
This exhaustive 10 CD and 3 DVD box set is a chronological showcase of an extraordinary career in music. Bobinbed could no doubt tell you more about his early bands in the Stockholm area, but I'll settle for giving you an overview of this release.
I'll apologise in advance for not having the correct squiggles, umlauts, asterisks and quantum question marks for the Swedish language titles.
The fun begins with the first two albums on one disc, "Halkans Affar" from 1973 and "Janne Schaffers andra LP" from 1974. On these albums Mr Schaffer shows exactly how diverse he can be, sliding as effortlessly as an oiled herring from Jazz Rock to the sort of James Gang funkyness beloved of the great Joe Walsh.*
I'd go as far as to say that Mr Walsh, alongside a certain J. Beck might well be influences on the Swedish wizard, there's a quirkyness and humour in these compositions that make them particularly endearing.
Schaffer pursues the Jazz Rock angle over the next two albums, "Katharsis" from 1975 and "Earmeal" from 1978, both great records retaining the humour of the previous two. He's got a great playing technique and lovely note choice, always playing just the right thing - a perfect examle of "lagom." You might want to Google that word non Swedes.
Then it all goes horribly wrong.
After these albums, as the years go by, it all gets increasingly bland. Subsequent releases sound like the sort of thing played in a dentist's waiting room, soporific muzak to deaden the screams of root canal work. Imagine an instrumental Eurovision Song contest entry from 1981 - that sort of thing. Drum machines, nasty synth samples and the kind of arrangements that make Dire Straits sound like Slayer abound.
Yet, there's still gems to be found among them. It's as if he has to sneak them on to the album while the producer is having a pee or polishing his Volvo with a herring. That said, I bet they were good selling albums, aimed I suspect at the yuppy dinner party crowd, background music for the fondue tasting and wife swapping set.
The 3 DVD's chart a similar course - young and blazing, full of ideas on the "Karhuset 1974" show, show off virtuoso Jazz Rocker on "Montreux 1980."
Of the last DVD, "Julstamning" I leave you with this. At one point a multitude of angelic violin playing children join Janne on stage for a version of the Christmas Carol "Away In A Manger" that would make the Archbishop of Canterbury a Satanist.
Fortunately no herrings appear in this section.
*Oiled, not fermented.
