History of the Facebook Group Page "Friends of Sant Andreu Jazz Band"

The Facebook group Friends of Sant Andreu Jazz Band was created in March 2020 by three passionate fans of the band: Garry Berman from the USA, Bengt-Ove Boström from Sweden, and Bo Sybrandt Hansen from Denmark, who were brought together in their love of the band and their ambition to spread their knowledge about it.

When Bengt-Ove and Garry each found the SAJB, they both started to write articles of different aspects of the band. In one of Bengt-Ove’s early articles, he interviewed SAJB founder and leader Joan Chamorro, and the two young musicians Èlia Bastida and Carla Motis in conjunction to a SAJB concert in Stockholm. In the end of the interview Bengt-Ove asked them where to see the band next time. They strongly advised him to come to Barcelona to see the band at Palau de la Música in November 28, 2018. So, he did.

In Barcelona Bengt-Ove met Bo in person for the first time, together with another SAJB fan from Finland, Pertti Haikonen. However, they had already been in contact since Bo first found Bengt-Ove’s SAJB articles. The fact that three jazz lovers from different Nordic countries separately had found a Spanish youth jazz band, and then found each other in Barcelona, showed a piece of the international fan potential of SAJB.

The next fortunate step was that American Garry Berman found the SAJB upon discovering an Andrea Motis video on YouTube, and, fascinated, began to research and write about the band. His ambition was to spread the word about SAJB across the ocean to the USA. His posts of SAJB videos on his own Facebook page spurred little interest from his friends, much to his frustration. But Garry’s writing was probably just as much acknowledged in Europe as in the USA by--among many others-- Bo Sybrandt and Bengt-Ove Boström. Garry’s ambition later became an important part of the FOSAJB idea – to spread the word about SAJB in English.

Bo and Bengt-Ove each sent complimentary responses to Garry for his first article, and from there, the three began a common discussion about how to best promote the knowledge about Joan Chamorro and the SAJB. They discussed different possibilities to do that: a book? a website? After a thorough on-line discussion they chose to start a Facebook group, not least because it had the potential to involve fans from different parts of the world in active participation. 

Bengt-Ove was part of the strategic discussion and the start-up of the Facebook group, and then he returned to his other tasks. From that point, Garry and Bo became the administrators of the group, which achieved 3,000 members in its first six months alone.

FOSAJB is today a very active Facebook group with almost 9,000 members around the world, who share videos (old and new) of SAJB in performances, as well as those of former members who have since moved on to pursue their professional music careers. Group page members and the administrators have also shared photos, upcoming concert dates, and other information about the band, including welcoming new members as they join and replace departing favorites.

Garry and Bo finally met in person at the 2022 Jazzing Fest, where they enjoyed speaking with other SAJB "super-fans", conducted interviews, and presented Joan Chamorro with a Certificate of Appreciation, signed by many SAJB enthusiasts, for his creation and continued leadership of the project.

To the great sadness of many, Bo Sybrandt Hansen unexpectedly died in November 2022. The group is today administrated by Garry Berman.