The Drop-In
The Reykjavík Grapevine has been published out of down town Reykjavík for more than 20 years, with its offices for most of that time next door to the "World Famous Hot Dog Stand". Every day, people drop-in to our office for various reasons. Sometimes we they tell us interesting stuff that we want to share with you, so we interview them, for your pleasure. There is no theme.
Hosted by: Jón Trausti Sigurðarson & Bart Cameron
The Drop-In
Chet Baker & Tómas R. Einarsson Live in Iceland in 1985
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The Reykjavík Grapevine has been published in downtown Reykjavík for more than 20 years. For most of that time, its offices have been next door to the "World Famous Hot Dog Stand.” Every day, people drop-in to our office for various reasons. Sometimes they tell us interesting stuff that we want to share with you, so we interview them, for your pleasure. There is no theme.
In this episode we are joined by legendary Icelandic bassist Tómas R. Einarsson to discuss the recently released 1985 live recording, Chet in Iceland. The recording, which includes 9 songs, captures a performance by jazz icon Chet Baker in Gamla Bíó, Reykjavík in 1985, acompanied by Tómas R. Einarsson on bass, Kristján Magnússon on piano and Sveinn Óli Jónsson on drums.
Timestamps:
- [00:01:27] The challenge of playing with only 15 minutes of rehearsal.
- [00:03:33] How a mistake during the concert led to a brilliant performance.
- [00:08:56] The story of "My Funny Valentine" and a sweater wager.
- [00:19:35] Why it took 40 years to release this recording and the licensing hurdles.
- [00:39:41] Tómas’s path: From working on oil rigs to discovering the double bass.
Listen to Chet in Iceland on your favorite streaming platform and check out Tómas R. Einarsson’s extensive discography.
Hello and welcome to the drop-in, where we here at the Ricky Grapevine offices uh talk to people who drop in either accidentally or by request, as in this po this case. With us today is Thomas Arenason, bass player and well, predominantly blaz player, but just a general musical genius of this island. And he's here to talk about and promote uh an album that is being uh that was released now in April, and it's called Chat in Iceland, and it's a recording of a concert that Chet Baker played in Reykjavik in 1985 with you Thomas on bass and uh Christian Magnusson on piano and Svetno Leonson uh on drums. And this was recorded, I assume, by Ruf back in the day. Yeah. So let's get right into it.
SPEAKER_03Because this is a fantastic recording. Yeah and it's just amazing that this exists and it's preserved in this way. Uh yeah, we were talking before that you mentioned um like how long was the rehearsal process for this for this for this incredible recording. Uh how many days did you have with Chet before you had uh 10 to 15 minutes? Ten to fifteen minutes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Chet came here I remember late Friday night, and we met him uh where the bus came to Hotel Loftler, and uh we sang for the uh he sang for the for the uh television uh but not for me, and we played with him there directly when he was coming out of the bus. Uh two minutes version of uh But Not For Me. And the day after the concert was at three o'clock, and I think we met uh maybe one o'clock uh for ten or fifteen minutes for the sound for the sound people.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And uh he mentioned some tunes. Uh I had written a list with with his uh usual what he had recorded in the last years, and he said, Yeah, let's take this, let's take this, and so forth.
SPEAKER_03Wow. This is how jazz works always, or is this an unusual?
SPEAKER_01Usually uh well sometimes, yeah. In those days. In those days this was the way you were because in uh more than than now you have you had a a common vocabulary.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You the standard thing, you had this 200 classic jazz standards that everyone should know more more or less, you see.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So if you say, yeah, let's take uh this one, yeah, okay, with key, yeah. The key was mostly all of them were playing it in the same key, you see? Yeah. So I think uh that would be more difficult today. But at that time uh it was easier. But all the same we didn't know exactly he did not make any program, and there was some misunderstandings. He says at a concert once to us um uh blues and chi uh uh Smanat Bells by Miles Davis. He said G some error in his thinking because it was uh the it was in F. Oh my goodness. But for the trumpet you see, when you transpose uh when you when a trumpet plays uh play plays blues in F, it it is he is reading it in G. Oh my goodness. So therefore he starts playing the tune in F like the original. Yeah. But he said to us blues in G. Oh okay like this. And we start in C, and it sounded very strange, the first chorus and the second chorus, because he was playing in a different key.
SPEAKER_02Oh my goodness, not even a chance.
