Stan Hasselgård

Åke "Stan" Hasselgård (born October 4, 1922 in Sundsvall , Sweden , † November 23, 1948 in Decatur , Illinois ) was a Swedish jazz clarinetist.

Life

He grew up in Bollnäs , about 250 km north of Stockholm as the son of a local judge, went to Uppsala to study English and art history , graduating in 1939. There he directed the university dance band, which was also broadcast on the radio. In 1941 he played clarinet in an amateur band (Royal Swingers), following Benny Goodman's style . In the same year they won a prize at the Nalen Dance Palace in Stockholm and Hasselgard subsequently played with Arthur Österwall's orchestra and Simon Brehm's sextet, interrupted by military service in 1943/44.

After completing his studies in Uppsala in 1947, he went to New York City , ostensibly to study art history at Columbia University . On the very first night he went to the Famous Door Club to hear Jack Teagarden and Peanuts Hucko (clarinet). He soon played in jam sessions there, but then decided to play on the west coast in Los Angeles with his trumpeter friend Johnny Windhurst .

While playing with musicians like Barney Kessel and Red Norvo , Max Roach and Wardell Gray , he turned to bebop there. Goodman heard him there and invited him to play as a soloist in his septet in 1948. According to Joachim Ernst Berendt , he was able to take on Goodman. According to other observers, he still had technical difficulties and could e.g. B. do not play very well from sight. The recordings with the Goodman Septet came out in 1980 as “Swedish pastry” after live recordings (recorded radio broadcasts) at “Click” in Philadelphia . Goodman had probably brought it to Collier to get a bebop contrast. He went on tour briefly with Goodman, but after Collier it was by no means certain that he wanted to include him in his planned bebop-oriented big band .

His hopeful career was ended shortly afterwards by a car accident in Illinois. Since he only had a tourist visa, he had to leave the USA every now and then and drove to Mexico . The passengers June Eckstine and (in the back seat) her chauffeur Bob Redcross only got off lightly injured. Hasselgard, on the other hand, was thrown out of the car and died. Presumably there was falling asleep at the wheel. But it was unclear who had driven. He is buried in Bollnäs in the family grave of John Larson.

In 1983 the documentary film The Stan Hasselgard Story by Jonas Sima was made in Sweden (with interviews by Goodman, June Eckstine, Buddy DeFranco , Billy Bauer ). He speculates that June Eckstine wanted to separate from her husband and maybe marry Hasselgard in Las Vegas. June Eckstine was the wife of Billy Eckstine , a singer who z. B. toured the southern states with Dizzy Gillespie in 1945 , and later became a real estate agent.

In 2002 he was posthumously awarded the Swedish Django d'Or .

Discography (incomplete)

Stockholm Blues 1947 (Dragon Records) with Bob Lain, Gösta Törner
6 tracks on Classic Capitol Jazz Sessions ( Mosaic ) with Red Norvo , Barney Kessel - 1947
At Click 1948 (Dragon Records, 1948) with Benny Goodman , Teddy Wilson , Wardell Gray , formerly also released as Swedish Pastry , after the title of one of the tracks
Cottontop (1946–1948, Dragon Records)
The Permanent Hasselgard (Phontastic, 1945-48)

literature

James Collier Benny Goodman , Heyne, pp. 397f (cited as main source Capitol News, February 1948)
Klaus Wolber (Ed.) Thats Jazz , article by Lars Westin Jazz in Sweden , Darmstadt 1988, p. 491 (with photo)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Hasselgård, Stan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hasselgård, Åke
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swedish jazz clarinetist
DATE OF BIRTH	October 4, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH	Sundsvall , Sweden
DATE OF DEATH	November 23, 1948
Place of death	Decatur , Illinois