To Sweden with Love
To Sweden with Love is an album of Swedish folk music by Art Farmer's Quartet featuring guitarist Jim Hall recorded in Stockholm in 1964 and originally released on the Atlantic label.
Background and recording
Farmer's account was that his band was touring in Sweden not long after the Swedish pianist Jan Johansson had had a commercially successful recording of Swedish folk songs; a record company official "comes to me and says, 'How about you guys do an album of Swedish folk songs?' I said, 'We don't know any Swedish folk songs.' He said, 'Okay, I’ll get the music'". The band flicked through the book of songs that the man bought for them and selected some to play at the recording session that had been arranged. One of them, Farmer said, was ""Sw. Folk Song", and so we thought that meant Swedish. We're in the studio, and we had never seen the music before. The guy runs out and says, 'Hey, stop, stop!' I said, 'What's the matter?' He says, 'That's not Swedish, that's Swiss". The band abandoned that song and went on to record genuine Swedish ones.Reception
The Allmusic review states "The band's cool and restrained style suits the music perfectly, turning it into jazz without losing its essence".Track listing
All compositions are traditional except as indicated- "Va Da Du? " – 5:24
- "De Salde Sina Hemman " – 6:13
- "Den Motstravige Brudgummen " – 5:52
- "Och Hor du Unga Dora " – 5:51
- "Kristallen Den Fina " – 3:11
- "Visa Vid Midsommartid " – 6:16