Einar Aaron Swan (March 20, 1903 – August 8, 1940) was an American musician, arranger and composer. Born of Finnish parents who had emigrated to the United States at the turn of the century, he was the second of nine children.

Born in Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, his father was a keen amateur musician and before Einar Swan had entered his teens, he played violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

, clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

, saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 and piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

. At the age of 16 he was already playing in his own dance band, Swanie's Serenaders, and travelling around Massachusetts for three years. Swan's main instrument had been the violin but during this period he switched to alto saxophone

Alto saxophone

The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...

.

Around 1924, the bandleader Sam Lanin

Sam Lanin

Sam Lanin was an American jazz bandleader.Lanin's brothers, Howard and Lester, were also bandleaders, and all of them had sustained, successful careers in music. Lanin was one of ten children born to Russian-Jewish immigrants who emigrated to Philadelphia in the decade of the 1900s...

 invited Swan to join his orchestra at New York's famed Roseland Ballroom

Roseland Ballroom

The Roseland Ballroom is a multi-purpose hall, in a converted ice skating rink, with a colorful ballroom dancing pedigree, in New York City's theatre district, on West 52nd Street....

, and Swan played with leading musicians such as cornettist Red Nichols

Red Nichols

Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols was an American jazz cornettist, composer, and jazz bandleader.Over his long career, Nichols recorded in a wide variety of musical styles, and critic Steve Leggett describes him as "an expert cornet player, a solid improviser, and apparently a workaholic, since he is...

, and members of The Charleston Chasers

The Charleston Chasers

The Charleston Chasers was a name used between 1925 and 1930 for a series of recording groups that did not exist outside of the studios. Nobody ever heard this group perform in front of the public, although each of the players had plenty of bandstand experience. The Charleston Chasers existed only...

 Vic Berton

Vic Berton

Vic Berton , was an American jazz drummer.Berton was born, Victor Cohen, in Chicago. His father was a violinist and began his son on string instruments around age five. He was hired as a percussionist at the Alhambra Theater in Milwaukee in 1903 when he was only seven years old...

 (drums) and Joe Tarto

Joe Tarto

Joe Tarto was an American jazz tubist and bassist.Tarto played trombone from age 12 before settling on tuba as a teenager. He played in an Army band in World War I, where he was wounded, and received his release in 1919...

 (tuba), with whom he soon started composing and arranging material for the orchestra. He also started arranging for the other resident band at the Roseland Ballroom, Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Henderson

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...

's orchestra.

After five months with Lanin, Swan joined Vincent Lopez

Vincent Lopez

Vincent Lopez was an American bandleader and pianist.Vincent Lopez was born of Portuguese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York and was leading his own dance band in New York City by 1917...

's band in 1925 and went on tour to England. The band at that time also featured Mike Mosiello

Mike Mosiello

Mike Mosiello was an Italian-born American trumpet player.- Biography :...

, Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...

 and his old bandmate Joe Tarto. Shortly thereafter, the Bar Harbor Society Orchestra released "Trail of Dreams" credited to Swan and Klage.

Around 1930 Swan stopped working as a musician and concentrated on arrangements, starting to work for radio programmes and bandleaders such as Eddie Cantor

Eddie Cantor

Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...

 collaborator Dave Rubinoff and Raymond Paige.

In 1931 he wrote "When Your Lover Has Gone

When Your Lover Has Gone

"When Your Lover Has Gone" is a 1931 composition by Einar Aaron Swan which, after being featured in the James Cagney film Blonde Crazy that same year, has become a jazz standard. The song was used in the 1991 film, The Rocketeer during the part where Neville Sinclair takes Jenny to The South Seas...

" which was featured in the James Cagney

James Cagney

James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...

 film Blonde Crazy

Blonde Crazy

Blonde Crazy is a 1931 film by Roy Del Ruth, starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Louis Calhern, Ray Milland, and Guy Kibbee famous for Cagney's line, "That dirty, double-crossin' rat!"- Plot :...

(1931). The song became a hit and has since been covered by many other performers such as Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

, Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters was an American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.Her best-known recordings includes, "Dinah", "Birmingham Bertha",...

, Billie Holliday, Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...

 and Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

.

In 1939, he composed "In the Middle of a Dream" with Tommy Dorsey

Tommy Dorsey

Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...

 and Al Stillman

Al Stillman

Al Stillman was an American lyricist.-Biography:Stillman was born in New York City. His name was originally Albert Silverman, but changed it to that of a well-known New York banking family. He was Jewish. He attended New York University. After graduation, he contributed to Franklin P...

, which was recorded by Glenn Miller

Glenn Miller

Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...

 and Red Norvo

Red Norvo

Red Norvo was one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba and later the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments...

.

He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Greenwood Lake, New York

Greenwood Lake, New York

Greenwood Lake is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the village population was 3,411. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New...

 in 1940 at the age of 37.

Major compositions

• "White Ghost Shivers"
• "Trail of Dreams" (1926)
• "When Your Lover Has Gone
  When Your Lover Has Gone
  "When Your Lover Has Gone" is a 1931 composition by Einar Aaron Swan which, after being featured in the James Cagney film Blonde Crazy that same year, has become a jazz standard. The song was used in the 1991 film, The Rocketeer during the part where Neville Sinclair takes Jenny to The South Seas...
  
  " (1931)
• "In the Middle of a Dream
  In the Middle of a Dream
  In The Middle Of A Dream is a 1939 song composed by Tommy Dorsey, Einar Swan, and Al Stillman. The song became a Top Ten hit in 1939 when released by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra....
  
  " (1939)