SPEAKER_01So it was almost uh it looked like he is going into free tears or something. I don't know what's happening. But then he he realized what had happened. Okay. And he went to tea with us. Oh nice. Which is, by the way, much more difficult for the trumpet than the uh than the F thing.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01Uh so and what happens often if when people make such mistakes at at concerts, yeah, they realize they have made mis mistake a mistake. And then they get some extra power. They I have to do something to overcome this awkward thing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So he played with unexpected aggressive on the on the rest. I when I uh made the master of of this uh new record I took took I omitted the first three or four choruses and started out where he is like this.
SPEAKER_03This is fantastic.
SPEAKER_01Wow, and then which back is this on the record? It could happen with uh when you play without uh rehearsal or or anything.
SPEAKER_03You know, I can rehearse all I want and I'll still get the wrong key. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Which song was this? It's six but not pills. Uh-huh. Yeah, tracks. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Because I was as you walked in, I was watching you on on the video because I usually don't recommend Spotify, but the Spotify app you can watch the video of this of this performance. Really? Oh, it is fantastic, yeah. Yeah, and I don't know. I don't I can't even guess your age because you you you look pretty young and uh but this is a recording from 85 and you're you're right there. Just I I don't know what you're what you're consuming to stay young, but you're doing a good job.
SPEAKER_01Well, I started out on the bass when I was 27. I had been playing bass for five years when I recorded with Jeff Baker.
SPEAKER_03You'd been playing for five years, then you go in with Chet Baker in front of a so uh because I'd listened to the recording, not realizing there was an audience there. Not just an audience, by the way. A little toe-headed child is in the front row, like reaching for the mic stand in the middle of the song. You're like, oh my god, oh, this could be me. This could be my child. Like, oh, you're terrified for this parent. And then because it sounds like an intimate recording on the recording. It I didn't realize there's a full crowd right there. It's just it's a brilliant performance. Uh throughout throughout it's a brilliant performance, but we were kind of talking about I love your run on My Funny Valentine. It's a song that always kind of uh kind of bothers me on Chutt Baker recordings because it can be so saccharin. But you bring kind of the blues feel to that run, and it really, really uh and he actually performs very well as as well in that um his run, his trumpet line in between verses is really nice. Um yeah, these recordings are fantastic. For for I'm not a Chet Baker completist, I just love Chet Baker. But I love 1980s Chet Baker, especially because at that point he's such um he's clearly going out and doing it every day, and sometimes you get a different feel on these songs, and especially from the the changeover from I've I'm sounding so nerdy. This is an Icelandic uh podcast about Icelandic culture, but we're not supposed to be talking about jazz this much. But like the problem with Chet Baker's career for me is Chet Baker sings is is too sweet, and then you have to find you have to live in these songs for the next few decades to make them into songs again. And you guys do this be brilliantly. It's just it's just a fantastic recording. I I've loved this recording. I did not realize there are videos until today. It's just such an uh uh amazing accomplishment. One thing we should say, because we're actually a general interest podcast more than a jazz aficionado podcast, is this really cool note you put in there in a press release about the clothes he was wearing and why money my funny valentine appears on the set list because he wasn't playing this in the 80s and you guys ended up having My Funny Valentine on. Why is why did he perform My Funny Valentine for this Icelandic audience?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it happened that um they were uh originally he should fly through New York to Iceland. He was coming from Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01And uh of course he they lost their plane in in Los Angeles. Uh so and waiting for the next plane on that route to Iceland through New York, he wouldn't have come here before after the concert. So they were flight to they got a flight to London and there uh they had to uh talk to the Iceland air aircraft company of waiting for half an hour for Chet and his friend Companion at the moment so they could come to Iceland. But it so happened that Teswaking this Tjassa enthusiasts organisation which was organising the concert, they knew a lot of people everywhere so they could get the Iceland there to postpone for for a 30 minutes or something, wait with a plane so they could get Jet Baker to Iceland. So that's how it came. But that meant that their suitcases and everything were lost in New York or something, so they were in shorts and this was in February. So the first thing to do was of course to go with them to uh dress them up, you see.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And so it happened that um the owner of the shop, Gwelu Bergman, he had been at the concert of Chet Baker in 1955 here in Reykjavik. Yeah, and he was a fan of my Fanny Valentine. At yet uh saw uh sweater he liked, and uh then the uh owner says to him uh if you play my Fanny Valentine, I will give you this sweater. That will be the payment. Perfect. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So then we get this amazing recording in 1985 of My Funny Valentine. I'm not sure there's another recording of that of my Funny Valentine in that era.
