Swedish Modern Jazz - Arne Domnerus

Round About Midnight

Swedish Modern Jazz
Arne Domnerus and His Group
Recorded in Sweden
RCA Camden CAL-417
1958

From the back cover: When the jazz world's attention was directed toward Sweden by Hasselgard's talent, one of the first major figures it encountered was Arne Domnerus who has maintained his position throughout the Fifties as one of the top three jazzmen in a country brimming with able jazz musicians. Domnerus began playing alto saxophone when he was a teenager (he was born in Stockholm in 1924) and one of his earliest experiences was in a young amateur band which included Rolf Ericson, a trumpeter, who has played with Woody Herman and Charlie Barnet; Simon Brehm, who became a pioneer Swedish bass star; and pianist Gosta Theselius (who arranged the two full band selections in this collection). By the time he was seventeen, Domnerus was leading a band in a restaurant in a small town in Laland, possibly the most frigid apprenticeship that any potential jazz star has undergone.

For the next ten years he was heard in various Swedish bands playing both alto and clarinet. When he formed his own band in 1951, one of his sidemen was old colleague Ericson; another was baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin who has since become, with Domnerus and pianist Bengt Hallberg, one of the most widely hailed Swedish jazzmen. Despite a rising tide of able young Swedish jazz musicians, Domnerus has held his place as the country's finest alto saxophonist, attested by the fact that for seven successive years he has been the winer on that instrument in the annual poll for the Swedish All Stars.

In these selections, Donmnerus is heard on alto saxophone in all but three instances (Relax, Lady Be Good and Creole Love Call on which he plays the clarinet). In his early days, when the alto was his only instrument, his style was patterned on the smooth, sweeping flow of Benny Carter. Later he fell strongly under the influence of Charlie Parker but now, as these performances show (the first side was made in 1957, the second in 1956), he has evolved an extremely effective fusion of Parker and Carter which is thoroughly in the vein of the general swing-cum-modern feeling of Swedish jazz as a whole.

From Billboard - April 28, 1958: Domnerus displays his talented way with alto sax, augmenting the quartet of Side 1 to a provocative septet on Side 2. "Frenesi," "Blue Moon" and "Gone With The Wind" stand out, with $1.98 tag a lure. Recorded in Sweden, sound is excellent.

Topsy Theme
Relax
Frenesi
For Dave
Lady Be Good
Round About Midnight
Blue Moon
I Got Rhythm
Didn't You Know I Care
Gone With The Wind
Take The "A" Train
Creole Love Call