Georg Riedel should be remembered for the bass line to Sweden’s all-time best-selling jazz recording – Jazz in Swedish.
And then Riedel actually wrote “Käre lille snickerbo” and “Ida’s summer song”. Your childhood, your children’s childhood and your great-grandchildren’s childhood – he reached us all.
If I don’t want to start, I can say that he wrote a lot of music for children. If I have to say, I can say that he raised a people.
And then Alfons, of course. Feel free to let yourself be seduced by the apparent simplicity – everyone can sing Alfons Åberg’s signature – but if you want to play it, you should switch between 4/4 time, 7/8 and 11/8 time.
There is something thankless about playing the bass. It is the foundation. It is the frame. It is the railing that all other musicians must hold on to while they make crazy excursions and arts with their instruments. But the bass digs deep down in its dark, rich mire, from there everything else must sprout.
And here somewhere we find the greatness of Georg Riedel, in his company the fellow musicians could make great works. In his base, we all got a little better.
Georg Riedel was 90 years old.
