Catch Magazine

I just ran into this site on the net. An online magazine with focus on fishing photography. Incredibly beautiful pictures, check it out! Catch Magazine

Fredrik’s singing lesson #1

Fredrik, the supertalented genius of the band, is not only a great drummer and flyfisherman, but also one of the best chefs I know, a real athlete, painter, photographer, author, and last but not least, singer. Here he shows something not many people can do: sing the lowest C-note that is on the piano. Simply stunning.

Fredrik shows how to sing a very low note from Jazz and Fly Fishing´s Jazzcam on Vimeo.

Recording with Anders Hagberg Quartet

Last weekend I was recording with the Swedish flute/sax player Anders Hagberg’s band. We were at the Studio Epidemin in Gothenburg, the same studio where the JFF album will soon be recorded. Johannes Lundberg, the bass player in the band, is also the soundguy in the studio. I was lucky to be the first one to record the wonderful, beautiful Fazioli grand piano the studio has just got! That was fun, and the piano sounds really good!

Some Serious Planning Going On

We had a really good time in Gothenburg this weekend, practicing new music during the day and having endless debates about where we should go for this summer´s big fishing trip during the night. As usual we didn´t sleep much, but I guess we´ve all learned that it´s naive to expect decent amounts of sleep when we´re doing J & FF stuff. The music and the fishing takes about 20 hours every day, and that leaves us 4 hours for travelling, packing and horsing around, which leaves something like minus 3 hours for sleeping.

Enough whining.

After many hours of debates and votes, we managed to narrow our fishing options for this summer´s big trip down to three (of course with a couple of wild cards still in the mix).

After some additional hours of prolonged arguments, considering factors like: the size of the trout/the natural beauty of the area/the number of other anglers/insect hatches/the access to plan B-locations in case the weather sucks/etc. etc., we sort of reached a conclusion, and I can tell you this much: we´re going all-in, trying our luck in an area where no jazz band has been fly fishing before. We´re talking way up north. We´re excited!

These crappy video clips from last summer´s tour, shot with a cellphone, illustrate what the J&FF lifestyle will do to you:

First you become very, very tired:

…and then you totally lose your mind:

Fazioli Party

Yesterday I was at a very nice party. A recording studio in Gothenburg, Studio Epidemin, had a celebration for their new grand piano! The old Steinway has to make room for a beautiful, exclusive Fazioli from Italy. Oh my god what an instrument! Beautifully balanced, wonderful sound and dynamics I’ve hardly ever experienced! The studio was packed with Gothenburg’s pianists and musicians, taking turns in playing the beauty and sipping the champagne!

I’m very excited since I will be recording in that studio soon with the flute/saxophone player Anders Hagberg, and a few weeks later it is time for the Jazz and Fly Fishing/Tight Lines Quartet album recording in that same studio. I can’t wait!

Pimp-my-Rhodes

I envy the guitar players, sax players, trumpet players etc. They can always carry their instrument on the tours. Even Tapani carried his double bass on the JFF tour (it filled half the bus but it was there). With the pianos it’s different. Sometimes you get to play a beautiful Steinway grand and fall in love with it, but in some cases you get an old piece of furniture that once was a  piano, filled with mouse crap and tons of dust. Carrying an acoustic piano on tours is out of the question, at least if the gigs are on distant locations up north.

That’s why I had my old beloved Rhodes Mark I electric piano on the tour. It’s like a big coffin, weighs a ton and is a nightmare to carry, but sounds great (that’s the old 70’s sound from Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea etc…). And it looks good, too!

Years ago I bought a “leopard-skin” piece of cloth that I put on the lid. A touch of personality, or bad taste maybe. This decoration was left on the instrument, until somewhere between Kilpisjärvi and Tromsö I got this idea: it has to be a trout skin decorating the Rhodes! So I had to catch a big trout, take a photo on the skin and press it on a canvas. Leopard was hip in the 90s, but this is 2009, the year of Jazz and Fly Fishing.

So the following day when the fish were rising I had a good feeling about getting my Rhodes-trophy trout. It had to be a trout with a silvery tone with black dots, not one of those red-brown beauties. It had to match the black and white keys, naturally. Finally the fish with the right color accepted my mayfly-imitation and minutes later a nice Norwegian trout was landed. I took a  photo on the beautiful skin and sent it for printing. After the tour there was a package waiting for me at home. My trout skin had arrived.

So I replaced the old leopard with the new trout. I’m very happy with the result. Never seen anything like it! It’s just the smell that’s not quite right…

Some pics from my test fishing in Upper Itchen

Really looking forward to starting the tour now!

As the guys said earlier, I have been test fishing for about a month now, covering lots of exciting, new spots in Northern Norway and Sweden. And I’m very happy to report that I’ve stumbled upon quite a few hidden pearls… These pics are all from a fantastic little river (almost a creek, really) called “*********”.

Although it is located well above the arctic circle, it looks a bit like the famous chalk streams in Southern England – Itchen, Avon, Test – where the noble art of fly fishing was pioneered and developed by guys like Halford, Marryat, Skues, Sawyer and Kite (my heroes).

This wonderful little river, with its strong population of surprisingly big, wild brown trout (the biggest caught during my test fishing was 1,8 kg,  and way bigger fish have been caught by others recently),  is a well kept secret, known only to a few die-hard anglers.

Let’s just call it Upper Itchen for now;)

Fishing the Upper Itchen

The test fishing there has been consistently strong, and last friday the mayfly hatches were really starting to move along, and the fish were feeding heavily on newly hatched duns.These pictures were shot by R. B. on one of my first test fishing trips in early June, and the fish fell to small, black dry flies. The river looks even more appealing now – summer has come to the north during the last few days and brought sparkling green vegetation with lots of flowers along the banks – and, more importantly, lots of big mayflies! I’ll add some more recent photos soon.

Nice trout from Upper Itchen

Big fish rising in Upper Itchen

A typical trout from the Upper Itchen. Beautiful!

Into a good one

Trying a parachute cast for a difficult fish

I can’t wait to get going!

Joona and Fredrik have come up with a couple of cool tunes, so now I’m practising my butt off, trying to get prepped for the first gig.

See ya soon -

Håvard