{"id":8506,"date":"2019-08-11T10:50:37","date_gmt":"2019-08-11T08:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/?page_id=8506"},"modified":"2019-08-11T13:03:48","modified_gmt":"2019-08-11T11:03:48","slug":"from-folk-music-to-rock-n-roll","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/press-clips\/various-2019\/from-folk-music-to-rock-n-roll\/","title":{"rendered":"From folk music to rock ‘n’ roll"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aftonbladet 190729<\/strong><\/p>\n

By: JENS PETERSON<\/p>\n

(…)<\/strong><\/p>\n

GOTHENBURG-HELSINGBORG-KALMAR. After six decades on stage, Benny Andersson stands at the front. As conductor. Near midnight he introduce the new start of an ABBA song with waving arms. Then he sits down at his grand piano again. Happy to be a performer side by side with his musicians.<\/strong>
\n– The most fun thing about the orchestra is that it spans so much. From folk music to rock ‘n’ roll and Johann Sebastian Bach and dance music, Benny Andersson says. No one else does.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Benny Andersson<\/strong> is already dancing on the soundcheck. That’s when BAO, the orchestra that bears his name, thumps Lovers (live a little longer)<\/em>, an ABBA song from the 1979 Voulezvous<\/em> album.
\nBut something sounds wrong. He goes out on the dance floor in front of the stage and listens while the others play.
\nWrinkles the forehead. It\u00b4s a melody loop that is missing. As the band goes silent, he sings through the music. Who’s playing this? Nobody aknowledes that particular bit.<\/p>\n

– You are the one who plays that Benny, G\u00f6ran Arnberg<\/strong> says after a while. That\u00b4s why it\u00b4s missing.<\/p>\n

Benny concludes that it isn\u00b4t enough. More power is needed, so Kalle Moraeus’<\/strong> guitar and G\u00f6ran Arnberg’s synth get new arrangements.<\/p>\n

A chance to fine-tune<\/h5>\n

Hours before the concert starts, there is always sound check. The right level of sound and light. For BAO, it\u00b4s also a chance to fine tune songs.<\/p>\n

– I really have to go through One man, one woman<\/em>, Kalle Moraeus says. I played like a rake yesterday.<\/p>\n

They start the ABBA song that Helen Sj\u00f6holm<\/strong> and Tommy K\u00f6rberg<\/strong> now are doing as a hit duet. Kalle finds the pace where he had problems. Yet another detail is corrected. Note by note until everything is seated.<\/p>\n

BAO plays 53 songs on this tour. After Gothenburg Timmarna g\u00e5r s\u00e5 fort n\u00e4r man har roligt<\/i> is cleared to give better speed before the break.<\/p>\n

– The first evening was so and so. There were logistics problems with transitions, I started a few songs way too slowly, Benny Andersson says. But we\u00b4ve cleaned it now.<\/p>\n

Cleanliness is also the appearance of the orchestra. Kersti Vitali Rudolfsson<\/strong> gives the musicians the summer look. She has long experience of costuming for theater, among other things.<\/p>\n

– All men are good looking in jacket, tie, vest, Kersti Vitali Rudolfsson says. In many ways, BAO is the hardest job I’ve done. The musicians are all strong personalities who play amazing. There is nothing that needs to be compensated with the clothes.<\/p>\n

‘Terribly limited’<\/h5>\n

The men are in very mixed sizes. Blower Janne Bengtsson<\/strong> has such strong forearm muscles of all playing that there are no jackets at all to suit him.<\/p>\n

(…)<\/p>\n

Do you suggest clothes for everyone?<\/strong><\/em>
\n– Not to Helen, Tommy, Benny and Kalle Moraeus. They find out for themselves what they wear. No coordination. It\u00b4s good. I don’t want the orchestra to match too much.<\/p>\n

BAO also plays songs by other composers. Kalle Moraeus pulls down applause with Naples parade song O sole mio<\/em> from 1898. Tommy K\u00f6rberg and Helen Sj\u00f6holm make humor of
\nHawaian war chant<\/em> that became popular in the 1930s. There Benny Andersson plays ukulele with a big smile.<\/p>\n

It’s fun in many ways during BAO’s concerts. There is a lot of laughter behind the scene and in the tour bus and in hotels and taverns during these trips. Calling work buddies for a family is not uncommon, but for this orchestra, families are really part of the journey. Many of the artists respectively are involved, and the children help with record sales and serving buns and sweets on the bus. Over the years, children have gone from baby to helping and sometimes becoming parents themselves. Now grandchildren are included. Even Kjell who drives the bus, Bj\u00f6rn Lehnberg who controls the sound to the audience and Svarten and Jerker who handle technology and more on stage are present every time.
\nThe kind of tour where Helen Sj\u00f6holm hangs the kids’ bathing clothes on the dryer behind the stage after a day at the sea. She swims quietly without tearing the vocal cords.<\/p>\n

Protest screams in e-minor<\/h5>\n

Singer colleague Tommy K\u00f6rberg is harder to get in the water. He protests loudly when he gets down into the 20-degree water of Sk\u00e4lderviken, and it is only when his wife Anne-Charlotte swims out without hesitation that he rumbles around in the water during loud protests in e-minor.<\/p>\n

You have a bit of tourism too. A lunch will be held at Eriksberg Safari Park outside Karlshamn. While the others queue for the bacon-wrapped wild mince, Benny Andersson sits at the restaurant’s piano and plays the 1930s favorite N\u00e5gonting att \u00e4ta, n\u00e5gonting att dricka<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Traditions. One of the routines for BAO is that hot dogs are served during the break. Hot dogs and pilsner, even non-alcoholic, are a must after the first half.<\/p>\n

BAO is not just musicians. They are also gamblers. Playing on the trot during the tour is included in the routines. The bassist Jogga Ernlund puts together the system and collects money from everyone. Tommy K\u00f6rberg enthusiastically enters with ten payments of SEK 50. He\u00b4s also the one who sings “trot on” every night in the song of the Gamle Svarten. That horse is a winner at the concerts.
\nThis weekend there will also be seven right on BAO’s V75. Financially, there is no higher level to get everyone right this time. You invested more money than you got back. Too many favorites that met expectations.<\/p>\n

(…)<\/p>\n

(The entire review is not reproduced for copyright reasons)<\/p>\n

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Aftonbladet 190729 By: JENS PETERSON (…) GOTHENBURG-HELSINGBORG-KALMAR. After six decades on stage, Benny Andersson stands at the front. As conductor. Near midnight he introduce the Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":8299,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8506","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8506\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}