On December 12th, 1976, the famous Dutch tv host Willem O. Duys introduced a remarkable jazz musician, and personal friend of himself in his famous programme “Voor de vuist weg”. It was Svend Asmussen, a Danish jazz violist. Born as Svend Harald Christian Asmussen in 1916 in Copenhagen, where he grew up, he was a rising star in the late ‘30s. In the second World War, he was arrested by the Nazi’s and transported to Berlin, because they didn’t want him to play “American style jazz”. After the war he continued to play, mostly in Denmark, but he also was a guest at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1976.
He sang and played vibraphone as well, but he was most famous by playing the violin, in a jazzy way, sometimes with similarity to the great Stephane Grapelli. He played with stars like Benny Goodman and the Mills brothers and composed several songs. The one he plays here, “A Fiddler in Rio”, was written by himself. Asmussen passed away in 2017 in Denmark.
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