INGMAR NORDSTRÖMS: AMERICAN PATROL

Here is another one of my favourite Ingmar Nordströms recordings. It's a playful and somewhat Glenn Miller-inspired version of "American Patrol". But the trumpet and trombone parts from the Glenn Miller version is played on clarinets, soprano and baritone saxophones instead. It is all rather clever done. The recording is taken from their "Saxparty 7" album from 1980. I don't know how many different saxophones I hear in this recording, but it must have been hard to recreate the sound 100% while playing live. Lineup: Ingmar Nordström (clarinet, saxophones), Steine Lindberg (saxophones), Bo Jansson (saxophones), Bert Månson (keyboards), Janne Landegren (bass) and Sven Schill (drums). When I was a kid I had two main music favourites and none of them may have been the most likely for a young guy listening to music. One of them were Elvis Presley and he certainly needs no introduction whatsoever, but I also was very fond of a Swedish dansband (dance orchestra) called Ingmar Nordströms. Not the coolest thing I know, but I have never really cared about that. My lovely grandparents had albums with them and I heard them at their place and liked it from the very beginning. Like all music I grew up with, I today immediately connect it with something or somebody, and in the case of the orchestra Ingmar Nordströms, I connect their music with my childhood summers, my loving grandparents and their trustworthy Skantic record player. Ingmar Nordströms was an orchestra from Växjö, and they were formed in 1955 and started making records around 1959-60 (the date or their first EP, the incredibly rare "Nu tar vi det lugnt", released by the scarce record label "Oktav", is a bit uncertain -- and that record is by the way one of the holy grails of my collection ... especially since that very record has eluded me for over 25 years now). Their big breakthrough came in the mid 1970s when their popular "Saxparty" albums started to sell very good. Ingmar Nordströms' sound was based on three saxophones and many instrumental numbers -- but also on very good vocals by first Lars "Snaggen" Söderström (1940-2004) and later Sten-Åke "Steine" Lindberg (1935-2003) and Janne Landegren. The true star in the orchestra was the leader and saxophone player Ingmar Nordström (born 1931) who started his career as a military musician. He was the leader of the orchestra up until their breakup in December 1991. The orchestra has reformed temporarily a couple of times since then -- the last time was in 2005 when it was 50 years since the orchestra was formed. So, what is it that I like with this orchestra? Well, first of all, as I mentioned I get positive and maybe a bit sentimental thoughts about my childhood when I hear it, but also because they were a very good orchestra -- very musically gifted and well playing, and the arrangements by Bo Jansson (who played with Ingmar Nordströms 1966-91) were exceptionally well-written. They were also the favourite orchestra among other musicians and they worked together with many of the great Swedish artists during the 1960s and 1970s, for instance Dutch/Swedish singer Cornelis Vreeswijk (1937-87) and popular Swedish artists like Zarah Leander (1907-81), Östen Warnerbring (1934-2006), Kisa Magnusson (1949-2003), Monica Zetterlund (1937-2005), Bengt Sändh (born 1938), Janne Önnerud (born 1948) ... and they even participated in the popular comedy show "Glaset i Örat" together with the greatest stars of comedy in Sweden; Hans Alfredson (born 1931) and Tage Danielsson (1928-85).