The year was 1984 and I was a music teacher at Hartvig Nissens Skole, one of the two high schools in Oslo to offer a full music line. Besides teaching music history, harmony, music theory, and conducting the school choir, we had a class choir in my class, plus some of the girls formed a harmony octet. Norwegian TV made a feature for the program Musikknytt, and here is the result.
In 1979 Chipahua was formed with members coming from the Institute of Musicology at the University in Oslo, together with some of the best singers and jazz rock musicians in Norway. They played around at clubs, and soon became the house band at legendary Oslo club, Club 7. During the years they had some personnel changes, but the nucleus of the band is still the same as in 1979.
The second night of Blues in Hell had John Mayall as the headliner. They also had a CD release concert by Reidar Larsen and a surprisingly good concert with Tor Einar Bekken, Richard Gjems and Noora Noor in the acoustic tent. Swedish Knockout Greg & The Injectors followed up with a stylish and powerful concert before, like on Friday night, Davina & The Vagabonds closed the night in the acoustic tent, and The Travellin Brothers did the same on the main stage. (Picture above: Travellin Brothers)
Every year when August is fading away, I have one more festival to look forward to, The Blues in Hell Festival. It is the perfect way to end the festival season, with great blues bands and artists and in the good company of a big part of the Norwegian blues family. Blues in Hell is a intimate festival with high quality artists playing in two tents, the Magic Mirror and an acoustic tent. The first night is over, and here are the artists I saw Friday night in Hell. (Picture above: The Etta James Experience)
Vidar Busk has played blues professionally for almost two thirds of his life since he was sixteen years old. It has been a roller coaster with ups and downs during these thirty years. Musically he has always been sharp, and he has moved in and out of styles, from rockabilly and jump blues through New Orleans style music to soul, but the blues has always been there. These days he is back with his old band, His True Believers, and yesterday night they played at Rockefeller in Oslo.
Artist Pictures Blog 