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Svend Asmussen
Svend Asmussen (28 February 1916 – 7 February 2017) was a Danish jazz violinist, known as "The Fiddling Viking". A Swing-style virtuoso, he played and recorded with many other notable jazz musicians, including Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Stephane Grappelli. He played publicly until 2010 when he had a blood clot, his career having spanned eight decades. Life and career Asmussen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, was raised in a musical family, and started taking violin lessons at the age of seven. Aged 16, he first heard recordings by jazz violinist Joe Venuti and began to emulate his style. He started working professionally as a violinist, vibraphonist, and singer at age 17, leaving his formal training behind for good. Early in his career he worked in Denmark and on cruise ships, with artists such as Josephine Baker and Fats Waller. Asmussen later was greatly influenced by Stuff Smith, whom he met in Denmark. Asmussen played with Valdemar Eiberg and Kjeld Bonfils durin ...
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Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the Øresund strait. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road. Originally a Vikings, Viking fishing village established in the 10th century in the vicinity of what is now Gammel Strand, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century. During the 16th century, the city served as the ''de facto'' capital of the Kalmar Union and the seat of the Union's monarchy, which governed most of the modern-day Nordic countries, Nordic region as part of a Danish confederation with Sweden and Norway. The city flourished as the cultural and economic centre of Scandinavia during the Renaissance. By the 17th century, it had become a regional centre of power, serving as the heart of the Danish government and Military history ...
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Stuff Smith
Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith (August 14, 1909 – September 25, 1967), better known as Stuff Smith, was an American jazz violinist. He is well known for the song " If You're a Viper" (the original title was "You'se a Viper"). Smith was, along with Stéphane Grappelli, Michel Warlop, Svend Asmussen, Ray Nance and Joe Venuti, one of jazz music's preeminent violinists of the swing era. Biography He was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, United States in 1909, and studied violin with his father. Smith cited Louis Armstrong as his primary influence and inspiration to play jazz, and like Armstrong, was a vocalist as well as instrumentalist. In the 1920s, he played in Texas as a member of Alphonse Trent's band. After moving to New York City he performed regularly with his sextet at the Onyx Club starting in 1935, and also with Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and later, Sun Ra. After being signed to Vocalion Records in 1936, he had a hit with "I'se a Muggin a ...
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Violin Summit
The Summit format is used in jazz to bring together performers on a particular musical instrument. Though these recordings often feature other musicians (notably a rhythm section), the main instrument is focused upon in a celebratory way. The saxophone quartet has since become a somewhat common format, and to a lesser extent the bass clarinet quartet. Additionally, all-percussion ensembles and a cappella groups are common and focus upon a single instrument in a similar way. German MPS Records produced several albums of this type, including ''New Violin Summit'', ''Alto Summit'', ''Vibes Summit'', ''The Gypsy Jazz Violin Summit'', ''The String Summit'', ''Trombone Summit'' and ''You Better Fly Away'' by Clarinet Summit. Clarinet Saxophones ;Saxophone Summit 2008: Joshua Redman, Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, George Garzone ;Soprano Summit(World Jazz WJCD-5/13) 1974: Kenny Davern, Dick Hyman, Bucky Pizzarelli, Bob Wilber, Marty Grosz, George Duvivier, Bobby Rosengard ...
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Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz and jazz fusion violinist and composer. He is considered a pioneer of jazz-rock, particularly for his use of the electric violin starting in the 1970s. He rose to prominence for his collaborations with popular musical artists Frank Zappa and Elton John. In addition to his solo work, he has performed with symphony orchestras in France, the United States, Canada, and Japan. Early life Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, and his mother taught piano. At sixteen, he was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris, Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, graduating two years later with the institution's highest honor, Premier Prix (first prize). He was hired by the Orchestre Lamoureux in which he played for three years. While still a member of the orchestra in Paris, Ponty picked up a side job playing clarinet (which his father had taught him) for a coll ...
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Ray Nance
Ray Willis Nance (December 10, 1913 – January 28, 1976) was an American jazz trumpeter, violinist and singer. He is best remembered for his long association with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. Early years Nance was born in Chicago on December 10, 1913. He started playing the violin at the age of 9 and was so proficient by the time he was 14 that he enrolled at the Chicago College of Music. In high school, he taught himself trumpet because “I wanted to hear myself on a louder instrument in way I couldn't do with a violin in an orchestra.” He was the leader of his own band in Chicago from 1932 to 1937. An ad in a June 1933 prom book at the Edgewater Beach Hotel for the Staples Cafe, 6344 N. Broadway, Chicago shows "Ray Nance and His Ebony Aces." Then, he worked with Earl Hines from 1937 to 1939; and from 1939 to 1940 he worked with Horace Henderson. Ellington tenure Ellington hired Nance to replace trumpeter Cootie Williams, who had joined Benny Goodman, in 1940 ...