SPEAKER_01Uh in the eighties? Yeah. Yeah, I think it might be some not too many, but there are others, I think. There are others, yeah. Because he made so he made so many records and he was recorded at in every club but uh very uneven uh records. Right. But yeah, that one he he uh recorded uh uh in and uh at other times, but don't blame me. The first uh tune of the record he had never recorded before.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01And uh he said I proposed Don't Blame Me uh uh because I had been playing it with other people at the time. Uh and he said, Yeah, many decades ago I I played that. But then a friend of mine went a friend of mine went through the discography of of his, which is uh 330 pages. And there was no recording of Don't Blame Me. Wow. So that's um his to historical thing for that.
SPEAKER_03And that's Christian Magnuson has this fantastic piano run on on your on that track. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's a really it's a really good track. You can see I later went back and watched the video, and you can see um Chet just taking it in and being like, Whoa, this is going. This is kind of I would say about a minute and a half into it. It really that song really starts taking off, and you're like, okay.
SPEAKER_01The thing is with Christian Magnusson, the pianist, they were about the same age, uh possibly two years, three years older. And Christian became a professional musician in 1950 more or less. And even if it was a dance band, the most famous dance band in Iceland at the time, Kau Kaubanti. It was very just influenced. So the Christian is more like a pianist. He is more a pianist like say Rus Freeman on the earlest Chet Baker recordings. He is from the same generation and that sense this reord he made with us is quite different from many requis in the 80s because he was usually with the kita players, younger kitar players and basist who played differently. But I think that we also because we had not had any rehearsal or na or nothing, so we were cushus vi var vi var waiting to hear what will happen and we were not aggressive. He was the absolute leader, and they were just following him as good as we could. And the sound of the Magnusson's piano is more similar to the piano sound of the records that had made in the 50s than on the records in the 80s, for instance, because it's simply because he is from the same generation and he's he's what influenced Magnuson in the 1950s Hampton Hoss, possibly Bob Powell and something like that, yeah. So that that's make this record, I think, a bit different from from uh from other records he made in the 80s, for instance.
SPEAKER_03Which and usually the 80s suffers from come on, like kind of bad acoustics on piano where it's kind of that uh I don't know, you could be playing in a closet. This is like a resonant um a guy's kind of pounding. Christian's kind of you can hear that he's expanding on that piano. Like you can feel it's it's earthy, it's really nice.
SPEAKER_01And also another thing when you got uh say superb players like uh basist Nil Sengos, the Persian, the Danish one, and Tac Rainey, the guitarist, they made quite famous records with Chat in 1881-82. They both superb uh instrumentalists, they played much more into the thing they were playing all the time like this. So Chat has had less space. What happens in we were not uh too f familiar with with all these tunes, but he he had much more space in our performance than with his master's over. For my opinion now, they were almost playing too much because if you're playing with Chet Baker, you want to hear him, his voice, and his trumpet.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_01If you're looking for these other guys, you can listen to them in other records.
SPEAKER_03That's my I couldn't agree more. Yeah, we this is our pet peeve because I listen to a lot of old old music and of people overplaying, and uh especially when you want yeah, the performance and especially the trumpet. Uh as it goes, the set goes on, he he's getting a stronger and stronger voice in the in his performance in the in this recording, I feel the Chad Baker performance.
SPEAKER_01He was also at this time because uh I have read some of his biographies. He had his ups and downs, but he was I think quite clean when he came to Iceland.
SPEAKER_03Oh, fascinating. Okay.
SPEAKER_01So he was in relatively good health.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01And there was uh uh uh the Magnusson Christian, the pianist and his wife, they invited us to a uh party with uh dinner in the evening, and uh there was a lot of chin and tonic and uh everything everybody very happy and Chet has had this chin and tonic and was just like you and me, and uh they played four four-handed, he and the pianist on on the on the piano for uh for the rest of the guests.
SPEAKER_03Oh my goodness. So you guys were all hanging out drinking genitonics with Chet Baker playing four-handed piano, and where where what neighbor in in the Reiki Big? Sorry, where where was this actually recorded? Like what room was this recorded in?
SPEAKER_01It is uh the Gamla Beau, the Icelandic, it was then called the Icelandic opera. Okay and the backstage when we played that concert was from Carmen, I think. Oh some opera. I th I think it was Carmen.
