A Swingin' Breakfast in Louisville???

[Mattias Hallin]

ALL:

    please excuse me if this posting is not-so-donaldistic; but I don't wanna
make Don pay extra, just to get a non-duck message from me, so I'm putting this
on the list any way...

DON:

    THANK YOU for your invitation -- I sure hope to be able to take you up on
it! I might very well pass through Louisville, going nowhere in particular --
my preliminary plans is to just rent a car for a week, mebbe ten days, and go
on the road. We did that occasionally when I and three friends travelled in the
U.S. in 1991; I liked that kind of not too heavilly scheduled travelling very
much, and also I don't care for flying, if I can avoid it... Not that I'm
scared of flying -- it's just lacks any kind of creature comfort, and is a
total bore at that!

Yes and no -- I play orthodox 1930's small-band swing (on the pattern of, say,
"Red" Allen, Fats Waller and similar) with my latest, just started band; but
the one I'm hoping to come to America with is a 1920's bigband - NOT a swing
big band -- we play stock arrangements, arrangements transcribed from records
and a few original arrangements, and base our repertoire on such bands as King
Oliver's Dixie Syncopators, Fletcher Henderson, Charlie Johnson's Paradise Ten
and others, in the period c. 1921-1931. In yet other bands I play Classic Jazz,
based on Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, or Clarence Williams, or Bessie Smith. So,
all in all, my musical emphasis and my greatest musical love is 1920's Classic
Jazz, I guess -- but I'm also a reasonably avid swing devotee, and generally
enjoy all jazz up to and including John Coltrane (albeit I'll have to confess a
certain difficulty with the MOST modern styles within this compass). I also
have a great liking for classical music -- perhaps in particular opera, with a
certain extra passion for Verdi and/or (preferrably and) Jussi Bjoerling.

Well -- American breakfasts... I DO confess that during my last (and only, so
far) American tenure, I greatly enjoyed starting the day with a stack of
pancakes, a few strips of bacon and two eggs sunny side up... but then I do
have a terribly sweet tooth, so any breakfast were I'm allowed to pour
concentrated sugary syrup on top of everything is fine by me... but NO! i
couldn't live that way! During my two months in the States I gained 20
pounds!!! And also -- American coffee took SOME getting used to, I can tell! I
come from that part of Sweden where men aren't necessarily all that manly, but
where coffee is STRONG and BLACK!!! Anyway, I really guess it was the CHANGE as
much as anything I enjoyed back then... Over here, I break fast MUCH more
frugally, I can assure you!

Anyway -- I hope I do get to see you; but for the time being: All my best!!!

Mattias