LARS DANIELSSON SOLO

Nordic jazz legend Lars Danielsson returns to Paliesius Manor—this time with a solo program you will not hear anywhere else! In the Pasaga Concert Hall, the jazz star will play both the double bass and the cello. This is a rare opportunity to meet the Swedish musician and experience extraordinary music.

Danish double bass legend Nils-Henning Ǿrsted Pedersen left the world not only a spectacular jazz legacy—he also inspired a modern-day jazz legend. When a young Swedish musician named Lars Danielsson once heard Pedersen in concert, he was so deeply moved that he decided to take up jazz and the double bass. Until then, Danielsson, born in Gothenburg in 1958, had been studying classical cello at his hometown conservatory. Fortunately, he chose not to abandon his cello studies, weaving them instead into his current craft. The musician not only incorporates the cello into his repertoire consistently, but he also stands out for a double bass style that is slightly more melodic, gentle, and lyrical than that of his peers.

It was precisely because of these remarkable qualities that he soon became highly sought after internationally as an accompanying musician. As early as the 1980s, he worked with Swedish and European luminaries such as Lars Jansson, Hans Ulrik, Carsten Dahl, Nils Landgren, Christopher Dell, Johannes Enders, and Trilok Gurtu (he was a member of this musician’s band for quite some time), as well as American stage stars including saxophonists Rick Margitza and Charles Lloyd, the Brecker Brothers, drummers Terri Lyne Carrington, Jack DeJohnette, and Billy Hart, and guitarists John Scofield, Mike Stern, and John Abercrombie. Yet, the role of an accompanist was never quite enough for Danielsson. He has always possessed the instinct of a composer, and today he is one of the relatively few double bassists to have emerged as a significant bandleader.

For nearly 20 years, Danielsson found his greatest musical expression through his own all-star quartet, featuring American saxophonist David Liebman (who previously played with Miles Davis), Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson, and Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen. Both Stenson and Christensen are pioneers of the “Nordic sound”—a blend of jazz and the Scandinavian ethos—and are longtime recording artists for the ECM label. The quartet’s four albums released under Danielsson’s name, alongside six more guest albums, solidified his reputation as one of Europe’s finest jazz musicians, earning not only enthusiastic reviews but numerous awards. This collective also laid the foundation for his work as a composer, arranger, and producer, which has since grown immensely. In these three realms, Danielsson has collaborated with the Danish Radio Concert Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Bigband, the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, and the JazzBaltica Ensemble, as well as drummer Jon Johanssen and singers Viktoria Tolstoy and Cæcilie Norby—the latter is his wife, with whom he frequently performs.

Over recent years, Lars Danielsson has broadened his musical horizons and the stylistic range of his projects. His debut on the ACT label, the 2004 album “Libera Me”, proved him a master of orchestral jazz. Released two years later, “Mélange Bleu” surprised listeners with a modern, meticulously crafted electronic framework complementing his expansive, sonically bold, and rich compositions. In 2007, with Polish pianist Leszek Możdżer on the album “Pasodoble”, he created a breathtaking manifesto of sound that fused jazz and classical music to critical acclaim. On the 2009 album “Tarantella”, continuing his collaboration with Możdżer, these musical ideas were transposed into the context of a chamber jazz ensemble. All these albums (as well as subsequent ones) reached gold or platinum status, while the orchestral project “Blauklang”, which he initiated and co-conducted with Vince Mendoza, received a Grammy nomination.

In a sense, Danielsson found the essence of his varied forms of expression in 2012, along with a fitting name for this quintessence: “Liberetto”. His newly coined word “describes a certain mood in which I want to develop my music,” he says. “The threads from my earlier albums are continued—both linguistically and as a reference to classical music.” On the album “Liberetto”, featuring Armenian pianist Tigran, e.s.t. drummer Magnus Öström, British guitarist John Parricelli, and trumpeter Arve Henriksen, a new balance was struck between jazz, classical, pop, and European folk music, opening a fresh dimension for compositional processes and dramaturgy in jazz. The project was so successful that it continues to this day: following “Liberetto II”, recorded in close duet collaboration with Tigran, and “Liberetto III” with the aforementioned quartet, a new, distinct nuance emerged. At the Leopolis Jazz Festival, Martinique pianist Grégory Privat and Danielsson presented a symphonic version of this concept and its dedicated compositions. A recording of this project will also be released in the near future.

Naturally, Danielsson finds time for other fascinating projects as well: he takes part in the unique concert series “Jazz at the Berlin Philharmonic” and works in a duet with Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, one of the most lyrical trumpeters of all time. Their collaborative album “Summerwind” proves once more what makes Danielsson so extraordinary: his technical mastery, his vivid and inexhaustible musical imagination, and his almost telepathic understanding of his fellow musicians.