SPEAKER_05That was fantastic.
SPEAKER_01So that was the backdrop.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, you could take each one of these stills from this video, you could make into a into a novel because there's yeah, like I said, the little toeheaded kid is just in the front row, like everybody's in there bundled up completely. As you said, it's February, so everybody is like completely bundled up, and then um, you know, as you as is clear now, you were impeccably dressed, but then you were kind of more stylish than your bandmates because they had these bizarre blue sweaters on. You're like, oh no, don't do this. They kind of look like they they they kind of have matching blue and red sweaters. It's like, oh no. And Chet looks, you know, for all his foibles, Chet always looks put together in a certain way, right? I mean, absolutely he had to beg for the sweater, but it worked for him. So it's yeah, it was the right sweater. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So why so this is 1985, it's 2026 now, so it's been more than 40 years. Uh why the hold up? Why?
SPEAKER_01Well, uh for this uh last 40 years I've been releasing more than 30 records of with my own music. That yeah is what I have been doing in the last 40 years, also translating like 10 books from Spanish and doing a lot of other things. When I was uh getting 66, 67, 68, I thought about doing some kind of a recording a kompilation where I would put some of my music for for the birthday for my 70th birthday. And then I remembered that I was thinking especially about uh Don't Blame Me the first tune so if I'm I had it I had some tape from with a radio program with three or four of these songs that were made at the Icelandic State Radio the week after. So it I had it on on a tape and I started out to check out if this was available or or if this uh recording existed because in the in the radio state radio uh sometimes a lot of or just uh recordings there have been lost.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And the radio recording was lost. But uh some friend of mine found the TV, the television uh recordings.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01And they were there so so you get could get the sound from them.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And later on these videos as came to be. But you could not uh even if it was only for uh streaming agencies, you could not release a thing like that without contact. The Baker family.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01And that's no easy task.
SPEAKER_04No.
SPEAKER_01I was writing to to mainly to England and checking out in the States for some two years getting some kind of emails. Nobody answered here. Nobody answered. They could not give me the name of the people getting royalties for his performances. And I had explained what this was going to be a small anniversary, 70th anniversary edition. And I did not offer too much money. But later on I said to myself, let's try if I offer some more money. Yeah. Decent money. And then I got an answer from one of the uh emails. Yeah. The son of Jet Baker.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01Which has in his last 20 years had his hands full of uh suing people all around the globe.
SPEAKER_04Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Because of the of his father, and trying to get some money out of it. Okay. Which is I had to say it's reasonable because uh Chad played beautifully, but he was not a beautiful father, and he could spend and usually spent his money on everything but his family and his children for instance. So it's quite natural that that his children tried to get some kind of inheritance from from this. But all the same I got this um got his permission and um I on this anniversary record I made two three years ago I had two, I took uh my friend Valentine and to blame me. But then I uh started to think about uh well now I had bought the performance rights for the whole concert.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So and the vetoes of the pianist and the drummer, they said you can use it like you want to.
SPEAKER_04Great.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, I I selected this nine uh tunes and uh then I at this Icelandic radio they offered me uh uh said you can use this uh television thing uh like you want. And uh I had of course uh we went through the sound to get the sound better than it was in '85.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Especially the bass, which was quite it was a pickup sound on the base. Okay. The double bass shot it like this at that time because of the pickup. They were not using microphones, but we could uh uh arrange that thing. And uh a friend of mine, uh cinematographer, he made his videos for me. So then we got this Chat in Iceland thing.
SPEAKER_00And you get this kind of snippet in good audio quality and with video of him in 1985 playing here, which is yeah.
