Schaffer, Janne (24 September 1945-Present)

Composer, guitarist and producer from Stockholm, Sweden, who band-hopped quite a bit in the 1960s, playing with Chicks, Noisemen and Ted & the Caracas before landing in a dance band. He dropped out of school but found the incessant touring schedule worse than formal education, and went back to school and founded The Sleepstones.

They enjoyed some chart success, but never really took off, and Janne joined Grapes of Wrath in 1968. Ola Brunkert was the drummer and they eventually morphed into Opus III, which was rounded out by bass player, Bjorn Stolt. They released Opus III & Friends in 1970, which was just around the time that Janne was catching the ear of record producers who were eager to employ him as a session musician.

A couple of his early studio gigs included “Both Sides Now” by Bjorn Skifs and Som jag ar by Agnetha Faltskog. He had been associated with Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus for a while and they used him as a guitarist on Ted Gardestad’s solo debut in 1971, and in subsequent years on several ABBA songs such as “People Need Love”, “Ring Ring”, “SOS”, and “Waterloo”.

It was a busy year for Janne, who found himself multi-tasking on a movie soundtrack composed by Johnny Nash. Not only did he perform on the recording: He also acted as music contractor, gathering the other musicians for the Stockholm sessions. His choices: Ola Brunkert, bassist Bo Haggstrom, and fellow guitarist Born Linder. Bob Marley was on hand and he taught Janne a few reggae rhythms on guitar.

Janne reunited with Ted Gardestad on his next two albums, Wonderment in 1972 and Ted in 1973. In 1973, Janne and Ola, along with bassist Stefan Brolund and keyboardist Bjorn J:son Lindh, played a live concert at Karen in Stockholm. Meantime, Janne released his self-titled solo debut and it shot to the top of the Swedish charts, where it stayed for six consecutive weeks. It is hard to believe he had time to appear on two other albums, Baltik’s eponymous 1973 effort and Pop Workshop—Vol. 1, and in a made-for-TV movie entitled Snovit och de sju sma dvargarna, in which he portrayed a character known as Blyger.

1974 was equally busy: He released two more albums, Janne Schaffer’s Andra and The Chinese, composed music for the motion picture, Flossie, appeared uncredited in a made-for-TV movie entitled Parade, and performed acoustic and electric guitar on Ted Gardestad’s album, Prank.

The two of them collaborated again in 1976 on Ted’s album, French cards, the same year that found Janne on the big screen in Man on the Roof and on the record shelves with Khatarsis, which cracked the top twenty on the Swedish charts. In 1977, he was one of several performers who shared the stage at the Montreux Jazz Festival. He released Earmeal in 1978 and it barely missed out on the top forty in Sweden. What made Earmeal unique was that it included every member of the Porcaro family, Jeff, Joe, Mike and Steve.

In 1979, Janne produced and recorded some bonus material for the re-release of Ted Gardstad’s album, Blue Virgin Isles. He released another solo LP, Presens, in 1980. In 1981, he produced and performed on Ted Gardestad’s album, Gale warning. He also appeared as himself on the Lena Maria Show as a member of the Electric Banana Band. (The walrus may have been Paul, but the zebra was Janne.)

In 1982, he issued Bla Passager Och Roda Vagor and it spent three weeks on the Swedish charts, where it peaked at #44. He played guitar on Putte Wickman’s 1984 release, Desire. He founded his own production house, Earmeal, and began releasing albums on this label the following year.

In 1985, he released Traffic, which got stuck at #50 on the Swedish album chart. This was followed by Horselmat, Electric Graffiti, and Julglod. In 1990, he teamed up with Gunnar Idenstam and Bjorn J:Son Lindh for the CD, Tid Brusa. In addition to playing guitar, he also penned four of the tracks, “Rotmousse”, “Som Ett Nyfott Barn”, “Tid”, and “Vid Vagens Vag”.

In 1992, he composed the theme music for the television program, Klasses julkalender. He played guitar and electric sitar and produced Ted Gardestad’s comeback LP in 1994. In 1995, he released another solo album, Av Ren Lust. He appeared as himself on the TV show, Allsang pa Skansen in 1997. In 1998, the Electric Banana Band got back together and recorded an album that topped the Swedish charts and went platinum.

Janne composed the soundtrack of the 1999 motion picture, Halsoresan – En small film av stor vikt. In 2000, the Electric Banana Band returned to the small screen on an episode of Allsang pa Skansen and Janne released another solo LP, Pa Andra Sidan Manen. This was followed by Nara I Sommarnatten, which peaked at #12 on the Swedish charts in 2002.

In 2005, he released another solo album, Med Betoning Pa Ljus. He made guest appearances on the TV program, BingoLotto, in 2005 and 2006. In 2009, he appeared on the TV shows, Efter Tio and ForKvall, released Stamningsfullt – En vinterresa, and performed in a Christmas concert with Bjorn J:son Lindh at Gustav Vasa Church.

He was back on the small screen in 2010 on episodes of BingoLotto and Nyhetsmorgon.

His boxed set, Music Story, was on the shelves around the same time: It contained every one of his solo albums plus one album of never-before-released material on ten CDs and three live concert DVDs.

ABBA reecordings
Elaine (Bjorn Ulvaeus/Benny Andersson)
Atlantic 3776 ST-A-39221-SP (US 45)

Sources:

Schaffer, Janne (24 September 1945-Present)

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