The Annual Meeting 2014

A couple of years ago we decided to have the annual meeting of SBJS in May instead of in January. The reason for meeting in January was that we wanted to be as close as possible to Bunk´s birthday December 27th. The reason for meeting in May was of course that Stockholm - a wonderful summer city - is rather dull and gloomy in January. And we were right this year too. May 24th  when 55 Bunk freaks met as ususally in the premises of Svenskt Visarkiv was a wonderful early summer´s day even this far up north.

We started rather early this year so right after the rapidly handled formal society matters we hand a combined lunch and dinner. Our own Chef Sven Gustafsson unfortunately couldn´t attend this year, so we were supplied by a catering firm instead. And the response from the participants was great: ”Nearly but not quite as good as Sven´s cooking”. Sven will be back next year we hope.

Then it was time for the usual state-of-the-art lecture, this year held by our guests Mike Pointon, UK and Ray Smith, the Netherlands. Their most interesting topic was ”Bill Russel – on a forthcoming book”. Both Mike and Ray knew the friendly, generous and eccentric Bill in person. For nearly two hours they shared their memories of this number one New Orleans Jazz guru with us listeners. Not a dull second I guarantee!

As a Bunk Johnson Society we are wery careful with traditions, so next on the program was Jan Lorentzon with his Jazz Quiz. And also according to the tradition the Quiz – as hard as ever – was won by Bo Scherman with Per Oldaeus on second place. These gentlemen – meritoriously in charge of our newsletter Bunk Johnson Information - are always number one and two. If Bo isn´t the winner, Per is.

Then the time had come for Mike and Ray to enter the stage again. Their topic now was Ken Colyer and their experiences of playing with Ken, a rather complicated and eccentric person too. Ken certainly is one of the greatest musicians in the New Orleans Jazz style in both Great Britain and the rest of Europe Mike and Ray assured us. And we sure do believe them.

As the tradition also orders we rounded off the meeting with live music. In the band we had Christer Fellers trumpet, Mike Pointon trombone, Kenneth Arnström reeds, Arne Högsander clarinet, Ray Smith piano, Louis Lince banjo, Håkan Rosenqvist guitar, Karl Kronqvist double bass and Per Oldaeus drums. Their great concert was stylishly concluded with Ken´s charming tune ”Goin´ Home”, recorded with Ken´s first Jazzmen in 1954 and many times after that. And then we happily strolled home in the warm night. See you all again in 2015.

P-O Karlström