Monica Zetterlund, RIP

[EKE BBB]

Swedish jazz star Monica Zetterlund feared dead in fire

STOCKHOLM, May 13 (AFP) - Swedish jazz singer Monica Zetterlund, who recorded with the legendary Bill Evans among others, was on Friday believed to have died in a fire that ravaged her Stockholm apartment a day earlier, media reports said.

Zetterlund, 67, is best known for her 1964 recording of 'Waltz for Debbie' with the Bill Evans trio.

Police said the body found in Zetterlund's apartment would be identified Friday, but media reports quoted family members and rescuers as saying that they believed she had perished in the blaze.

Zetterlund, who had difficulty moving around due to debilitating scoliosis, was reportedly smoking in bed when the fire started.

Monica Zetterlund sang with Ib Glindeman's band in Denmark and saxophonist Arne Domnerus' band in Stockholm in 1957, recording with Domnerus beginning in 1958. She began performing abroad in the late '50s. In the United States, Zetterlund's credibility as a jazz singer rests largely upon Waltz for Debbie, a recording made in 1964 with pianist Bill Evans' trio. In addition to several solo records, she's also recorded with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra (It Only Happens Every Time, 1977) and bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (This Is All I Ask, 1998), among others. Her repertoire also incorporates such non-jazz idioms as Swedish folk songs and classical music. Zetterlund's celebrity transcends music; classically beautiful, she is also an actress in her native Sweden.

[EKE BBB]

Swedish jazz star dies in house blaze

Monica Zetterlund, one of Sweden's best-loved singers and cabaret artistes, has died after a fire in her Stockholm apartment on Thursday. The cause of the fire is so far unclear, although police say that they should have a better idea of what happened early next week.

The fire apparently started late on Thursday afternoon and the fire brigade was alerted at 5.45pm. By the time they arrived at the apartment on Birger Jarlsgatan it had already taken hold.

Firemen equipped with breathing apparatus entered the property within half an hour and found a badly-burned female body, which was revealed on Friday afternoon to be that of the 67-year old jazz legend.

Zetterlund suffered from a lack of mobility due to scoliosis and it appears that she alerted the fire services via an emergency alarm. The woman who spoke to the emergency services said that there was smoke in the apartment and she "didn't want to die like this".

"The fire was fast and powerful," said fire inspector Karl Henriksson. "This probably happened from smoking in bed."

Police told Aftonbladet on Friday morning that firemen found Zetterlund's wheelchair by the bed.

The singers family were informed on Thursday night.

Zetterlund began her career singing with a big band in the town of her birth, Hagfors. After recording her first album in the late 50s, she moved to Stockholm where she sang at the famous jazz club, Nalen.

In 1964 Zetterlund recorded an album with the legendary Bill Evans trio but she became better known to the Swedish public after her role in the 1970 TV production Söderkåkar. That led to a dozen more acting roles in between numerous recordings and concerts.

Sources: Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet

[clifford_thornton]

RIP

And what a way to go...

[brownie]

Really sad news. What a stupid death!

[Tony Pusey]

Sad. The last timë I saw that she appeared on swedish tele was pathetic, she was frail and wraithlike. Some idiot fixed a duet with the unspeakable Papa Dee, neither of them could hold a note....

[king ubu]

very sad news

[sidewinder]

What a way to go - sad, indeed . RIP.

[mikeweil]

What an irony - "Don't Smoke In Bed" as sung by Lady Day comes to my mind.

R.I.P.