Stan Getz Swedish All-Stars

Stan Getz' first visit to Sweden had a great importance. To himself, as the recording of Ack Värmeland du sköna, later renamed Dear Old Stockholm, became a hit record. Subsequently Roost issued all eight sides from Metronome on an LP.

To Swedish saxophonists it probably meant more than the earlier visits by bop stars like Charlie Parker and James Moody.

Lars participated on two sides, the slow rendering of Flamingo and the medium Don't Get Scared, also issued as Don't Be Afraid and Don't Get(z) Scared.

The latter inspired King Pleasure to "vocalese" it. That is putting lyrics to the solos, and King Pleasure recorded his rendering of this disc twice, in 1954 and 1960. It thus became the second Swedish recording to achieve that status; the first was of course the James Moody classic Moody's Mood for Love with Thore Swanerud on the piano.

Flamingo shows two soul mates in quest of absolute beauty. This lyrical rendition from March 1951 was actually recorded more than half a year before Earl Bostic topped the R&B charts in the US with his version. He remained there for 20 weeks. The difference between the two interpretations place them in two distant worlds: Bostic's blowtorch approach is the very opposite of the way these two cool poets exchange phrases.