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Anders Jormin

Anders Jormin was born 1957 in Jönköping, Sweden. After intense studies, he left Musikhögskolan in Göteborg with diplomas in double-bass and improvisation / pedagogy in 1979.

Today as a doublebass-player and composer, AJ is a frequent and highly respected performer on the international concert scene. As a musician in great demand, AJ has recorded and toured with many of the legends in jazz. Among others : Gilberto Gil, Lee Konitz, Elvin Jones, Joe Henderson, Don Cherry, Charles Lloyd, Mike Mainieri, Joe Lovano, and Jack deJohnette, as well as Kenny Wheeler, Albert Mangelsdorff, Tomasz Stanko, Dino Saluzzi, John Surman, John Taylor, Mark Feldman , Paul Motian, Joey Baron, Tom Rainey , Jon Balke, Vertavo string quartet , Ann-Sofi von Otter, Norma Winstone and Marilyn Crispell. For many years, AJ was also a front figure in one of Scandinavias foremost ensembles, "Entra".

AJ today performs regularly all over Europe, USA/Canada, and Japan, but has also for shorter periods performed and studied ethnic music in Cuba and Mocambique. At the present AJ is a member of Bobo Stenson trio, and the unique swedish group "dr Dingo". AJ is also constantly creating new projects of his own. AJ is an "ECM recording artist"

As a composer, AJ has a rich production for various ensembles in contemporary jazz/chamber music. Among his commissioned works are:

for I.S.C.M - "Jord"

for SAMI -"Post scriptum"

for Gothenburg int. Jazz Festival -"Eight pieces"

for Swedish Radio (SR) - "Ytterligare åtta", "Silvae"

for Stockholm - 98 - "Utkast"

for Musik i Västernorrland - "Rävjakten" (for woodwind quintet/childrens choir)

for H.M. the queen of Norway - "Skogar-hav"

for Mats Bergström - "Three angels"

for the cathedral of Västerås,Sweden - "Bortom"

for Sundsvall Chamber Orchestra - "Scores of winterlight"

for Umeå Sinfonietta - "Whitman intonations"

In Sweden, AJ has been given several prizes and awards, such as the rare "Jan Johanssson - award". His solobass recording "Alone" won "Record of the year - all categories worldwide" in 1991. He is three times winner of the swedish "Grammy" - award for best jazz recording.

On a part - time basis, AJ has for almost 25 years been a teacher of doublebass and improvisation at Musikhögskolan in Göteborg, where he has participated in building up a strong jazz department. AJ is also a lecturer much in demand at clinics, master-classes and workshops all over Europe. 1995 AJ was given a professorship at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. 2002 he was given a professorship also at Musikhögskolan in Göteborg, Sweden. AJ is, as the first contemporary improviser ever, a member of the swedish Royal Academy of music and he was 2003 given the title "doctor honoris causa", together with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Georg Sokolov, at Sibelius-academy,Finland.

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14
Album Review

Bobo Stenson Trio: Sphere

Read "Sphere" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Bobo Stenson first rose to recognition as a sideman and in-house pianist in the late '60s with saxophonist Sonny Rollins, vibraphonist Gary Burton, and saxophonist Charles Lloyd, among many others. But it was in 1971, alongside drummer Jon Christensen, that he established his subtle, humorous shadings and folkish, earthy style with Underwear (ECM). Yet Stenson's intimate articulations are, for the most part, about as familiar to the less-than-fixated jazz world at large as one of those comets or asteroids blaze ...

2
Album Review

Anders Jormin: Poems for Orchestra

Read "Poems for Orchestra" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Suggestivo e inusuale lavoro del contrabbassista svedese Anders Jormin, uno dei grandi interpreti scandinavi dello strumento, questo Poems for Orchestra mette in musica una serie di poesie dedicate alla natura, avvalendosi della Bohusiän Big Band e, come solisti, della cantante svedese Lena Willemark—ben nota per i suoi lavori in equilibrio tra folk, improvvisazione e contemporanea, editi da ECM—e della giapponese Karin Nakagawa, specialista di koto. I testi poetici utilizzati sono parte di poeti scandinavi, parte scritti da Jormin ...

