One could perhaps say that jazz came to Sweden on Wednesday the 25th
October, 1933. That was the day that Louis Armstrong gave his first
concert in Stockholm, before a large, youthful audience that was
completely captivated by his playing.
The interest in Louis Armstrong turned out to be far greater that anyone
had reckoned on.
The organisers had only planned one concert, but the demand was
overwhelming and in next to no time the tickets had all been sold. Three
more concerts were hastily arranged - and still the audience kept coming.
On the Saturday evening something highly unusual occurred: Sweden’s only
radio channel rescheduled its programmes so as to be able to transmit part
of Louis Armstrong’s concert live. In a way this was an acknowledgement of
the greatness of Louis Armstrong’s music. Moreover, it was not an isolated
event, an exotic and irreverent manifestation in Swedish musical life. Nor
was it a one-off, commercial concession to the increasingly barbaric taste
of the young. Louis Armstrong signalled the beginning of a new age, the
start of the first musical revolt among young people. Even the newspaper
critics could not stem the tide with their supercilious and prejudiced
comments - “music from a madhouse” and “ape language from the jungle” and
other similarly exaggerated epithets.
Louis Armstrong and his bandsmen getting
acquainted with their Swedish colleagues at a Stockholm ballroom in 1933.
Louis Armstrong: You Rascal You (Stockholm 1933)
from 'Louis Armstrong
European Tour 1933-1934' [Musicmouth LA 1900]
For many people, Armstrong’s concerts in Sweden (six in all) were a
decisive turning point. The audiences included many musicians who would be
responsible for creating the Swedish jazz of the 1930s and 1940s. Many of
them later testified fervently and convincingly, to the positive shock they
experienced - to the intensity of Armstrong’s trumpet playing, and his
powerful presence on the concert platform, so completely different from
anything that had ever been seen or heard in Sweden before.
Some of them, such as trumpeters Gösta Törner (1912-82) and Thore Ehrling
(1912-94), were in their twenties and had already begun to establish a
name for themselves as jazz musicians. Gösta Törner was to become the
first jazz soloist of stature, while Thore Ehrling became the most
successful big band leader in Sweden during the swing era. Others, still
very young, were not to emerge until much later. One of these was
trumpeter Rolf Ericson (1922-97) who at the age of eleven was taken to the
concert by his uncle.
Of course there had been jazz in Sweden before this, but Armstrong’s visit
marked the climax of a long period of development, like a birth at the end
of a long pregnancy. And it was not just the music itself; the event also
broke with traditional patterns. Previously Sweden’s cultural influences
had mainly come from Germany and Central Europe. From now onwards the
younger generation would look to the West for inspiration.
