Dear Old Stockholm

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Dear Old Stockholm is a jazz title that Stan Getz wrote in 1951 based on a traditional Swedish folk song . The title became the jazz standard .

Genesis of the song

Getz stayed in Sweden for a long time in 1951, where he was "celebrated like a star". He wanted to say thank you for the hospitality with a Swedish title in his concerts and therefore asked for a popular Swedish melody. Kenneth Fagerlund suggested Ack Värmeland, du sköna . He modified the song, renamed it Dear Old Stockholm , and performed it with his accompanying trio around the only 18-year-old Bengt Hallberg ; Metronome Records released the song. It was the first time that a Swedish folk song was jazzed up; the recording was successful not only in Sweden but also in the United States.

Ack Värmeland, you sköna

The song Ack Värmeland, du sköna (also Värmlandssången or Värmlandsvisan ) has been known since 1822 and is based on a traditional folk melody; Anders Fryxell wrote the original text for the Singspiel Wermlandsflickan (1822); In 1846 Fredrik August Dahlgren wrote another text when he introduced the song in his comedy Värmlänningarna . The song is a slow waltz ; the melody rises up and down in sustained quarter notes and seems “very archaic” and “quite stiff”. The theme of this Värmland anthem was probably taken up by Bedřich Smetana and used for his description of the Moldau ( My Fatherland ) . The melody first used in the 17th century Italian Renaissance song La Mantovana is found similarly in a Spanish manner and in the Zionist hymn HaTikwa , which has been Israel's national anthem since 1948; it can therefore be labeled as “European songs”.

Musical characteristics

Getz largely reworked the folk song: “The main part was lengthened by four bars by a riff , the bridge , on the other hand, remained four bars short as in the original, in the final part a small swan song developed from the same riff, and the whole thing finally had the irregular and right tricky form of 12 + 12 + 4 + 15 bars. "

Further reception

In the arrangement by Stan Getz described above, Dear Old Stockholm entered the jazz scene. Miles Davis took over the song in 1952 in a recording with JJ Johnson ( Young Man with a Horn ) and took up the piece again in 1956 (with John Coltrane ) ( 'Round About Midnight ) . Chet Baker played the song together with Getz and kept it in the repertoire for a long time. John Coltrane also used the piece as a starting point for his improvisations during one of the sessions on Impressions . Paul Chambers played the song in 1957 with Kenny Burrell and Hank Jones ; there are also recordings by Jutta Hipp , Phil Woods , Quincy Jones (with Patti Bown , 1961), Kenny Barron and by John Lewis with guitarist Sacha Distel and saxophonist Barney Wilen ,

Monica Zetterlund , Bengt Arne Wallin , Jan Johansson and other Swedish musicians reverted to the original melody for their versions, which was performed outside of jazz by Esther & Abi Ofarim and made internationally known. In 2010 a quartet led by Ekkehard Jost also performed the Swedish folk song.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry at jazzstandards.com
  2. ↑ a b c Hans-Jürgen Schaal Jazz Standards. P. 114 f.
  3. ^ Stan Getz discography
  4. ^ Lars Westin Jazz in Sweden ( Memento from November 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Cf. Jürgen Ostmann National Music of a Cosmopolitan: Bedřich Smetana: From the cycle »My Fatherland« (PDF; 1.2 MB)
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Molkow Sounds of the Homeland (SWR) (PDF; 411 kB), February 23, 2012
  7. ↑ In musicological literature, this arrangement is not consistently rated as an independent composition. In the jazz scene, however, Getz was considered a composer in the 1950s and was also named on the records; on other records, however, as Schaal reports, the Swedish title has become a “Swedish composer Ack Värmeland ”.
  8. ↑ cf. Joe Lovano (Dear Old Stockholm) ( Memento from February 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (jazz.com)
  9. ↑ German translation
  10. ↑ uni-giessen.de ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )