Guys, I just started my summer vacation on Wednesday after my bass exam that was a great success :) We played one of my songs “Lost and found” with the greatest Jonathan Lundberg and Calle Stålenbring a’ka The Fusion Bag :D We’ll be performing with that trio at Viljandi Guitar Festival in September :) But tomorrow - “Kokkkukukkkumine” at Vanalinna Muusikamaja at 21 - Jaak Johanson, Krista Joonas, Ain Agan and Mai Jõgi. Jaak will be singing his beautiful, beautiful music… :) See you there:)

Heeeej!!! Guess, who’s back home at Skurup!!!! After 6,5 hours on train from Stockholm-Malmö and meeting MaiGroup’s first drummer Henrik Holst Hansen and few other guys on the train from Malmö to Skurup at 00.08, I finally reached the destination at 1 am in the night - Hilton house, room 1104  with my dear Konni :) It feels super awesome to be back… I have been missing Skurup a lot. Skåne is like Hawaii, it’s SO hot here and I already managed to get ugly sun stripes on my back from having lunch in the sun for 40 minutes.. Impressive. It has been a lot of hugging and being happy about seeing these people again. Skurup is still the same, it’s just me who’s been away… And it feels secure to know that it will always be here :)  A photo from 00.00 yesterday. Malmö Central station.. I’ve never seen it so empty :) 

More photos coming up soon:) now it’s time to go back outside and enjoy my friends and the weather :) 

Me & Konni back together :)

That’s the music house where I spent most of my 2010-2011. It was the time of my LIFE!!! ♥

MaiGroup yesterday at New Sound Made festival @ Kägelbana teatern! Had a huge kick of energy.. The new line-up is SO fantastic:) 

Hi there.. 

MaiGroup is playing at New Sound Made festival on Monday at 21.40. (Södra Teatern, Mosebacke Torg 1-3, 116 46 Stockholm, Sweden) We have a little bit new staff this time:

Björn Arkö - sax 

Rasmus Lindelöw - keyboards (we go to the same class at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He’s really creative and has a lots of music in the way he plays… :)

Calle Stålenbring - guitar (Calle plays around Sweden A LOT! Mostly pop music, but like he said, he has found some fusion-brothers in Jonathan & me.. Lovely guy:) Definitely has some chops;)

Mai Jõgi - bass

Jonathan Lundberg - drums

Had lots of fun yesterday at school. After the rehearsal with MaiGroup we had the honor to listen to a concert and clinic from a legendary bass player Eddie Gomez, who in fact, has played with most of the legends in the world today. It was so fun to hear a guy in the same room talking: ” Oh yeah, it was me, Tony, Herbie and Wayne…we definitely had some fun back at the days… “And of course, I asked about Joni… :) It was great! I’m definitely going to listen to their concert at Glenn Miller on Sunday:)

Anyways, you can see more on delfi, weekend and jazzkaar pages! :)

The concert with Aces of Basses is over… Unbelievable how time flies! I had the honor to play with the best Estonian bass players Raul Vaigla, Mihkel Mälgand, Peedu Kass and drummer Reigo Ahven. We were supposed to warm up Christian McBride’s Trio, but the trio didn’t make it to Estonia due to traffic accident and they missed their flight. So it’s a fairy-tale of warm-up band becoming a headliner of the night :D

After the concert :) 

The good thing is that we were ALL so inspired of playing together that we’re not going to throw the guns in the bush:)

To my Estonian friends, you can read about the concert here:

http://jazzkaar.ee/et/?task=item&item_id=669&category_id=2

And here:

http://jazzkaar.ee/et/news/item/jk-bassimees-on-baendi-hall-kardinal

Now it’s time for me to get my tiny ass back to Stockholm! I’ll see you soon again! I will be playing with Jaak Johanson, Krista Joonas and Ain Agan at Tallinna Vanalinnapäevad, at Sõru jazz festival with Again Group and Riho Sibul, MaiGroup at Juu Jääb Festival, Teele Viira at Õllesummer festival, Raul Vaigla’s jubilee party at Rock Cafe, Again Group & Andre Maaker @ Nõmme jazz festival among other concerts… :) 

Looking forward to it all… Music is such a blessing! 

Kram!

An interview right after the concert with Aces of Basses!

