Gunnar Almstedt

Swedish bassist Gunnar Almstedt was raised through the swing era and obtained a love for the music that never remaining him. He became a specialist musician in 1946, freelanced for some time, and in 1950 became a member of pianist Charlie Norman’s group, a music group that made several recordings with Roy Eldridge the next yr. In 1953, Almstedt was element of a co-op quintet known as Swinging Swedes, an attractive group that captured on for a while. Within a few years it acquired evolved right into a quartet that Almstedt co-led with clarinetist Ove Lind. For a couple of years, the group proved helpful progressively in Sweden, producing several recordings (nearly all which were reissued on the Dragon Compact disc, Swingin’ the Blues) offering the talented pianist Bengt Hallberg and occasionally vocalist Alice Babs. By 1958, the quartet acquired grown right into a sextet that included trumpeter Jan Allan. By the first ’60s, the Almstedt-Lind group was just playing part-time, as well as the bassist was spending additional time out of music, owning a family pet shop. He’d be so effective in the last mentioned field that he composed a reserve teaching owners how exactly to raise pets. In old age, Gunnar Almstedt transferred to Spain, continuing playing bass part-time, and hosted a jazz radio present.