Swedish Pastry

AMG Review of Swedish Pastry

Scott Yanow
All Music Guide

In 1948 the young Swedish clarinetist Stan Hasselgard so impressed Benny Goodman that BG invited him to join his new septet, a unit that also included tenor-saxophonist Wardell Gray and pianist Teddy Wilson. Because of the recording strike and Hasselgard's death before year's end in a car accident, no commercial recordings were made of the two-clarinet combo, but luckily the short-lived septet was captured live at the Cique in Philadelphia during a two-week period. Although Goodman is the dominant soloist, Hasselgard has some solo space and even gets to interact with BG. This was one of Goodman's few bop-oriented bands and so this LP fills a major gap in jazz history.