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Alice Babs meets Erwin Lehn and his Südfunk-Tanzorchester

Year recorded

1952-1955

Year published

2019

Composer

Trad.

Artists

Alice Babs

Südfunk-Unterhaltungsorchester

Erwin Lehn

Tracks

Trad.: Baby-Wiegenlied

Trad.: Bluer than Blue

Trad.: Lullaby of Broadway

Trad.: No Words Blues

Trad.: Opus in Scat

Trad.: Rainbow Street

Trad.: Regutunga Skyar

Trad.: Shanghai

Trad.: St. James Infirmary

Trad.: Tack-Tack-Tack

Trad.: Un petit air un peu faux – Adagio

Trad.: Zing a Little Zong

Alice Babs, the Swedish singer and actress, was mostly seen by the industry as the hit-warbling “Swedishgirl”. But she continued to make excursions into the realms of jazz and swing. This was also thanks to Erwin Lehn, who invited her, beginning in 1952, to sing before the microphones of his Südfunk Dance Orchestra (Südfunk-Tanzorchester). You can hear what a good choice this was on the recordings that were made on various occasions between 1952 and 1955 in Stuttgart. You hear Alice Babs’s roots in the Europe an vocal culture, but the sheer presence of her interpretations is impressive. Each of the songs radiates the smile of her enthusiasm, which also makes Erwin Lehn’s orchestra shine acoustically. Alone for this reason these finds from the SWR archives are jewels of European swing history.

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