Arne Domnerus has passed

[Christiern]

Arne Domnerus, one of Sweden's most influential jazz musicians, has died.

He was 83.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden:

The alto saxophonist and orchestra leader died Tuesday morning after a long period of illness, his son, Leif Domnerus, told The Associated Press.

He said Domnerus had heart surgery last year, after which he suffered pneumonia and a brain hemorrhage.

Born outside Stockholm in 1924, Domnerus started his first professional orchestra in the 1940's. He played with jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, Clark Terry and Quincy Jones and often performed at the Nalen jazz club in Stockholm, where he led his own orchestra for many years.

Among his most famous recordings was "Jazz at the Pawnshop," which has sold more than half a million copies.

Johannes Cornell, a jazz critic at Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, called Domnerus a heavyweight on the nation's jazz scene.

"He administered the jazz tradition and dug deeper into it and he only got better and better. I heard him in later years and it sounded incredible," Cornell said.

Domnerus regularly toured the U.S., Japan and Europe and became an ambassador for Swedish jazz. He often performed in churches, where he found a new forum for his genre. Domnerus is survived by his wife, Britta and his sons Leif and Tony.

Leif Domnerus said a private funeral was planned for family members. He said a memorial concert would be held at Nalen on Dec. 20, during the annual award ceremony for a jazz scholarship founded by Domnerus.

Edited September 3, 2008 by Christiern

[Big Beat Steve]

Ouch!

That's really, really bad news to European jazz fans. He was a real giant not only of Swedish jazz. Another legend gone and a link to the glory days of Swedish jazz that's been cut.

I spun one of his Dragon CDs with his earlier works last night, unaware of his passing. More to follow tonight (and a good moment to reread his recollections of how he got started that have been included in the booklet to one of the Caprice CD anthology boxes).

Admins, please move this thread to the Artists section. It warrants being seen much more widely!

[king ubu]

Sad news. I haven't really started exploring much of Scandinavian jazz, but sometime back there was a thread about the 3CD edition of "Jazz at the Pawnshop" (or it was just recommended in another thread... I think mikeweil was involved...) anyway, I got that one back then and it's marvellous indeed! I'll have to check out more of his music, eventually.

[mikeweil]

R.I.P.

Those Pawnshop live recordings show that he must have been a very warm personality.

[jostber]

Arne Domnerus was one of Sweden's most important jazz artists ever, and a wonderful player through the years. R.I.P.

He also did sessions with Charlie Parker in the 50's:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uU...L500_AA240_.jpg

[Swinging Swede]

He also recorded with Clifford Brown in 1953.

[sidewinder]

Arne Domnerus was one of Sweden's most important jazz artists ever, and a wonderful player through the years. R.I.P.

He also did sessions with Charlie Parker in the 50's:

Yep, I like that 'Bird In Sweden' material. This is sad news and certainly another big loss to Swedish jazz.

[bichos]

r.i.p. dompan

always one of my favourites.

keep boppin´

marcel

[BruceH]

Recorded with Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown...wow!

[Peter Friedman]

I have long enjoyed the playing of Arne Domnerus. he has recorded numerous times over the course of his lengthy career. I have 11 CDs with Domerus as leader, and many many more that he appears on as a sideman.

He has been a major part of the Swedish jazz for more than 55 years.

[David Gitin]

One memorable performance was Arne Domnerus at Monterey Jazz Festival (decades ago) with Bengt Hallberg. Outstanding!

[Durium]

ARNE DOMNÉRUS

The creator of Jazz At The Pawnshop has passed away.

Arne Domnérus (1924-2008)

Keep swinging

Durium

[Daniel A]

Thanks for your link, Durium. That clip of "When Lights Are Low" is wonderful!

[bichos]

here you can see the Young arne domnerus when Lars gullin was in his band (i was searching for this for so Long):

http://www.filmarkivet.se/sv/Film/?movieid=279&returnurl=http://www.filmarkivet.se/sv/Sok/?q%3dgullin

and here you can see an even more younger domnerus playing in lulle ellbojs big band.

http://www.filmarkivet.se/sv/Film/?movieid=752&returnurl=http://www.filmarkivet.se/sv/Sok/?q%3dstockholm

great Clips. even better as the "soundies" from the same time. high Quality Music!!

enjoy!

Keep boppin´

marcel

[Big Beat Steve]

Very nice. Thanks for linking this!