Jazz at Konserthuset

This spring’s Blue House Jazz series concludes with familiar faces for the Konserthuset audience: Dee Dee Bridgewater joins the Blue House Jazz Orchestra, led by Peter Asplund and Magnus Lindgren!

It has been 20 years since the Konserthuset’s own big band was founded, and with this spring’s final concert, Asplund and Lindgren bid farewell as its artistic leaders, passing the baton to the next generation. This grand finale is a celebration at the highest level – not least since it features Dee Dee Bridgewater, the legendary vocalist and jazz diva who never fails to captivate her audience.

Dee Dee Bridgewater’s life and career are marked by both strong integrity and artistic curiosity. A three-time Grammy Award winner, she has performed at Konserthuset three times before, most recently in 2016. This, however, will be her first appearance with the Blue House Jazz Orchestra.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra draws attention to world peace 80 years after the end of World War II, and highlights the importance of Glenn Miller’s music in this context. The big band welcomes 21 additional musicians at this concert, thus replicating the lineup of the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band. We hear a series of original arrangements, some of which have not been played since the war.

Through his music and the unique sound of the orchestra, Glenn Miller created his own genre of swing in the jazz world. In just four years, he launched 23 number one hits – more than Elvis and The Beatles. Glenn Miller became the biggest music icon in the US. He volunteered to join the military and brought his music to Europe through his military orchestra. This would ultimately cost him his life: he disappeared in an airplane over the English Channel. But his orchestra still performs his music all over the world, more than 80 years after his passing.

Glenn Miller Orchestra Scandinavia formed in 2010 with a license from Glenn Miller Productions, Inc., New York, USA. Based in Stockholm, the orchestra is led by trombone player Jan Slottenäs and regularly tours Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Regarded by many internationally as the leading Glenn Miller orchestra, the ensemble includes several young musicians from Sweden’s jazz elite.

The trailblazing guitarist returns to Konserthuset. Pat Metheny has had a remarkably long career by now, yet his curiosity has never waned. Few, if any, can match his versatility. A true musical explorer, he has engaged in numerous collaborations over the years – often beyond the realm of jazz. Metheny has performed with the likes of Ornette Coleman and Herbie Hancock but has also worked with Steve Reich and David Bowie, to name just a few.

At Konserthuset Stockholm, he presents his latest album, Dream Box (2023) – a collection of solo pieces recorded over several years while on tour, based on musical ideas he stumbled upon on a long-forgotten hard drive.

Metheny has a habit of quickly recording ideas as they emerge. “As I listened through these sessions, I gradually began to sift through the material and realised that a coherent whole was taking shape. I discovered that, without meaning to, I had arrived at a destination I hadn’t planned – and I’m looking forward to sharing what was hidden there.”

Pat Metheny made his debut at Konserthuset Stockholm in 1989 and last visited us in 2022.

Experience the phenomenal Stockholm Swing All Stars in concert, with hits composed by stars such as George Gershwin and Duke Ellington, as well as less familiar greats, like Ann Ronell and Bert Kaempfert.

We also get to enjoy lyrical, beautiful and swinging jazz masterpieces by the same composers. But whether or not these masterpieces have become hits, this concert features the coolest and best jazz tunes in brand new arrangements created by the band, for the band.

Hear “Summertime” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, all filtered through Stockholm Swing All Stars’ dazzling improvisations, playfulness and brilliant arrangements infused with history, modernity, and maybe even a hint of the future.

It will be swinging, beautiful and grotesque, and dig deep in the mire of the blues; it will sometimes be sweet and cute – and sometimes dark and dreary. But most of all, it will be fun!

The band members are among Sweden’s leading and most popular jazz musicians and for over 20 years – since they were promising young up-and-comers – they have joined forces as Stockholm Swing All Stars to dig deep into the foundations of jazz. Each one is a fantastic musician in their own right, but together, they form something even greater: a unique band that is simultaneously preserving and renewing jazz. Their latest album is “Play the Jazz Hits”, which came out in 2024.