Hi!  Here’s an interview with my teacher and a good friend Raul Vaigla in today’s “Sirp”… He explains who’s playing, why he invited me to the band and  what we’re going to play on Wednesday while warming up Christian McBride’s Trio at Jazzkaar festival. Too bad it’s in Estonian… Use google translate:) 

“Sirbile” andis intervjuu minu õpetaja ja väga hea sõber Raul Vaigla, kes räägib tema veetavast bassiässade ansamblist Aces of Basses, sellest, kes bändis mängivad ja mis tuleb Jazzkaare raames toimuval Christian McBride’i Trio soojenduskontserdil esitusele… Igatahes, on mul väga suur au… 10 aastat tagasi kuulasin ja imestasin neid meie eesti bassilegende ning elu sees ei osanud arvata, et võiksin kunagi ka sinna bändi kuuluda… Esmaspäevast olen 4 päeva Tallinnas ja teeme bassiässadega proove… :) Ootan juba väga! Igatahes, head lugemist:) 

http://www.sirp.ee/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14674:raul-vaigla-soovitab-jazzkaarelt-otsida-ka-vaehem-tuntud-nimesid&catid=5:muusika&Itemid=12&issue=3390

MaiGroup playing “January Dedication” in Tartu.. This is one of the oldest songs that I’ve written and that I still like to play… I wrote it in 2008 in January.. It was my first year in Tallinn… I had just fallen madly in love with my boyfriend and one night, I was asleep and I just heard this melody in my head… I woke up, ran downstairs and recorded what I heard in my head in the middle of the night… If I hadn’t done that, then this song would not exist :) Music is a miracle.. 

This is a song called “The Eye of Ra” that I wrote last year when I went to Skurup..  But anywayS, MaiGroup has now a YouTube channel where you can keep yourself updated with  our videos… :) 

http://www.youtube.com/user/maigroupmusic

“Lost and Found” live @ Tartu Jazz Club :)

Hi! I’m back in Estonia after the tour we had with MaiGroup. I felt so empty and wrecked that one day I just decided that I want to go home and I want to do it NOW. I just needed to get back to the roots and charge my batteries. I’m starting to feel better :)

Me and Ain had a fantastic weekend at Esna manor… We played music with Estonian famous ethnic musician Jaak Johanson and an amazing bamboo-flute player Krista Citra Joonas who, in fact, has lived in Bombay and has been studying Indian traditional music for some years now. She has so much music in the way she plays and I really feel that we connect with both Jaak and Krista. This time there was also Dave Murphy from Ireland. I just loved him! He taught us some Irish flute songs and we played all day and night long. There were 2 little girls from the school where Krista and Jaak teach and they sang a song with us too. It was totally amazing. Later Ants Johanson, his wife, Tõnis Mägi and Kärt Johanson joined us. We had nice conversations about life and music until the morning. These REAL conversations are pretty rare nowadays…  On Saturday, the spring disappeared and winter came back. It was a huge snow storm in the middle of Estonia… Few photos from the beautiful weekend :)

This little lamb-baby is 12 hours old… SOOO soofft little “määää”… I just adore those little babies:) And on the next one, me and Ain visited a goat farm in Esna, to buy some ecological goat cheese… and there were a loooot of goat-kids :) mmmm!!! i didn’t want to leave :))))  and if the lamb babies are really shy, then the goat kids are very curious and they are extremely interested in you.. they also wanted to eat my coat :))) 

The night has a thousand eyes and thousand songs..

The last morning at Esna… Pancakes,  pasha and a nice conversation with Ain and Tõnis.

I’m gonna try to upload some videos too.. :)

Laupäeval, 24.märtsil ilmus Saaremaa päevalehes Meie Maa Maiga pikk intervjuu… See maksab 4 kopikat, aga keda väga huvitab, siis peab selle vist ikkagi välja käima…  

Rääkisime artikli autori Anneli Tarkmeelega basskitarrist, Raul Vaiglast, muusikamaailma kadedusest, elust Stockholmis, MaiGroupist ja paljust muust:) Oli väga põnev! :) 

https://www.meiemaa.ee/index.php?content=artiklid&sub=41&artid=47144

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Long interview with Mai in Saaremaa’s newspaper Meie Maa… MaiGroup’s fantastic drummer Jonathan Lundberg also gets to say a word :) Buuuut.. it’s in Estonian. Sorry folks, maybe next time:)

Just enabled DOWNLOADING MaiGroup’s songs on SOUNDCLOUD!!!!!

http://soundcloud.com/maijogi/sets/maigroup

Enjoy! :)

Mängin skaalasid ja arpeggio’sid üles-alla erinevates positsioonides alguses aeglaselt, siis kaheksandiknoodid paremas käes, siis kuueteistkümnendikud ja kaheksandik-trioolid ja kuueteistkümnendik-trioolid. Ja vaikselt tõstan tempot. See on ka väga hea harjutus vasaku käe tehnikale, kuna positsioonivahetus on päris keeruline sujuvaks saada. Ja Bachi mängin :)