SPEAKER_03So if you're interested in Icelandic culture, you have that in spades. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're interested in jazz, I think you'll be pretty impressed with this. And if you're interested in Chet Baker, um I think this is yeah, this is fantastic. I mean, we were talking before about the Ronnie Scott recordings that are the next year, which um yeah, I mean, honestly, it's not quite as uh there's no audience for the Ronnie Scott videos. This is this is somehow more compelling to me. I know because the next year in in 86, there's Chet Baker recorded with uh Elvis Costello and um and Van Morrison doing Sin and the Clowns, which is one of my favorite, like as a completist. But this is this is somehow more compelling because there's a freezing audience in the in the background and there's a Carmen backdrop, and it's just like this is this is um one of my favorite documentaries not in jazz is the Hail Hell rock and roll about Chuck Berry traveling around and using pickup musicians everywhere. This is that same experience of these people who made this huge impact in in the 50s and then had the rest of their life to try to expand it or work on it, and they they were like crafts people, but they were uh leaning into the shared culture. And surprisingly, there's a shared culture in Iceland of people who oh, we know your jazz music. And in fact, maybe we know it better than we not I don't want to say better, but we know it as you played it, not as maybe people want to play it now. As you said, like maybe um in the 80s people are pushing different directions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just a really compelling uh piece of an art really compelling artifact. And we're we're currently doing at the Reiki Vic grapevine a list of our favorite 50 records for this half of the year, and this was right at the top because it just came out, and you're like, well, you know, this is it goes on perfectly with other things because uh um the authenticity with which it's played is so compelling, I feel. Uh so yeah.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm I'm I'm very like the way you were describing it and contextualizing it that you know you have you have like the pianist, you have a good player who grew up in the same era as Chet and plays that style, and you have the situation where you have uh uh musicians who are respectfully just trying to like make the thing float without getting too intrusive, which is unlike the some of the other recordings you were you were referencing. So you kind of get this this perfect moment where uh Chad gets the right uh backing band which is not too intrusive, uh in like this kind of an incredible situation of a live show and it's kind of a perfect storm out of all of the you know numerous recordings he did in did in the eighties.
SPEAKER_01One thing about the drummer, Svetn Oli, uh which was also a fine pianist but I remember at when we were preparing preparing the concert uh and uh at the Jazz Vaking, and we were talking about uh which drummer could be the best drummer for the concert. I said it has to be a d a drummer who plays almost as little as possible because at that time I was reading jazz magazines from from Denmark, uh Britain, even France. So I had uh I was reading about his Jet Baker's performances at that time.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And once in a while he told the drummers to go off the stage. He didn't want them to be on the stage because they were playing too loud.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01That was uh always once in a while he threw out the drummers and he he could be pretty uh aggressive uh in that uh telling people get out. And he had recently in 185 he had made some drummers leave this leaving the state because he was playing the symbols like this. And no if you know that Chat's music a jazz drummer playing this behind Jet is a total destructor. So I said let's let's ask Straight Noly to play with us because he can play the brushes so uh unobtrusively that you fe you feel his uh drums but you don't hear it. And yeah and and he is he's quite silent, but he is there and he is uh a good part of the of the rhythm session.
SPEAKER_03He is. I'm sorry for not speaking of him earlier. Yeah, good.
SPEAKER_01Chat didn't have to ask him to leave the stage.
SPEAKER_00So you're so you okay. So uh so we can actually say then that in in essence you were very deliberately putting together something as a like the the the group you put together was done really deliberately to fit chat. Would you say that to an effect? I mean at least this is deliberate.
SPEAKER_01Well uh yeah. Um I did not uh decide everything myself, no but I guess I I have uh some influence? Uh yeah, some influence, at least about the drummer. Okay and and of course, um yeah, I had written down the tunes he had recorded uh the years before because um I cared for my job. And uh yeah. Playing with Jeff Baker, it's better to check out some things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Like uh kind of like yeah, similar to how you actually prepared properly for this, and I didn't.
SPEAKER_03I wouldn't be I didn't have to prepare, I'm a huge fan. This was like, oh my god, I can't believe we got this email like months ago. I said, Oh my god, can you please come in? Like, and here's a you know, this is one of the awkward things is we're an English language podcast and magazine, and we have Tomus Ayr here, who is um a legend in Icelandic music throughout. So we we're trying to gonna try to minimize the length of this podcast, and hopefully we can get you back again in the future. But I had to say, I'm sorry it has to be in English, and uh but please come in. And you graciously came in to our like pretty humble studio and spoken English, and I'm so grateful. Um you have shaped um Icelandic music enormously and done a lot of things that uh other people are deeply appreciative, but there's so many stories that I'd love to get to. And one is just casually, we were saying before for people who are obsessed with double bass and bassists, um you had mentioned that you started obviously you're not from Reykjavik, you're a sveta kid, you're like a countryside kid. Shveta kids, yeah. Sveta is Icelandic for country. Um and just obtaining a bass would seemingly be impossible. So you started, of course, with the natural instrument, and which I said i um which is actually something I deeply appreciate about Icelandic culture, that the folk instrument here is the accordion, possibly the hardest instrument to play for for those of us who play it casually. It's incredibly difficult, but it teaches you a lot, I guess.
