Alice Babs meets Erwin Lehn and his Südfunk-Tanzorchester
1952-1955
2019
Trad.
Alice Babs
Südfunk-Unterhaltungsorchester
Erwin Lehn
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.