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ADRIAN PEHRSON/ROCKFOTO
Rudresh Mahanthappa (left) is one of the hundreds of jazz stars who have played at Fasching.
Fasching Fosters Creativity
Sweden’s renowned Fasching—a perennial
DownBeat pick for one of the
world’s top jazz clubs—will be celebrate
its 40th anniversary in 2017. But its home, a
downtown building in Stockholm, dates back
much earlier, having been constructed in 1906.
The events that took place between 1906
and the opening of the venue (on May 2, 1977)
could make for a novel of sorts, filled with many
intriguing twists and colorful personalities.
“From the start, it was a restaurant/cafe for
Oscar’s Theatre next door,” said Eric Birah,
Fasching’s CEO. “Back then, there was a staircase
from the inside of Oscar’s into Fasching.
There’s always been a restaurant/bar/club of
some sort here since 1906.”
The name of the venue translates to “festival,”
which is appropriate these days, as
Fasching has served as the headquarters for the
Stockholm Jazz Festival since 2009.
As for the roots of Fasching, according to
Bengt Hammar, who served as managing
director, programmer and head of marketing
from 1982 until 2001, “The jazz musician’s community
of traditional modernists [Forenignen
Sveriges Jazzmusiker, or FSJ] had been looking
for many years for a permanent stage. They’d
been moving around from place to place, getting
temporary gigs at museums, clubs and
restaurants. Eventually, in 1975, they found
the discotheque Fasching, and began renting
Mondays through Thursdays for concerts in
the club. The interior decor was in a Tyrolean
style, and painted grey and pink.
“In 1977,” he continues, “FSJ took over the
lease with the financial help of a joint action
from the mayor’s office and the government.
Since then, the club has been owned by the
musicians. And, by the way, we repainted the
interior black.”
Magnus Palmquist, who eventually succeeded
Hammar as artistic director at Fasching
(in addition to programming the Stockholm
Jazz Festival), notes, “Fasching was founded by
and for musicians as a counter-movement to the
entertainment-based jazz venues that dominated
Stockholm at the time. Fasching became the
breeding ground for music that lived, breathed
and evolved within itself and without any commercial
pressure—music that couldn’t then or
can’t now easily be categorized just as ‘jazz.’”
Palmquist, who came onboard in 2008, said
that the club provides an important forum: “I
feel that a quite new and strong movement in
jazz and improvisational music is taking form,
where jazz is officially allowed to influence
many other musical styles and genres in a perhaps
more dominant way than ever before. I
definitely want that expressive flow to show in
the Fasching program.”
He added, “Most artists who have passed
through Fasching’s walls have been the leaders
of their musical movement of that specific era.”
As for the 40th anniversary, the folks at
Fasching are busy making plans, while remodeling
has continued apace. “The inside has
looked different over the years,” said Birah. “At
one point many years ago, the stage was on the
short side of the room. The balcony used to go
over the big bar. Now we have built a bar in the
entrance in the main hall and are taking the
facade back to its original look from 1906. And
we are getting new glass, doors and a new sign.”
Securing the intentions of everyone who
had a dream that started in 1977, former
Fasching CEO (from 2007 to 2015) Lena Aberg
Frisk aptly states, “Fasching has become a
vibrant place, where musicians and listeners
from different parts of the world, from different
generations and from different genres,
meet.”
Artists who have graced the stage include
legends such as Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea,
Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, Carla
Bley, Chet Baker and Sun Ra. It has also hosted
younger stars from the States, such as Joshua
Redman, Kamasi Washington and Robert
Glasper, as well as artists from around the
world, including Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano,
Jan Lundgren, Maria Faust, the Goran Kajfes
Subtropic Arkestra and Hermeto Pascoal e
Grupo.
The Brazilian-born Pascoal has played the
club multiple times. “Fasching was our home
in Sweden,” he says. “We always looked forward
to spending a few days performing at this
great venue. We had some unforgettable parties
there—onstage, and offstage as well!”
—John Ephland
60 DOWNBEAT FEBRUARY 2017