Once Upon A Time in Stockholm

A unique document of the halcyon days of modern jazz in the Swedish capital. Featuring Monica Zetterlund and her contemporaries including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and Bill Evans.

Monica Zetterlund is Sweden's best known jazz singer and a national institution. She dared to sing the American standards in her native language and brought to the recording studio zest and an alluring intimacy; rare qualities on full display throughout the five early years covered by this edition. During those times she worked with the crème de la crème of Swedish jazz; pianist Jan Johansson, the arranger George Riedl on acoustic bass and the velvet-toned baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin.

Monica's rise ran parallel with the ascendancy of modern jazz in Europe. Stockholm was a destination where American musicians were met with hospitality, appreciation and respect without any of the racism and bigotry the black artists sometimes encountered in the United States. Among them, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and Bill Evans; jazz giants either at or approaching their creative peak.

Davis and Coltrane were together in Stockholm in the wake of the monumental Kind of Blue. Coltrane would return the following year with a quintet expanded by the inclusion of the multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy whose long, sensual flute solo on the raga-like 'My Favorite Things' is typical of the thrilling new dimension he brought to the group.

Once Upon A Time in Stockholm is a unique document of the halcyon days of modern jazz in the Swedish capital. The protagonists are cultural icons; the wonders of their art are with us today and will continue to resonate.