| Georg Riedel | |
| Landscape: | yes |
| Background: | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
| Birth Date: | 1934 1, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia |
| Death Place: | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Genre: | Jazz, Classical music, music for children |
| Occupation: | Musician, composer |
| Instrument: | Double bass |
Georg Riedel (8 January 1934 – 25 February 2024) was a Czechoslovak-born Swedish double bass player and composer.[1] Riedel migrated to Sweden at the age of four[1] and attended school in Stockholm, including the Adolf Fredrik's Music School.[2]
The best known recording featuring Riedel is probably Jan Johansson's Jazz på svenska (Jazz in Swedish), a minimalist-jazz compilation of folk songs recorded in 1962–1963, though Riedel recorded with other leading Swedish musicians[1] including trumpeter Jan Allan and Arne Domnérus.
Riedel's profile as a composer derives almost exclusively from writing music for Astrid Lindgren movies, including the main theme from the Emil i Lönneberga ("Emil of Maple Hills") movies.[1] He also composed the music for several films by Arne Mattsson in the 1960s as well as for film adaptions of novels by Stig Dagerman.
Riedel also played on Jazz at the Pawnshop in 1977.
Riedel was born in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia, to a Sudeten German father and a Czech Jewish mother. In 1938, when Riedel was four years old, the family fled to Sweden following the German annexation of the Sudetenland.[3] [4]
Riedel died in Stockholm on 25 February 2024, at the age of 90.[5]