Swedish Sensation

Vocal fans would really value a disc that sampled Monica Zetterlund's entire career, especially if it included material from her 1964 collaboration with pianist Bill Evans on Waltz for Debby, but this El set includes recordings from only a single year, 1958, her first as a leader. Zetterlund had previously worked in the orchestra of fellow Swede Arne Domnérus, and debuted on LP with 1958's Swedish Sensation, from which this set takes its name and roughly half of its contents. (The other half consists of her EP work from the same year, including two tracks recorded with Donald Byrd and Benny Bailey, "Spring Is Here" and "Easy Living.") This early in her career, Zetterlund was usually channeling the work of her influences, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, but she could hardly have chosen better models and she begins to show glimpses of her own choices early on in the proceedings. All but one of the songs are American standards that Zetterlund shines on, and her group — including Ake Persson, Gunnar Svensson, and Domnérus himself — provides good backing.