SPEAKER_01And it also Yeah, I mean when I was young, uh at the m at the same time as the rock music came over, uh in the country when people uh grouped together to to dance, there was always uh one or two persons with accordions.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And uh yeah, playing music from before the rock thing, you see. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03This is fantastic. So you were an accordion player and then um you you pick up the bass. Not professional. No.
SPEAKER_01But I I studied for two two years, accordion.
SPEAKER_03Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I got that was my first real something uh on guitar also, but yeah, the um this uh m made my life different from what it could have been because studying the accordion for instance, uh I got into tango because I love the Argentinian tango.
SPEAKER_03An accordion yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god. That let me to af after um after my student exam uh uh and uh one winter at the university, I said to myself, I want to go to Argentina to Buenos Aires to listen to Tango.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But before you go to South America you had to note some Spanish and therefore I went to Spain, to Barcelona, and I was there when Franco passed out in November 75.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01I learned some Spanish, came home, earned some money and went to Latin America and was there uh travelling for many months. So just the accordion bent me sent me to to Latin America and later thirty years later, twenty-five years later, I come became obsessed with Cuban music.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_01And uh yeah, I've translated a lot of of novels from Latin America. So Latin America became uh one of my specialities. Yeah. Everything through the accordion.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_03So you also have this amazing Cuban recordings, as I recall, uh, where you've done Cuban music and with Cuban jazz players, is that correct?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, not jazz yeah. I did not want uh the Cuban jazz players. They were too much similar to New York Latin jazz players. They were playing too much solos, they did not have this soul I found uh when I started to go to Cuba. Yeah. So I wanted uh Cuban musicians who played the Cuban music, yeah. Uh, and could also improvise, okay, but not using the bee published from Charlie Parker or or from from from the modern jazz giants.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_01I had heard too much of that.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_01Uh like Mike Brecker, everything was copying Mike Brecker at that time. So I wanted them to improvise like they did in the older Cuban recordings.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01And that's how I organized my my the first uh recording I made with Cuban musicians in Havana. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Every every every story is incredible, like right? And what what's that what's that recording if we're looking for that? That first recording. What's the name of that first recording? Havana. Havana. Yeah, it it that is an outstanding record. I remember that one coming out. This is this is an incredible and sorry. If you have time for just one more. Uh we mentioned briefly that um you like you found yourself at one time in Oslo studying Spanish for some reason because Yeah, uh I had to my life has been quite complicated.
SPEAKER_01Uh uh in 1979 I uh I started to listen to Jazz, 78-79, and I was quite obsessed with Jazz music. Uh I started to learn some classical thing on the bass, but I couldn't uh stand the bow and I did not want to play a double bass with bow, so I didn't rehearse, I didn't uh play the bass, and when I went to the uh to the spring examination uh I just uh crushed and then I said I will never touch this bloody instrument again. Uh but that did not meant I did not listen to jazz, and I one of my friends was studying in Oslo and I uh said to my uh myself I should go to Norway, they have a very thriving jazz live in Oslo.
SPEAKER_03Which yeah, which is still true, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and uh I mean 1979-80 it was brilliant. Uh so uh yeah let's go to to Oslo and I was almost finished with my Spanish at the university here, but um I said to myself I can read Spanish literature in Oslo even if it sounds a bit strange, not going to Spain or Mexico or something. So uh we had to get some money, me and my friend, and he got us um into a very lucrative business which was to uh construct the um instaming at the oil platforms. Uh and this is incredible. Sounds of a right.
SPEAKER_03Yes, because that's an incredibly difficult job.
SPEAKER_01You were building oil platforms yeah if you were been working in the Icelandic fish industry, it was not so so extremely hard. Okay. But that meant when in August 1979, I was going in the uh center of Oslo and I saw a beautiful double base in a shop. I said to myself, oh, this instrument, and went in and put it. Yeah, I this is incredible. Then this thing started rolling.
SPEAKER_03And then you go in the jazz, this is 79, and then six years later you're there you are. Five years later. Five years later, there you are, Chet Baker. This is absolutely incredible. Do you still have that instrument?
SPEAKER_01No, I sold it uh some 15-20 years ago.
