Home » Jazz Musicians » Magnus Ostrom

Magnus Ostrom

Magnus Öström was born in Skultuna, Sweden as second son to local painter Arne and Siv Öström. His brother, Tommy, was three years older and influenced Magnus in his early years with his eclectic record collection including Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

At the age of eight Magnus built his first drum kit out of his fathers empty paint cans and only a year later he started his first band together with a kid from across the street, Esbjörn Svensson.

In 1978 his brother took him to a concert of Billy Cobham with John McLaughlin, an experience that turned his musical world upside down and got him into jazz-rock.

In 1985 Magnus moved to Stockholm to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music where he immediately started to play in different bands on Stockholm’s jazz scene. Between 1987 and 1992 he was a constant member of Monica Borrfors’ band, a well-known Swedish jazz vocalist who played mainly jazz standards, and together they toured extensively throughout Sweden and beyond. ”Playing live, especially with a singer is the best school in the world for a young drummer”, Magnus says.

In 1991, Magnus and Esbjörn started the predecessor to e.s.t. and in 1992 Dan Berglund joined in on bass. Together they recorded 12 albums and one concert DVD, toured the world several times over, sold hundreds of thousands of albums, and was titled the ”trio of the decade”. Nowadays e.s.t. is considered to have been the most influential band in jazz in the Noughties and the album Live in Hamburg has been awarded ”Album of the Decade” by no less than The Times (UK).

In 2011, Magnus Öström released his debut album, Thread of Life on which he composed all the tunes. The album received rave reviews and he was rewarded the German ECHO Jazz Award for Best Drummer International. The album was also nominated for the Swedish Grammis. In 2013 he released his second solo album, Searching For Jupiter, which won him the Swedish Manifest Award for the best jazz album of 2013.

Tags

3
Radio & Podcasts

New music from Magnus Ostrom, Igor Willcox, Neal Bowen and Jeremy Green

Read "New music from Magnus Ostrom, Igor Willcox, Neal Bowen and Jeremy Green" reviewed by Len Davis


New music from Canadian guitarist Jeremy Green, Travis Larsen Band, Magnus Ostrom from A Room For Travellers, bassistNeal Bowen, plus young Italian guitarist Camila Sperati and Igor Willcox Quartet-Live at Bankso Jazz Festival.Playlist Jeremy Green “I'm the Cat In Your Sandbox" from I'm The Cat In your Sandbox (Self Produced) 00:00 Travis Larsen Band “The Golden West" from The New Exhibit (Self Produced) 05:43 Camila Sperati “Moonrise" from Moonrise (Self Produced) 11:26 Mika Krstic-Hadrien Feraud-Gary Novak “Freight" from ...

13
Play This!

Magnus Ostrom: Dancing At The Dutchtreat

Read "Magnus Ostrom: Dancing At The Dutchtreat" reviewed by Mike Jacobs


Searching For Jupiter (Act, 2013) was Magnus Ostrom's second outing as a leader and, as evidenced by this track, saw his group really finding their stride. “Dancing At The Dutchtreat" joyously wields all the things that would become the Ostrom band's trademarks: the accessible (yet sometimes dizzying) metric proclivities, the rhythmically-bonded (yet natural-sounding) melodicism, the (ever so slightly) understated virtuosity, the familiar (yet post-) EST sonic ethos and the uncanny group-sync. In addition to guitarist Andreas Hourdakis spreading his wings ...

6
Album Review

Rymden + KORK: Rymden + KORK

Read "Rymden + KORK" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


The Norwegian Radio Orchestra (aka KORK) performs each year at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. By contrast, it has also twice provided backing to the Eurovision Song Contest in Norway. Intriguing then to find them linking up with Bugge Wesseltoft, leader of Rymden and a pianist-composer whose work is both learned and accessible. Both parties create music that hammers at the spine, whilst also tingling it. The name of Wesseltoft's trio means “outer space" or “universe," whereas KORK is an ...

15
Album Review

Rymden: Space Sailors

Read "Space Sailors" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


Outer space and cosmic jazz have long been a match made beyond heaven. The latest act throwing their hat into Saturn's rings is the excellent Norwegian band Rymden, featuring keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft. The trio has clearly boned up on Sun Ra and Lonnie Liston Smith, but rockier influences are present too from the likes of Hawkwind, The Doors, Soft Machine, even Throbbing Gristle, with Marc Moulin's acid jazztronics in there as well. Closer to home, you can hear ...

10
Album Review

Rymden: Reflections And Odysseys

Read "Reflections And Odysseys" reviewed by Tyran Grillo


Reflections & Odysseys gifts to the listening world the debut of pianist Bugge Wesseltoft's new trio—called Rymden—with bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström. The rhythm section, best known as part of e.s.t. (led by the late Esbjörn Svensson), serves Wesseltoft with fresh purpose, at once grateful for what came before and eager to chart maps ahead. It's a dual aesthetic embodied not only in the album's title, but also in its approach to crafting sound as a realm in ...

9
Album Review

Rymden: Reflections And Odysseys

Read "Reflections And Odysseys" reviewed by Roger Farbey


Is it mere coincidence, or fate, that Bugge Wesseltoft and the late Esbjo Svensson were both born in the same quarter of 1964? More to the point, Wesseltoft, having effectively merged his New Conception of Jazz with the two surviving members of Svensson's e.s.t., has now hatched a veritable Scandinavian supergroup. The formation of Rymden is a welcome move since it provides an excellent vehicle for Wesseltoft and the virtuoso rhythm section of bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström. ...

10
Album Review

Magnus Ostrom: Parachute

Read "Parachute" reviewed by Mike Jacobs


Some things take time. Perhaps Magnus Ostrom's third offering Parachute, will signal the end of the need for comparisons to his former iconic enterprise--The Esbjorn Svensson Trio. Or perhaps not. Tall order, that. Even eight years and multiple solo albums after Svensson's tragic death, EST still casts a long shadow for both its surviving members. One that Ostrom may have indeed earned passage from with his group (likewise for EST bassist Dan Berglund with his group, ...

Read more articles
199

Interview

Ex-e.s.t. Drummer Magnus Ostrom Interviewed at All About Jazz...And More!

Ex-e.s.t. Drummer Magnus Ostrom Interviewed at All About Jazz...And More!

Source: All About Jazz

As the drummer with the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (e.s.t.) Magnus Öström became one of the most successful European jazz musicians of the last twenty years. Influenced by a range of musics, his percussion style was a key element of the band's distinctive sound, while the Trio's success over the 15 years of its existence brought it international fame and brought Öström to the attention of a world-wide audience. After Svensson's death in a diving accident in June 2008 both Öström ...

Ilugdin Trio
band / ensemble / orchestra
Arcangelo Pezzella
guitar, electric
AP Project
band / ensemble / orchestra

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Rymden + KORK

Jazzland Recordings
2023

buy

Waves

Neuklang Records
2023

buy

Space Sailors

Jazzland Recordings
2020

buy

Reflections And...

Jazzland Recordings
2019

buy

Parachute

Diesel Music AB
2016

buy

Videos

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.