The Savage Rose

The Savage Rose. Vega, Copenhagen 26/11/06

The first time I heard The Savage Rose was in the mid 80's. It was a song called Det er tid nu, from the through and through political album Vi kaemper for at sejre. I have rarely reacted to a single song like I did that time. Not only was it a great song. It was performed with such intensity. Even if you disregard the lyrics the message was made so obvious through the music. But most of all through the vocals. The song was performed by the most outstanding voice I had heard up to that time and it has yet to be matched. I bought the record and I bought some more records. Savage Rose became one of my favourite bands at a time when political music were totally out of fashion in Sweden. They have remained favourites ever since and - they have continued to deliver great recordings, even though new releases have been increasingly infrequent. During all this time they have never made me disappointed, in fact there are very few bands or artists with such quality assurance in the world today.

Savage Rose has had a lot of members through the years (they started way back in 1967!), but has always been centred around the song writer and keyboard/accordion player Thomas Koppel and the singer Annisette (born Hansen, later Koppel as she and Thomas got married). Thomas was a true genius, not only writing great pop songs through four decades but also classical music and other stuff. His death in February, 2006, at the age of 61, was nothing short of a tragedy. I usually don't grieve the loss of famous people - they are "only" humans - but this was one such time. Annisette is, according to me, undoubtedly the greatest female pop/rock-singer of this planet. Not only does she have a phenomenally strong voice, she also sings like she means everything the songs stand for. One can hear elements from legendary singers like Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin but above all it's just Annisette, as close to a singing goddess it is possible. The combination of Thomas and Annisette is unique and has made The Savage Rose one of Scandinavia's most important acts - for me, in fact, THE most important act.

Following the death of Thomas Koppel, Annisette decided the show must go on. A tour was planned for the autumn of 2006 and yesterday was the final show of the tour, at Vega in Copenhagen.

First question: How would the new keyboard player, Palle Hjort, cope with "replacing" Thomas Koppel? Palle did the only right thing, he didn't try. He went in and played in his way. He didn't try to copy anyone. He played mostly organ, compared to Thomas who played a lot more accordion. And what an organ player! It takes a lot of courage to take the place of a legend, but they couldn't have found anyone better.

Second question: How is Annisette's voice? After all she is now 58 years old. The answer is that she has never sounded better. This woman is absolutely unique. For more than two hours she (together with the great, great band) kept me in a state I never or very rarely has experienced before and yet I have been to several hundreds of concerts through the years.

The set list was great. Wild Child, Black Angel, Dear Little Mother, Your Daily Gift (outstanding version with only keyboards and vocals!) and also a couple of new songs. Maybe, if anything, I had hoped for some more tunes in Danish (a great language for pop/rock-music, highly underrated!) from the political period but we got a great version of I kan ikke sla os ihjel as an encore together with a heartbreaking version of Smile, this one also with only keyboards and vocals. What could be expected to be a sad evening due to the tragic death of Thomas ended in the completely opposite way. Everyone was smiling while walking out of the arena. Not only due to the fantastic playing and singing by the all through great band (yes, Annisette is of course the star but this is very much a band where everyone is performing), but also due to the big emotions surrounding this concert. The fact that they turned the death of Thomas Koppel into something this great makes me consider this as one of my best concert nights ever. This band has not only a great past, they also have a great future! Rating: +++++, without a shadow of a doubt!

The Savage Rose in 2006 is (from left to right in the third picture above): Palle Hjort (keyboards), Peer Frost (guitar), Annisette (vocals), Moussa Diallo (bass), Naja Koppel (backing vocals), Klaus Menzer (drums), Aisha Thorsen (backing vocals) and Raul Rekow (percussion).

Ethiopia

Birdwatching trip to Ethiopia 3-24/11

Earlier this autumn I was asked to participate in a bird watching trip to Ethiopia, arranged by Avifauna, the travel agency of the Swedish Ornithological Society (SOF). As this was a trip I wanted to do for many years I accepted immediately.

