Biography
Greatly shaped by Benny Goodman’s style, the ill-fated Swedish clarinetist Stan Hasselgård concentrated on swing during the late 1930s and 1940s before turning toward bebop in his final years. He ranked among the earliest players to bring bop phrasing to the clarinet. Born Åke Hasselgård in Sundsvall, Sweden, he spent his childhood in the modest community of Bollnäs. On his sixteenth birthday he received his first clarinet. While enrolled at the University of Uppsala at age nineteen, he became a member of the small ensemble known as the Royal Swingers. In 1945 he entered bassist Arthur Österwall’s quintet and simultaneously helped assemble a fresh Royal Swingers roster. By the middle of the decade he had earned wide recognition throughout Swedish jazz circles, and between 1946 and 1947 he appeared prominently on sessions by both the Swingers and bassist Simon Brehm’s sextet.
In July 1947 Hasselgård had settled in New York, where he soon sat in with Jack Teagarden at the Famous Door on storied 52nd Street. The following year he realized a career highlight by performing and recording with his idol Benny Goodman inside a two-clarinet septet that also featured Mary Lou Williams and Wardell Gray. That same year he recruited American sidemen for several of his own small-group dates and headlined the Three Deuces on 52nd Street, fronting a quintet anchored by drummer Max Roach. On the October 1948 opening night he was promoted as “the Bebop King of Sweden,” with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie among those present. His final studio work took place on November 18, 1948; four days later, on November 22, he died at age twenty-six in an automobile accident in Decatur, Illinois.
In July 1947 Hasselgård had settled in New York, where he soon sat in with Jack Teagarden at the Famous Door on storied 52nd Street. The following year he realized a career highlight by performing and recording with his idol Benny Goodman inside a two-clarinet septet that also featured Mary Lou Williams and Wardell Gray. That same year he recruited American sidemen for several of his own small-group dates and headlined the Three Deuces on 52nd Street, fronting a quintet anchored by drummer Max Roach. On the October 1948 opening night he was promoted as “the Bebop King of Sweden,” with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie among those present. His final studio work took place on November 18, 1948; four days later, on November 22, he died at age twenty-six in an automobile accident in Decatur, Illinois.
Albums
