Svend Asmussen

From the mid-'30s onward Svend Asmussen ranked among the leading swing violinists, yet his limited recognition in the United States remains surprising. He took up the violin at age seven and first performed professionally in 1933. Because he remained based in Scandinavia throughout his career, Asmussen stayed largely unfamiliar to American audiences; he cut his initial sides as a leader in 1935 and enjoyed steady popularity across his native region for many decades. During the 1930s he appeared with the Mills Brothers and Fats Waller on their visits to Denmark, but an invitation from Benny Goodman to join his small group in the mid-'50s never materialized owing to strict U.S. immigration regulations. Over the years Asmussen also recorded with John Lewis in 1962, with Duke Ellington during a 1963 violin summit, with Toots Thielemans, with Lionel Hampton in 1978, and on several occasions with Stéphane Grappelli, while maintaining a steady schedule of sessions with his own ensembles. He died in February 2017 at the age of 100.