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Booking:
Gunnar Gotaas
Skøyenveien 55
0375 Oslo, Norway
+47 22 52 50 02
Web editor
John Falwell
Download flyer for this year's Christmas concert in
Gamle Logen 
Welcome to the Christmas concert 2011 in Gamle Logen!
The concert takes place Sunday December 18th at 19:30
(For good seats it is best to arrive before 19:00)
Order tickets at Billettservice.
The latest CD!
"MJB & Topsy Chapman -- Live at Oslo
Concert Hall" (MJB5)
Record
number 13
Musicians on this recording:
Magnolia Jazzband
Anders Bjørnstad - trumpet, Georg Michael Reiss - clarinet and alto sax, Gunnar Gotaas - trombone, Håkon Gjesvik - grand piano, Arild Holm - banjo, Per Hobbel - string bass and Torstein Ellingsen - drums.
Topsy Chapman - vocal
Morten Gunnar Larsen accompanies on "Muddy Waters".
From the liner notes:
The 35th anniversary concert was a great success. The audience also had the benefit of hearing Magnolia's former pianist, the one and only Morten Gunnar Larsen, accompanying Topsy on "Muddy Waters". We took the liberty of sending a test copy of the resulting CD to Butch Thompson, asking him what he thought. Butch wrote:"The partnership of Topsy Chapman with the Magnolia Jazzband is magic. Ms. Chapman brings that to all her performances, but with these guys you know there is something very special going on the moment she walks onstage. New Orleans music is all about connections between people, and the easy way the music comes together on this CD is born of longtime friendship and respect. Everybody is happy to be there, and it shows.
The Magnolia is simply one of the very best old-style New Orleans groups on the scene today. These tracks taken from their ambitious 35th anniversary performance at the Oslo Concert Hall in late 2007, are testimony to their remarkable cohesion. It's all about teamwork. Yes, they are fine soloists, but it all works so very well because they have mastered the art of the ensemble, the true basic of the music they have immersed themselves in for so long.
A Bonus here is the magical duet by Topsy and the superb Norwegian pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen, who made a cameo appearance that evening. The tune is Muddy Water, well-remembered both for Bessie Smith's classic 1927 recording and for its dramatic performance by Thais Clark in Vernel Bagneris' hit off-Broadway show One Mo' Time. Like Ms. Clark, Topsy Chapman was a member of that show's original cast, but her performance here is entirely different from that of Ms. Clark, whose intense performance regularly stopped the show. For Topsy, it's something else: Intense, yes, but in her own very different, more relaxed style, finely and sensitively phrased and perfectly accompanied by the versatile Mr. Larsen, whose perfectly chosen tempo and sensitive playing are, as always, a marvel."
(Butch Thompson, born 1943, is a master of traditional jazz piano, and also plays an excellent New Orleans style clarinet. We recommend visiting www.butchthompson.com).
We would like to congratulate Topsy and Magnolia on this new CD, a wonderful follow-up to the superb album "Fine and Mellow", BCD-320! And many thanks to Butch for his willing contribution.
Oslo, July 31st 2008
Thor Valeur and Ragnar Vik
