Nearly 24 years ago, recording engineer Gert Palmcrantz, acting on behalf of the Proprius label of Sweden, ran a few microphone cables from the stage of the "Stampen" in Stockholm back into the kitchen of the club, plugged them into his recorder and started taping. (Referring to several sources, we find that these recordings were actually made over two nights in December 1976, although it is unclear whether the recording dates were 12/6 & 7 or 12/14 & 15: different sources list different dates.) Mr. Palmcrantz's efforts resulted in the near-legendary-among-audiophiles live recording, Jazz at the Pawnshop, a 2-LP set (PROP 7778/ 9), released in 1977.

The recording features a quintet headed by Arne Domnerus on alto sax and clarinet, backed up by Bengt Hallberg on piano, Lars Erstrand on vibes, Georg Riedel on bass (acoustic), and Egil Johansen on drums. It features mainstream, "cocktail lounge" jazz. Not household names among jazz fans on this side of the Atlantic, these, but competent practitioners of their craft, one quickly learns. Since Proprius presents us with a live performance here, we can assume that Mr. Palmcrantz spent only a little time adjusting his microphones (a few Neuman U47s, and one each KM 56.s and M49), twiddled with the gain and balance on his Nagra IV recorder (a 2-track quarter-inch machine running at 15 IPS) before the band started playing, and then just let the tape run. Winston Ma of First Impression Music noted there that the club was so cramped for space, Palmcrantz had to rest the recorder in his lap during the sessions. He had no alternative. These session tapes were then used to make a recording master tape, employing Dolby A 361 x 2 NR through a Studer mixer.

Tracks:
1. Limehouse Blues
2. I'm Confessin'
3. High Life
4. Jeep's Blues
5. Lady Be Good
6. Take Five
7. Everything Happens To Me
8. Barbados
9. Stuffy