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Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli (; 26 January 1908 – 1 December 1997) was a French jazz violinist. He is best known as a founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands. He has been called "the grandfather of jazz violinists" and continued playing concerts around the world well into his eighties. For the first three decades of his career, he was billed using a gallicised spelling of his last name, ''Grappelly'', reverting to the Italian spelling ''Grappelli'' in 1969. The latter is used when referring to the violinist, including reissues of his early work. Biography Early years Grappelli was born at Hôpital Lariboisière in Paris, France. His father, Italian Ernesto Grappelli, was born in Alatri, Lazio, while his French mother, Anna Emilie Hanoque, was from St-Omer. Ernesto was a scholar who taught Italian, sold translations, and wrote articles for local journals. Grappelli's mother died when he was ...
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Duke Ellington's Jazz Violin Session
''Duke Ellington's Jazz Violin Session'' is an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington recorded in 1963 but not released on the Atlantic label until 1976.A Duke Ellington Panorama
accessed May 10, 2010
The album features members of Ellington's orchestra performing with Stephane Grappelli and Svend Asmussen. Trumpeter Ray Nance, who was also featured in the Ellington Orchestra as a singer and a violinist, plays violin throughout the session alongside Grappelli. Asmussen, whose primary instrument was violin, plays

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Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Quincy Jones. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996. Hampton was a member of the executive committee of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group. In 1984, he signed a letter protesting German arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Biography Early life Lionel Hampton was born in 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky, and was raised by his mother. Shortly after he was born, he and his mother moved to her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. He spent his early childhood in Kenosha, Wisconsin, before he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1916. As a youth, Hampton was a member of the Bud Billiken Club, an alternative to the Boy Scouts of Ameri ...
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Music Hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Variety show, variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Britain between bold and scandalous music hall entertainment and subsequent, more respectable variety entertainment differ. Music hall involved a mixture of popular songs, comedy, speciality acts, and variety entertainment. The term is derived from a type of theatre or venue in which such entertainment took place. In North America vaudeville was in some ways analogous to British music hall, featuring rousing songs and comic acts. Originating in saloon bars within pubs during the 1830s, music hall entertainment became increasingly popular with audiences. So much so, that during the 1850s some public houses were demolished, and specialised music hall theatres developed in their place. These t ...
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Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also refer to the Scandinavian Peninsula (which excludes Denmark but includes a part of northern Finland). In English usage, Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym for Nordic countries. Iceland and the Faroe Islands are sometimes included in Scandinavia for their Ethnolinguistics, ethnolinguistic relations with Sweden, Norway and Denmark. While Finland differs from other Nordic countries in this respect, some authors call it Scandinavian due to its economic and cultural similarities. The geography of the region is varied, from the Norwegian fjords in the west and Scandinavian mountains covering parts of Norway and Sweden, to the low and flat areas of Denmark in the south, as well as archipelagos and lakes in the east. Most of the population ...
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Ulrik Neumann
Ulrik Neumann (23 October 1918 – 28 June 1994) was a Danish film actor and musician. He appeared in 19 films between 1940 and 1966. Ulrik Neumann was an accomplished guitar player. From 1959 to 1961 he was a member of the trio Swe-Danes with the Swedish singer Alice Babs and the Danish jazz violinist Svend Asmussen. He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and died in Malmö, Sweden. He was the younger brother of actress Gerda Neumann as well as the father of guitarist Mikael Neumann and singer Ulla Neumann. Filmography * ''Der var engang'' (1966) * '' Melodin som kom bort'' (1965) * '' Ballade på Bullerborg'' (1959) * ''Musik ombord ''Musik ombord'' is a 1958 Swedish film directed by Sven Lindberg and starring Alice Babs. The film's sets were designed by the art director Nils Nilsson. Cast * Alice Babs *Sven Lindberg Sven Lindberg (20 November 1918 – 25 Decem ...'' (1958) * '' Seksdagesløbet'' (1958) * '' Kispus'' (1956) * '' Ny og sørgelig vise'' (195 ...
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Alice Babs
Hildur Alice Nilson (26 January 1924 – 11 February 2014), known by her stage name Alice Babs, was a Swedish singer. She worked in a wide number of genres – Swedish folklore, Elizabethan songs and opera. While she was best known internationally as a jazz singer, Babs also competed as Sweden's first annual competition entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958. In 1972 she was named Sweden's Hovsångare, Royal Court Singer, the first non-opera singer as such. Career After making her breakthrough in the film ''Swing it, magistern!'' ('Swing It, Teacher!', 1940), she appeared in more than a dozen Swedish-language films. Despite being cast as the well-behaved, good-hearted, cheerful girl, the youth culture forming with Babs as its icon caused outrage among members of the older generation. A vicar called the Babs cult the "foot and mouth disease of cultural life". A long and productive period of collaboration with Duke Ellington began in 1963. Among other works, Babs participa ...
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