Samla Mammas Manna was a Swedish progressive rock band, often characterized by its virtuoso musicianship, circus references and silly humour, similar in many ways to the song-writing styles of Frank Zappa. They were one of the founding members of the Rock in Opposition (RIO) movement in the late 1970s. In 1979 they were Fred Frith's backing band on his solo album, Gravity (1980). Musically they bore resemblance to some bands of the Canterbury scene.
Members of the original line-up were Lars Hollmer (keyboards), Hasse Bruniusson (drums), Lars Krantz (bass) and Henrik Öberg (percussion). For Måltid, jazz fusion guitarist Coste Apetrea joined the group.
They were on the fringe of the Swedish political progg movement, although their lyrics are humorous and never explicitly deal with politics. The title of the album Klossa Knapitatet is a play on the Swedish phrase krossa kapitalet, a common slogan in the 1970s which literally means "crush the capital", and also the title of a seminal progg song by Blå Tåget, called Staten och Kapitalet (Den ena handen vet vad den andra gör). Some more serious elements of the prog movement were not amused by this frivolous attitude.
The band underwent several line-up changes, as well as a few name changes, over the years (they released albums as Zamla Mammaz Manna and von Zamla), re-inventing their sound each time. In 1999, the band reformed under their original name for a one-off release entitled Kaka. And in 2002 they reunited again, but this time with the Japanese musician Yoshida Tatsuya on drums, for some acts and for their latest album Dear Mamma. The band played its first and only concerts in the US in August 2003, at the annual Progday festival in North Carolina and a couple of other dates.
In 2005 the band had the honour of opening the first day of the international progressive rock festival that takes place in Moscow, Russia, InProg 2005.
Hollmer died in December 2008.
as Samla Mammas Manna
as Zamla Mammaz Manna
as von Zamla