Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alice Babs was born Hildur Alice Nilsson on January 26, 1924 in Kalmar, Sweden. The singer and actress has worked in a wide number of genres including Swedish folklore, Elizabethan songs and opera however, she is best known internationally as a jazz singer.
Alice made her recording debut in 1939 at the age of 15, her yodeling making her initially popular but it was her acting breakthrough in “Swing It, Teacher!” in 1940 and subsequent hit song that brought her more acclaim for her appealing voice and lightly swinging style. She appeared in more than a dozen Swedish language films and despite playing the well- behaved, good-hearted and cheerful girl; the youth culture made Alice its icon causing outrage among members of the older generation. A vicar called the Alice Babs cult the “foot and mouth disease to cultural life”.
In 1958, she was the first artist to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest finishing in 4th place. The same year, she formed “Swe-Danes”, touring the U.S. before dissolving in 1961. Fortune smiled and Alice began a long and productive collaboration with Duke Ellington in 1963, performing among other works his 2nd and 3rd Sacred Concerts. Because her voice had a range of more than three octaves, Duke Ellington said that when she did not sing the parts that he wrote for her, he had to use three different singers.
Ellington once remarked to the visitors of an Alice Babs recording session: “This voice, ladies and gentlemen, embodies all the warmth, joy of life, rhythm and tragedy that, for me, is the innermost secret of jazz”. She passed away from complications of Alzheimer’s disease on February 11, 2014 at age 90 in Stockholm, Sweden.
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