Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Sven Arne Domnérus was born on December 20, 1924 in Stockholm, Sweden and began to play the clarinet at the age of 11.  By the time he left school he had taken up the saxophone and turned professional. In 1949 he performed at the Paris Jazz Festival and with Charlie Parker when he was on tour in Sweden in 1950.

A few years later Arne recorded with Clifford Brown, Art Farmer, and James Moody. From the middle 1950s to the middle 1960s he was a featured soloist in the Swedish Radio Big Band. With Bengt-Arne Wallin, Rolf Ericson, and Åke Persson (the latter two were former members of Duke Ellington’s Orchestra), he participated in the Jazz Workshops organised for the Ruhrfest in Recklinghausen by Hans Gertberg from the Hamburg radio station.

He recorded several times with Quincy Jones in Sweden and is featured throughout The Midnight Sun Never Sets, composed and arranged by Jones and recorded under Jones’ direction by Harry Arnold’s orchestra in 1958. Domnérus’ playing in his early career was typical of the cool, sophisticated, technically accomplished and lyrical style of Swedish modern jazz during the 1950s.

As a leader Domnerus recorded forty~four albums and another 104 as a sideman with Alice Babs, Lars Gullin, Bengt Hallberg, Dizzy Gillespie, Thad Jones, George Russell, Toots Thielemans, Red Rodney, James Moody, Leonard Feather and Monica Zetterlund, among others too numerous to mention.

Saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Arne Domnerus, who  wrote for film and television, and retired from playing due to his declining health, passed away on September 2, 2008 in his hometown.

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