To Sweden with Love

Farmer's account was that his band was touring in Sweden not long after the Swedish pianist Jan Johansson had had a commercially successful recording of Swedish folk songs; a record company official "comes to me and says, 'How about you guys do an album of Swedish folk songs?' I said, 'We don't know any Swedish folk songs.' [...] He said, 'Okay, I’ll get the music'".^[2]: 65 The band flicked through the book of songs that the man bought for them and selected some to play at the recording session that had been arranged. One of them, Farmer said, was ""Sw. Folk Song", and so we thought that meant Swedish. [...] We're in the studio, and we had never seen the music before. The guy runs out and says, 'Hey, stop, stop!' I said, 'What's the matter?' He says, 'That's not Swedish, that's Swiss".^[2]: 66 The band abandoned that song and went on to record genuine Swedish ones.

More information Review scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[5]

Close

The Allmusic review states "The band's cool and restrained style suits the music perfectly, turning it into jazz without losing its essence".^[3]

All compositions are traditional except as indicated

1. "Va Da Du? (Was It You?)" – 5:24
2. "De Salde Sina Hemman (They Sold Their Homestead)" – 6:13
3. "Den Motstravige Brudgummen (The Reluctant Groom)" – 5:52
4. "Och Hor du Unga Dora (And Listen Young Dora)" – 5:51
5. "Kristallen Den Fina (The Fine Crystal)" – 3:11
6. "Visa Vid Midsommartid (Midsummer Song)" (Rune Lindstrøm, Hakan Norlen) – 6:16

• Art Farmer – flugelhorn
• Jim Hall – guitar
• Steve Swallow – bass
• Pete LaRoca – drums