Jack Noren was a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 drummer and vocalist born in America but best known for his work in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

.

Noren was born in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 to parents of Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 ancestry. He played with Gene Ammons

Gene Ammons

Eugene "Jug" Ammons also known as "The Boss," was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, and the son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons.-Biography:...

 and others in the middle of the 1940s before moving with his family to Sweden in 1946. There he worked as a lumberjack

Lumberjack

A lumberjack is a worker in the logging industry who performs the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era when hand tools were used in harvesting trees principally from virgin forest...

 briefly before joining a Swedish jazz band as a replacement for a sick drummer. This led to time spent touring and/or recording with Thor Jederby (1948-50), Nisse Skoog (1948), Seymour Österwall (1949), Arne Domnérus

Arne Domnérus

Sven Arne Domnérus was a Swedish jazz alto saxophonist and clarinetist, popularly nicknamed Dompan....

 and Rolf Ericson

Rolf Ericson

Rolf Ericson was a Swedish jazz trumpeter. He also played the flugelhorn.- Early career :He moved to New York City in 1947 and in 1949 joined Charlie Barnet's big band and with Woody Herman in 1950...

 (1950-52), and Lars Gullin

Lars Gullin

Lars Gunnar Victor Gullin was a Swedish jazz baritone saxophone player, occasional pianist and composer closest in playing style to United States Cool school players, with a full tone, but also a lightness uncommon with baritone saxophonists and an influence from Swedish folk music, which helps...

 (1951-53). In addition to playing with Swedish musicians and ensembles such as Reinhold Svensson (1949), Gösta Törner

Gösta Törner

Gösta Törner was a Swedish gymnast who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics.He was part of the Swedish team, which was able to win the gold medal in the gymnastics men's team, Swedish system event in 1920....

 (1949), Swede Starband (1950), Expressens Elitorkester (1950, 1952), Leonard Feather

Leonard Feather

Leonard Geoffrey Feather was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.-Biography:...

's Swinging Swedes (1951) Bengt Hallberg

Bengt Hallberg

Bengt Hallberg is one of Sweden's most influential jazz musicians. He studied classical piano from a very early age, and at 13 years old he wrote his first jazz arrangement. In 1949 he recorded with the Swedish alto saxophonist Arne Domnérus for the first time, an association which has continued...

 (1952), Putte Wickman

Putte Wickman

Putte Wickman was one of the world's leading jazz clarinetists.He was born Hans Olof Wickman in Falun, and grew up in Borlänge, Sweden, where his parents hoped he would become a lawyer. He nagged them to allow him to go to high school in Stockholm...

 (1952), Åke Persson

Åke Persson

Åke Persson was a Swedish bebop jazz trombonist.Persson, known as "the Comet", moved from southern Sweden to Stockholm in 1951, where he played in Simon Brehm's quintet...

, and the Scandia All Stars (1953). He also recorded as a vocalist with Jederby (1949), Domnérus/Ericson (1951), and the drummer Anders Burman (1952). Noren's reputation in Sweden was such that he was frequently called upon by visiting American musicians, such as James Moody

James Moody (saxophonist)

James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player. He was best known for his hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation based on "I'm in the Mood for Love"; in performance, he often improvised vocals for the tune.-Biography:James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia...

 (1949, 1951), Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

 (1950), Zoot Sims

Zoot Sims

John Haley "Zoot" Sims was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor and soprano.-Biography:He was born in Inglewood, California, the son of vaudeville performers Kate Haley and John Sims. Growing up in a performing family, Sims learned to play both drums and clarinet at an early age...

 (1950), Stan Getz

Stan Getz

Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...

 (1951), Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...

 (1951), Clifford Brown

Clifford Brown

Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...

 (1953), and George Wallington

George Wallington

George Wallington was a highly regarded American bop pianist and composer....

 (1953).

In 1954 Noren returned to Chicago, playing with Eddie Higgins

Eddie Higgins

Edward Haydn Higgins was a jazz pianist, composer and orchestrator. -Biography:Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Higgins initially studied privately with his mother. He started his professional career in Chicago, Illinois, while studying at the Northwestern University School of Music...

 (1958) and Marty Rubenstein (1959-60). In 1960 he went once more to Sweden, playing with Monica Zetterlund

Monica Zetterlund

Eva Monica Zetterlund was a Swedish singer and actress.-Biography:Zetterlund was a singer particularly noted for her jazz work. She began by learning the classic jazz songs from radio and records, initially not knowing the language and what they sang about in English...

 (1960) and Nisse Sandström; he also recorded with the radio band of Harry Arnold

Harry Arnold

Harry Arnold was a Swedish jazz saxophonist and bandleader.Arnold led his first big band in 1942, playing saxophone initially but eventually ceasing performance work primarily as an arranger...

. After moving back to the United States a few years later, his career dips into obscurity.