Pippi, Karlsson and Michel – composer of Lindgren songs passed away

His melodies adorned many children’s stories by Astrid Lindgren: The jazz composer Georg Riedel died at the age of 90.

His relatives told the Swedish news agency TT on Monday that he fell asleep surrounded by his family on Sunday evening after a long illness.

Riedel was part of the childhood of many people in Scandinavia and beyond. In Sweden he is considered one of the best-known children’s song composers. One of his greatest successes was the song “Idas Sommarvisa”, taken from the stories of Michel and Ida from Lönneberga. In Sweden the song is sung at kindergartens, schools and even at graduation ceremonies.

The musician wrote numerous film scores for Lindgren’s books, including the title music for “Karlsson vom Dach” and “Michel aus Lönneberga” (in the original “Emil i Lönneberga”) as well as songs from the well-known Pippi Longstocking stories.

Riedel was born in 1934 in Karlovy Vary, in what was then Czechoslovakia. About four years later his family moved to Stockholm. Riedel later learned the violin, but then found more pleasure in the double bass and discovered his great passion: jazz.

As a young man, Riedel met the composer Jan Johansson, who invented the iconic music for the song “Här kommer Pippi Långstrump” (“Hey, Pippi Longstocking”). The two jazz musicians collaborated on numerous works. In the mid-1960s they recorded Johansson’s album “Jazz på svenska” (“Jazz in Swedish”) together. According to TT, the album is considered the best-known and best-selling Swedish jazz record. (saw/sda/dpa)