The eight performances on this record are the product of a trip made to Sweden to investigate the glowing reports I had heard about that country's modern jazz. Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Roy Eldridge and maby other visitors to Stockholm came home raving about the musiciens presented here. All but one of the Swingin' Swedes, by the way, were voted n° 1 on their respective instruments in the first national poll conducted by the Swedish jazz Magazine ESTRAD. Four of the numbers are played by a seven-piece band. This group gets a bigger and cleaner sound than most groups of its kind, thanks to the musicians' fine ensemble interpretation of four arrangements written by the brilliant Gösta Thelesius, who on the ESTRAD award as top arranger...
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Maybe this eight numbers will give you a pretty clear picture of why more and more people are agreeing that outside the U.S., Sweden is producing the best modern jazz to be heard anywhere. As they would say at Birdland : man, it's a crazy country !
Leonard Feather (from the original Liner Notes)
Leonard Feather
Swingin' Swedes
Tracks
1 The Daring Young Swedes (On The Flying Trapeze) (Theselius) 2:55
2 Moonlight Saving Time (Kahal, Richman) 2:58
3 Swedish Butterfly (Theselius) 2:42
4 Meet Me Tonight in Birdland (Williams) 4:38
5 Rain on The Roof (Ronell) 3:10
6 A Handful of Stars (Lawrence, Shapiro) 3:20
7 The Swedish Music This Side of Heaven (Feather) 3:07
8 September Serenade (Gillespie) 3:14
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Collective Personnel
Rolf Ericson - tp
Aake Persson - tb
Arne Domnerus - as
Putte Wickman - cl
Lars Gullin - bs
Bengt Hallberg - p & hrpchrd
Reinhold Svensson - p
Rolf Berg - g
Simon Brehm - b
Jack Noren - dr
Recorded in Stockholm, Sweden ; June 28 & July 4, 1951