“ACHIN’ HEARTED BLUES,” 1999

When I saw that “jazze1947” had uncovered another video by the Swedish Jazz Kings from 1999 (at the Akersunds Jazz Festival) featuring Bent Persson, cornet; Tom Baker, trombone; Tomas Ornberg, soprano sax; Martin Litton, piano; Bo Juhlin, tuba; Olle Nyman, banjo, I was excited. But then I saw the title ACHIN’ HEARTED BLUES and thought the video might be five minutes of slow-drag melancholy. 

Obviously I need to take a remedial semester in early Sidney Bechet and Clarence Williams, because both the song and the performance fly.  Not in tempo but in intensity.  This is particularly evident in Litton’s solo — two choruses of Hines-fireworks, in the second choruses by Bent and Tom, and the way Tomas flies around in the closing ensemble.  If ever a song seemed to have the wrong title, this is it:

In my country, we say, “Wow!”

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