SPEAKER_03Is it is it within Iceland somewhere? Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_01Because these things don't go It was a new double bass. And when you start out uh uh playing double basses, you tend to look for at least 100 years old basses, you see. For sound reasons or for mostly sound reasons. Uh sound reasons. I it's not uh it's it's not a snob, really. It's uh older instruments usually have some deeper soul to them. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Well obviously you know, research you know in the 50s they started using plywood bases and things like that too. So uh you're not talking about plywood basses, like you're not talking about doghouse bases. No, no, no. You're talking about the real thing. Yeah. This is pretty incr. So somewhere in Iceland right now, somebody is playing the bass that was played on this recording.
SPEAKER_01I think it was the people who put it, it was a kind of uh uh gift for an older brother of this. It possibly it is um a show off in the uh at his home. Oh yeah. In the living room, you see.
SPEAKER_00Um I have a few like practical questions. So this recording is obviously on Spotify as we have discussed. Yeah, and every streaming agency at the end.
SPEAKER_04Every streaming agency and YouTube also.
SPEAKER_00The videos are also on YouTube. Also on YouTube, and uh so is a lot of your Discord please help me with that. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it's so for for people who wanna venture into that everything on on YouTube, everything on on Spotify and other streaming agencies.
SPEAKER_00Is this available in any physical form at this point? No, at not at the moment.
SPEAKER_01And is it being are you planning to do that maybe or well then I have to remaster for vinyl or something? Contact the his son. Oh, I see. Um I've already done that, so I see what you mean. Because uh I thought about it, but you see, most of the people who are listening to this chat in Iceland thing, yeah, they are living abroad. Yeah. And even now it's it's worse than it was ten or fifteen years ago. Exporting uh say CTs with fewer people buy and it's it's not a good business. Right. It's a terrible thing. And the vinyl, if you're gonna send vinyl to uh to other countries uh the price of the uh vinyl would be in Iceland in coronas five thousand five hundred. It could uh cost at least six, eight thousand two cent it abroad. So it doesn't make too much sense.
SPEAKER_00Sorry. It makes very little sense. I agree with that. Just just out of curiosity. But that's good to know. People can access it very easily on whatever device they have. Yeah. And I I encourage people also to just check out Thomas Arena's uh extensive collection of work, which is also available.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Have you written a memoir yet? Or are you writing one?
SPEAKER_01In 23, three years ago, my memoir. Okay. Just one volume or they could have been three, but um uh I decided not to spend more than two years writing it. So my God. And to cut uh of course uh every book you read uh you see here you could have uh omitted this thing. This is superfluous and so forth. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So you didn't bother talking about gin and tonics with Chet Baker. That probably didn't even make the memoir.
SPEAKER_01That may get not the gin and tonic, but I said gin.
SPEAKER_04Oh okay. I omitted the tonic.
SPEAKER_01That's how editing works. You just keep the important part. Thanks for the notes. Yeah, but I had to put the um the vibe of the pianist. She took some pictures of us in in the at the party.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Of the of the quartet. So I had to show this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, of course. Oh god, what a fascinating life. What a fascinating life. Uh so Thomas, just uh yeah, as a fan, thank you for coming here and thank you for joining us and sharing this. This is uh this is everything you do for music is amazing. We didn't even talk about, and we we I don't want to drag it out too much, but we didn't even talk about you you happen to have produced one of the more uh exception uh recorded one of the more exceptional uh popular music recordings of you, uh, and Megas.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, in 89, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a well known well-known pop album, basically.
SPEAKER_01And this is uh uh I want to thank you for uh having me here. Uh but I would like to add that uh this is only one of three albums I'm uh releasing this year.
SPEAKER_03Of course. Okay, what are the other two?
SPEAKER_01Uh I started out in January with uh Gietieren G D R an, Icelandic one of Iceland's most popular pop singers. Yes, yes. We made a record which we worked uh last year. And now I'm preparing um a Latin Big Band record which was recorded um last Oktober uh last year a 20 piece band Big Band with guest singers G D Ren G Tieren Mugison and Bogomilfont casting in some numbers and it was a Latin band here called Bomb Los Pomponeros who took the initiative and they got arrangers to to arrange my Latin music and they had two sold-out shows at Salun and Kowboy and they were recorded very well. So I'm honored to to release this record in August.
SPEAKER_04Fantastic.
SPEAKER_00Great. Well on that note, I guess uh thank you again Thomas for coming in. Thank you. This has been the drop in. Thank you for listening and watching. Bye bye. Bye. Bye.