7
Album Review

Anders Jormin: Poems For Orchestra

Read "Poems For Orchestra" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


Swedish bassist and composer Anders Jormin has been recording since the mid 1980s, playing with greats such as his countryman Bobo Stenson, American saxophonist Charles Lloyd and Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko among others. Since his debut as a leader for ECM in 2001, he has kept close to the label. But the concept on Poems for Orchestra marches to somewhat of a different tune and that it is being released on the Scandinavian label Losen Records seems appropriate, considering the ...

22
Extended Analysis

Anders Jormin / Lena Willemark / Karin Nakagawa: Trees of Light

Read "Anders Jormin / Lena Willemark / Karin Nakagawa: Trees of Light" reviewed by John Kelman


It's not often that a new recording appears on ECM from Anders Jormin--a bassist who is, perhaps, best-known for his work in fellow Swede Bobo Stenson's ongoing trio, last heard on 2012's superb Indicum (ECM), and for his tenure, alongside Stenson, in Charles Lloyd's career-defining 1990s quartets, collected recently in the Old & New Masters Edition box Quartets (ECM, 2013). But if the bassist's own projects for the label are far from frequent--his last release, 2012's Ad Lucem, and before ...

2
Album Review

Anders Jormin: Between Always And Never

Read "Between Always And Never" reviewed by Chris Mosey


Anders Jormin leads a remarkably busy life. Bassist with pianist Bobo Stenson's Trio, he has also played with the likes of saxophonists Lee Konitz, Joe Henderson, Charles Lloyd and Joe Lovano, as well as drummers Elvin Jones and Jack DeJohnette. He records under his own name, composes works for symphony orchestras, studies ethnic music in Cuba and Mozambique, teaches double bass and improvisation at Gothenburg University and writes poems in Latin. It's amazing that he finds time ...

76
Album Review

Anders Jormin: Ad Lucem

Read "Ad Lucem" reviewed by John Kelman


It may be frustrating when an artist releases albums infrequently, but when quality trumps quantity all is forgiven. Swedish bassist Anders Jormin's discography as a leader remains small--just eleven records as a leader since his auspicious 1988 Dragon debut, Eight Pieces. Still, with a high profile résumé sporting fellow ECM label mates such as pianist Bobo Stenson, saxophonist Charles Lloyd, trumpeters Tomasz Stańko and Don Cherry, and violinist Mark Feldman, Jormin's recorded output may be relatively diminutive, but it's consistently ...

282
Album Review

Anders Jormin / Severi Pyysalo: Aviaja

Read "Aviaja" reviewed by John Kelman


Swedish bassist Anders Jormin is familiar to anyone who followed the re-emergence of saxophonist Charles Lloyd and trumpeter Tomasz Stanko on the ECM label in the early 1990s--not to mention his longstanding relationship with pianist Bobo Stenson. But since the mid-1980s, Jormin has slowly built his own solid body of work as a leader. Prior to two ECM releases--Xeiyi (2001) and In Winds, In Light (2004), Jormin's work for the Swedish Dragon label included Jord (1995) and ...

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"The sound he gets, the fills he executes, his soloing ability in and out of chord changes is amazing. For me he is one of the world's greatest bassists."

(Dave Liebman, Hunters and Gatherers)

"Jormin is a treasure - everything a bassist should be"

(Down beat, USA)

"Formidable Jormin's mastery came through in his solointroductions. He is one of the finest living jazzbassists, whose instrumental command and intonation are so seamless, he makes it look easier than it is. He is a virtuoso, but deep, natural musicality prevents him from grandstanding".

(Los Angeles Times)

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Nicolas Ojeda
bass, acoustic
Jonathan Andersen
bass, acoustic
Kahoma Trio
band / ensemble / orchestra

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Sphere

ECM Records
2023

buy

Poems for Orchestra

Losen Records
2019

buy

Between Always And...

Swedish Society
2013

buy

Ad Lucem

ECM Records
2012

buy

Aviaja

Footprint Records
2006

buy

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