|
Home
 The Jazz
collections has its roots in The Group for the History of
Swedish Jazz (GSJ), a voluntary group which was formed towards the end of
the 1970s. It consisted of ten individuals with a personal interest in
jazz, amongst them journalists, musicians and record collectors. The
group's aim was to collect and document as much material as possible to do
with Swedish jazz. Priority was understandably given to the early years,
as the pioneers in the field were beginning to grow old and die out. The
GSJ began to record interviews and collect material, which resulted in a
considerable collection of taped interviews, records, private recordings,
books of clippings, photos, sheet music, newspaper articles and so on.
Most of the material came in the form of donations. Generally the people
who donated material were grateful that their old things would be taken
care of and preserved for posterity
The connection with Svenskt visarkiv (SVA) was a natural one since it
was Professor Bengt R. Jonsson, then head of the SVA, who had taken the
initiative to start the Jazz Department, and also because the SVA was an
already established institution with the interest and resources to take
care of the new collection.
In 1981 the activities developed into a State enterprise. The Jazz
Department at the SVA began its existence under the direction of music
researcher Erik Kjellberg. At the same time the GSJ took on a more
independent status. The GSJ became a research group concentrating on the
recording of interviews, while the main responsibility of the Jazz Department:s
was to register and add to the archives the rapidly expanding collection
in order to make its items readily accessible to researchers and other
interested groups and individuals.
The overriding concern of the Jazz Department is to provide as complete
a picture as possible of the development of Swedish jazz. Today (July 2003) the collections contain over
10000 grammophone records (78s,
LPs, EPs, acetates, CDs) and complete private collections
donated to the archive, among them 1950 records from Lieutenant-General
Bo Westin, 1700 records from jazz writer Lennart Stenbeck and around 1000
records from collector Lennart Bylund.
The tape collection consists
of 2000 reels and 4000 cassettes and 70 DAT cassettes with recorded
interviews, radio programs, private recordings, copies of tapes and
acetates etc. which have been lent to the Jazz collections.
Thanks to late producer Gunnar Lindqvist the Jazz Department has been able
to copy a large number of private recordings as well as recorded material
of Lars Gullin not previously issued. 190 tapes are copied on to 7"
reels.
From the estate of pianist Lars Werner the Jazz Department has recieved
a substantial colletion: 200 reels and 300 cassettes containing unique
recordings of many of the Swedish be bop musicians of the 1950s and 60s.
A number of Alice Babs large collection of her own recordings of 78s is
in the archives, copied onto tape. A substential collection of Alice Babs
arrangements, posters and scrapbooks is part of the archive.
From the family of radioproducer Claes Dahlgren the Jazz Department has
recieved for copying around 600 reels of tape. The original tapes are now
stored at the National Archive of Recorded Sound and Moving Images (ALB).
This collection contains Dahlgren's popular weekly radio programs which
were transmitted from the USA during the 1950s, '60s and '70s. This
collection also contains recorded interviews with American jazz musicians.
From the estate of Benny Aaslund the archive achieved a collection of
more than 1500 open reel tapes, cassettes, VHS-cassettes etc.
From the estate of pianist Rolf Hedén, Hedemora the archive acquired
more than 4500 tapes, cassettes containing radioprogramms from mid 1950's
to mid 1990's.
The Jazz Department of the SVA contains 750 VHS cassettes
of jazz, mostly recorded from television but also private recordings and
some films. 1995 the collection increased with 225 VHS cassettes
containing rawmaterial from the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company:s
(UR) TV-documentary Swedish Jazzhistory (Svensk Jazzhistoria). A donation
of 70 VHS cassettes was given by Rolf & Birgit Sandin.
The library holds 1900 Swedish and foreign magazines and 2100 books, lectures,
research reports, press cuttings and so on, in original or as copies.
Amongst these is to be found Alice Babs large collection of press cuttings
which cover most of her career.
Amongst the magazines Estrad and Orkester Journalen
have a special position as banks of facts, the latter beeing the world's
oldest jazz magazine still in existence (its first edition appeared in
1933 as an advertising vehicle for The Nordic Music Publishing Company and
its products).
The photo collection contains
10000 registered photos.
The collection of arrangements,
the body of which has been created out of large donations by Charles
Redland, Arne Hülphers, Arthur Österwall, Karl Nilheim ("Kalle
Nilo"), Miff Görling, Monica Zetterlund among others, recieved a
unique donation in 1988 when band leader Thore Ehrling donated all of his
arrangements to the SVA. This donation contained more than 1 000 original
manuscripts signed by Thore Ehrling himself, Carl-Henrik Norin, Harry
Arnold, Gösta Theselius and others amongst Sweden's foremost arrangers.
In 2002 tha archive got two important bigger collections of handwritten
scores: one from the record company Metronome and one from the estate of
pianist/arranger Julius Jacobsen.
The Jazz Department has also participated in the editing of a record
anthology, The Swedish
History of Jazz, which appears on the record label Caprice with
booklets for each record (five double albums have been released). This
series is produced by The Swedish National Concert Institute (Svenska Rikskonserter). The producers Jan Bruér and Bengt Nyquist have had chief
responsibility for the editing. The series describes the development of
Swedish jazz from around 1910 through 1947.
The Jazz Department has at its disposal office premises, archives,
studios, library and reading rooms within SVA. There is also an
auditorium, where occasional jazz meetings with Swedish jazz musicians are
arranged. There are piano, bass and drums in the auditorium.
The Jazz Department is open from Monday through Friday between 10 am
and 3 pm. The main activities carried out in the Jazz Department are the
maintenance of collections and archival work, but recording and copying
also go on there. Many of the Jazz Department's interviews are done on the
premises. Much of the work consists of being able to answer questions from
the mass media, authors and general public interested in the field.
|
