History

The German name Fasching has nothing to do with jazz, it just mysteriously came up when FSJ, with the help of state and municipal grants, took over the venue, formerly a discotheque, in 1977.

Over the many years since, many live recordings have been made at Fasching for album releases, radio programs, and television broadcasts. The first recordings were already made in 1975 when FSJ rented the premises and ran a jazz club there for five evenings a week when the disco was closed.

Since then, all of the Swedish greats, and a great many foreign ones also, have played at one of the thousands of concert nights. Amongst the foreign world stars, Chet Baker, Carla Bley, Chick Corea, Branford Marsalis, and Wayne Shorter are notable, to name just a handful.

The venue’s long narrow history is more than a century old and goes back to 1906 when the Oscar Theatre next door was inaugurated. At the time, the space was part of the theater which had its café service there.

1938 saw the premiere of the dance hall La Grand Visite. It was then that the premises took on the form that it has largely had since then, with an entrance from Kungsgatan and a balcony that is partially preserved. The inauguration took place to the tune of upbeat jazz music. Therefore the history of the American style of music in Fasching’s premises is thus almost as long as the history of Swedish jazz.

After a short time, La Grand Visite changed its name to Avalon. In connection with a change of ownership, the dance hall was renamed to the exotic-sounding Zanzibar and finally became Fasching, a name that has stuck around since 1967.

Fasching is a survivor that in the number of active years as a jazz club, surpasses both the legendary dance palace Nalen and the Golden Circle of the ABF house of today, even when their years of existence as jazz venues are counted together. It has been a periodically turbulent journey up to today’s financially prosperous music club, where world music, funk, soul, hip-hop, and much more, are also performed by well-known names, both domestic and international.