![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Svend_Asmussen_-Ellen_Bick_Asmussen_1_YSJF_2016-08-05_foto_Itta_Johnson-277x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSvend Asmussen, the Danish violinist who thrived in eight decades of stardom, died yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthree weeks short of his 101st birthday. He was one of the handful of violinists who in the 1930s proved the instrument”\u00a0capable of swing and emotional expression at the highest jazz level. He may well have been the only man still alive in the new century who had played with Fats Waller, Django Reinhardt, St\u00c3\u00a9phane Grappelli, Stuff Smith, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. Asmussen and his wife Ellen were surprise members of the audience at a concert in his honor at last summer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ystad Jazz Festival in Sweden.<\/p>\n
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Our first clip of Asmussen in action is with Alice Babs and guitarist Ulrik Neumann, who were known as the Swe-danes. They thrived in the late 1950s. This piece was a record, radio and television hit in Scandinavia for years.<\/p>\n