Janne Schaffer

As one of Sweden’s leading guitarists and session players, Janne Schaffer has backed nearly every major act in his homeland while also contributing to projects by several internationally renowned groups. A résumé listing his credits would include ABBA, Bob Marley, and Jeff Porcaro. In the 1970s he also built a thriving solo career that yielded chart-topping releases and some overseas acclaim, although momentum faded after the following decade. To younger Swedish audiences he is chiefly recognized as the guitar-playing zebra in Electric Banana Band, the platinum-certified group created for a children’s television program.

Born in Stockholm shortly after the war, Schaffer performed in several 1960s pop outfits—Noisemen, Chicks, and Ted and the Caracas—none of which achieved wide recognition. Already an accomplished guitarist, he left school to join a dance orchestra, only to abandon the endless touring and return to Stockholm, where he formed the Sleepstones. A handful of their singles entered the charts, yet when lasting success remained elusive he moved on to Grapes of Wrath. Around 1970 his session career began in earnest, and his growing reputation soon secured the most prestigious studio work in Sweden. Throughout the decade he recorded with domestic figures such as Ted Gärdestad, Cornelis Wresvijk, and Barbro Hörberg, alongside international artists including Bob Marley, ABBA, and Johnny Nash.

Schaffer issued his self-titled solo debut in 1973; the album reached number one and featured keyboard contributions from Björn J:son Lindh, a frequent collaborator throughout the 1970s and 1980s. His second release, Janne Schaffer’s Andra, also performed strongly, paving the way for the worldwide release of the third album, Katharsis, which drew favorable international notices. While the first two records centered on instrumental guitar rock, Katharsis leaned toward fusion. In the late 1970s Schaffer appeared at several prominent jazz festivals, excerpts of which appear on Montreux Summit, Vol. 1 and Montreux Summit, Vol. 2.

Earmeal, issued in 1979, was recorded with drummer Jeff Porcaro and his brothers from Toto, yet the title originated with a Swedish band Schaffer had assembled earlier alongside Lindh. A few years before that project he had composed the music for the popular Swedish children’s program Trazan och Banarne. When fresh episodes went into production, the Electric Banana Band was assembled, drawing on a sizable portion of Sweden’s studio elite under Schaffer’s leadership. The series became enormously popular, and Schaffer’s involvement with the band soon eclipsed his solo output, which had slowed considerably by the 1980s. His subsequent work with Lindh grew increasingly meditative, shedding most remaining traces of jazz and rock while also losing a substantial share of listeners.

In 1984 Schaffer launched his own label, Earmeal, which thereafter issued his solo albums. Although these later efforts never matched the caliber of his earlier recordings, demand for his skills as a guitarist and, later, as a producer remained steady. Across the 1980s and 1990s he continued to appear on numerous releases, while also scoring films and collaborating with classical composers. In 1997 he planned a rock concert with the original Earmeal lineup, yet the promoters opted instead for a reunion of Electric Banana Band. The ensuing tour proved highly successful, and a re-recording of earlier material supplemented by new tracks achieved platinum certification.