The trip was a great success. We found all of the 30 endemic bird species (that is, species that only occur in a certain area) to Ethiopia that we had a chance to see. The only two endemics we didn't have a chance to see was a lark in an unsafe area close to the Somalian border and a nightjar that never has been seen alive (the species is described from one found wing!). In all, we saw 509 species of birds and several nice mammals, for example Leopard, Serval and the very handsome and rare Ethiopian Wolf. We experienced extremely beautiful sceneries in both savannas and mountainous areas and we met lovely people in small villages. Usually very poor when it comes to material standard, but they seemed proud and happy in their poverty. I didn't witness misery in the same way I have experienced in, for example, some parts of Asia. And wherever we came driving in our Landcruisers people waved to us like we were pop stars. Why don't we do the same when we have guests from Africa visiting Sweden? I really liked the country and hope to go back again someday.

In three weeks, we only spent four nights at hotels. Instead we camped out in the nature, in order to be able to start birdwatching directly after breakfast in the mornings. We had the privilege of having an excellent guide, Håkan Pohlstrand, who has established a tour company with a very comfortable tent camp including great cooking facilities, hot shower and everything else one can ask for. He also speaks the language, Amharinja, fluently as he lived in Ethiopia for more than 20 years.

The pictures above show 1) Ethiopian Wolf at Senete Plateau, Bale Mountains, 2) The rare and endemic Sidamo Lark at Negelli Plains, 3) Harwood's Francolin in Jemmu Valley, the last of the 30 endemics we saw on the trip, 4) Abyssinian Owl in Dinsho, 5) a Northern Carmine Bee-eater resting on the back of an Arabian Bustard at Alledeghi Plains and 6) yours truly looking for birds in a dramatic environment outside Ankober.

Dramatic change in weather

Nabben, Falsterbo 1/11/06

My second last morning this autumn as a bird observer in Falsterbo, will not be remembered for any birds. Instead, the "talk of the day" was one of the most extreme changes in weather I have ever experienced. The morning was relatively calm with a south-westerly wind of about 4 m/s, some clouds but also some sun. The visibility was good and we saw all the way to Stevns klint in Denmark, somewhat 30 km away.

Then, at around 9 A.M., dark clouds came rolling in from the North. The waves on the sea increased in strength and the wind became strong, blowing in from the North. In fact, in five minutes' time, the wind went from SW 4 m/s to N 16 m/s. The sky went all dark, making it feel like the last moment on earth had arrived. And then came rain, and then came snow. We gave up and went home. The walk back to the car was in brutal headwind and intense rain, and I tell you, it wasn't nice. Anyway, I got some pictures from the actual weather change, and I think they show the contrast between the two weather systems in a good way.

Ringed birds in Falsterbo

Ringed birds in Falsterbo, Autumn 2006

From 11th of August to the 2nd of November I worked as a bird observer in Falsterbo. In the lighthouse garden, which is close to my observation spot, other people worked with ringing birds. With this, it's much easier to find out which routes the birds migrate and where they spend the winter. Also, by doing it the same way each year, it's a good way of telling if species are getting more common or more rare.

Among all the common birds, some more or less uncommon birds are caught each year. Some of these are shown here. In order from top it's Great Reed Warbler 14/9, Yellow-browed Warbler 30/9, Firecrest 1/10, Red-breasted Flycatcher 1/10 and Ring Ouzel 14/10.

Toumani Diabate & The Symmetric Orchestra

Toumani Diabate & The Symmetric Orchestra. KB, Malmö 31/10/06

Toumani Diabate from Mali is probably the most famous Kora player in the world and together with his West African All Star band called The Symmetric Orchestra he visited Malmö this cold and windy October night.

The concert was somewhat uneven. The band consists of about 17 people, of whom four are vocalists. As the songs were extremely long due to drawn-out solos by, for example, drums and kora, each singer just got one or two songs each. I think the concert consisted of just 7-8 songs although it lasted for more than two hours (which maybe was a little too long)!

In some songs, this was West African music at its best, that is an explosion in rhythm. In others, I found myself starting to think about other things due to too many and too long-winded solos. And even though it was interesting to hear about the story of the Kora as an instrument told by Toumani between two songs, the long speeches between the songs harmed the intensity of the concert. But in all, this was a sympathetic evening with a sympatetehic and symmetric band:-). And the record Boulevard de l'independence is definitely worth buying. Rating: +++ (but in some parts it was close to 5).