John Malmstrom

I’ve got a feeling that 2012 is gonna be a busy year for the Modern Swing Clarinetist.

Already, the various bands that I play with have more bookings than we’ve ever had at this early date — and some of them are really swell!

Performing with Jazzette at the Trellis Café 1/13

Starting on this Friday — the 13th! — my pals in Jazzette and I are I’m kicking off the year at one of our favourite hanuts, the great little Trellis Café. Then next month Swingology will take center stage with multiple gigs at cool venues that are new to all of us (more about that later, of course — or scour my “Gigs” page for details).

And in addition to all that, I’ve written a to-do list for myself that should keep me pretty busy. I’m mentioning it here, publicly, to keep myself honest! One of my items is to create some new sample recordings I hope you’ll enjoy. I’m aiming to lay down 6 or so very simple little tracks just to give folks an idea of how I sound these days. Here are the first two — What do you think?

Lullaby Sample

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Solitude Sample

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Another goal for my year is to meet and mingle with more Atlantic Canadain Jazz musicians. If you’re a Maritime syncopator, watch out, I’ll probably be lurking in your audience soon. And then there’s practice goals… that never changes… happily!

And finally, I just learned about a gig which I must confess, I’m especially excited about. Swingology has been contacted by Jazzeast, Nova Scotias’ wonderful non-profit jazz society, to entertain at a 1920s -30s “Speakeasy” themed fundraiser on March 30th. Youza! A made to order gig for us! Here’s how I imagine it’ll look. Hope to see you all this year!