” My interest in Duke Ellington started when I was 15 years old. My uncle discovered that I was interested in jazz and told me about his visit to Duke Ellington’s concert I Malmö in 1939. He also showed me the autographed program, which sadly disappeared when he died.
1959 was a key year for my interest in Ellington I attended Ellington’s concert in Malmö, I bought Eddie Lambert’s pocketbook about Ellington and Philips’ three-volume LP series with Columbia recordings.
1963 was another key year. I spent the summer in Stockholm and attended every night of the Ellington dances at Gröna Lund. I got the chance to shake the Duke’s hand, speak with him (briefly) and got him to sign my TDES membership card.
In 1979, I become member of Duke Ellington Music Society (DEMS) and its Bulletin has been an important source of information for my Ellington interest.
In 1994 I attended the Ellington Study Group Conference in Stockholm and bought Beyond Categories from John E. Hasse in the dining room of the hotel.
The next Ellington conference was the one in Amsterdam where I made the acquaintance with Ken Steiner and David Palmquist among others.
In January 2016, I took over the responsibility for the website of the Duke Ellington Society of Sweden and launched it on April 29. The website has been my main occupation for seven year and I have learned a lot about Ellington. I have recently given it an overhaul to make it more of an Ellington Galaxy.
In 1917, the Sjef Hoefsmit estate gave me Hoefsmit’s videos from Ellington Study Group Conferences to digitize and publish. The work to do this is still going on.
In 1917, I also wrote the liner notes for volume 24 of Storyville’s DETS series.
In 2021 and 2022, I organized the DESS Ellington Meetings – two three days virtual with 12 presentation at each conference by leading Ellington scholars.
In 2023 I attended the Ellington Study Group in Paris.“