2FACED1 Essentials

I'm always feeding you with eye candy, I really hope you take time to read this, cause I'ma call it 2FACED1 Essentials: Swedish music journalist JAN GRADVALL has written a very interesting piece (in English) "The Origin's Of ROBYN and NENEH CHERRY" over at SVENSKMUSIK.ORG, that I think every 2FACED1 should read. It describes how jazz music spread to Sweden and how it can be traced down to our music climate today. Since we always say Monica Z (yes that's why she was featured in the end of the 2FACED1 video further down) and Neneh Cherry are original 2FACED1s, you understand the connection here!

"Anyone who wants to trace the roots of modern Swedish classics like Neneh Cherry’s “Buffalo stance” and Robyn’s “Be mine” would do well to start there, in the guest performances held at The Golden Circle in the 1960s.

Jazz arrived in Sweden in the 1920s along with the introduction of American ballroom dances like the one-step, two-step and foxtrot. The first generation of Swedish jazz musicians drew their inspiration from radio broadcasts and record imports. During the Second World War, as the flow of records dried up, domestic jazz evolved to replace the loss. The musicians – including one Arne Domnérus –were given their own time, more space and greater self-esteem.

A number of post-war guest performances by American artists also proved to be of vital importance to the coming generation of Swedish musicians.
1946: Don Redman. 1947: Chubby Jackson. 1948: Dizzy Gillespie. 1949: James Moody. 1950: Charlie Parker. 1951: Stan Getz and Lee Konitz.
This was a phenomenon by no means confined to Sweden, but Sweden was one of the countries where interest in avant-garde jazz was the highest and its reception the warmest.

Miles Davis and John Coltrane eventually felt so at home in the city that they both recorded the track “Dear Old Stockholm”.

Many of the jazz musicians who visited Sweden stayed for months, years even. What also attracted them were the things that Sweden was most famous for throughout the second half of the 1900s: blondes and a freer approach to sex. Miles Davis wooed Monica Zetterlund, who revealed in a TV interview that the first thing he ever said to her was, “I want to fuck you”. She turned him down.

When hiphop became popular in Sweden in the 1980s, many of it's leading profiles were the children of American and African musicians who had lived in Sweden since the 1960s. One of the jazz artists to settle permanently in Sweden was Don Cherry, who moved to Sweden in 1967....

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Sweden receives more refugees than most other countries, and the town of Södertälje, which lies to the south of Stockholm, has taken in more Iraqis than the entire USA. Twenty per cent of Stockholmers today have an immigrant background.

And the most popular musical style for all young immigrants in Sweden – be they from Iran or Syria or Chile or Morocco or Somalia – is hiphop: a Swedish brand that has its spiritual, musical and biological roots in the jazz which blossomed in the 1950s and 60s and of which the Cherry family are a prime example."

 Read more here

1. Monica Zetterlund 2. John Coltrain Live in Stockholm 3. Photos from Swedish Jazz Magazine Estrad. See more Jazz photos from Sweden here!

This also tells all of you non-Swede-readers a little bit about the Swedish 2FACED1s, why we are like we are.... How I described it in my interview in Fashion Mag, METAL MAGAZINE:

METAL: .What is the importance of black culture in your creative world?

DECIDA: I’m brought up in Hip Hop culture, which nowadays is a global culture. We was a mixed bunch of people, the folks I would call 2FACED1s today, who wasn’t really shaped for the, at the point, typical Swedish identity. So we gathered around a subculture which included an alienation we could relate to in some way. This meant during the 90s, even if you where a Swedish teenager, to read Marcus Garvey, know what a Zootie was, buy The Four Horsemen album, all in order to be “real”. Later on I understood we all was a part of a global modern urban culture rather than Hip Hop, it was just a vessel to put our creativity in, but I’m still stick with the references.... I used to love H. E. R.... always will!"

METAL: What about your influences, I know you love Ray Petri?

DECIDA: I love the earnest way in how Petri, Lebon and Morgan covered the inner city youth, a way they haven’t been portrayed in before. The mix between sportswear, uniforms, femininity, masculinity, just to find an new way, yeah that’s something I did relate to. And first of all; Neneh Cherry is Swedish and definitely an icon from my childhood, she was a part of the whole Buffalo movement. I often refer to her as one of the original 2FACED1s, a forerunner for the new type of Swede, the global citizen Swede, the all class Swede, the one foot in each world Swede, the brown, yellow, blond, black, all mixed up Swede, the 2FACED1 Swede.

Rodans pre-runway video from last year! Oh I always get into such a good mood while watching it. Can U spot Monica Z?!