Lars Jansson (composer)

Life

Jansson grew up in Örebro, Sweden, and found his early music lessons at the community music school boring. In his early teens, a relative lent him records by Miles Davis, Ben Webster, and Mose Allison. During the 1960s he followed the fashion and developed an interest in the organ, listening to Kjell Öhman with the Telstars, to Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff, and to Hammond organ music. Drummer Sjunne Ferger became an important figure, and together they formed a duo called "Takt & Ton" (Beat & Pitch).

After graduating from upper secondary school in 1970, he took a semester off, planning to study medicine, then entered dental school. After a year and a half he switched to music and was accepted at the Göteborg College of Music, where professional musicians held jam sessions at night. There he played with Ove Johansson, Jan Forslund, Conny Sjökvist, Gilbert Holmström, Gunnar Lindgren, and others, and discovered Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Paul Bley, Bill Evans, Lennie Tristano, Keith Jarrett, and Chick Corea.

He became a member of Björn Alke's quartet with Gunnar Bergsten, played with the Arild Andersen Quartet, and later with Radka Toneff and various Norwegian musicians including Knut Riisnaes and Jan Garbarek. He also performed with Hawk on Flight, Equinox, Red Mitchell, Joakim Milder, Crystal Eagle, and many other Swedish and Danish groups. The Lars Jansson trio has long been one of Sweden's most well-renowned jazz groups. Originally the other members were Anders Jormin and Anders Kjellberg; Lars Danielsson succeeded Jormin as bassist in the mid-1980s, and Christian Spering took over in January 2005. The trio's current members are Thomas Fonnesbaek on bass and Paul Svanberg on drums.