Jazz Articles

Swedish Jazz 1952-55: The Golden Years

by Jack Bowers
January 1, 2002

It wasn’t long after Jazz was born that America’s classical music made its way across the Atlantic to Europe, where perhaps no other country embraced Jazz so passionately and produced as many masterful advocates as Sweden. In the early ’50s, when bop reigned supreme both here and abroad, Sweden was second only to the U.S. in the number and quality of musicians following the adventurous trail blazed by Bird, Diz, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke and their colleagues, giving rise to ...