Celebrated Norwegian jazz musician and bass player Arild Andersen is the 2005 Artist in Residence at the Molde International Jazz Festival. Four different concerts will showcase the different qualities of this eminent musician, composer and band leader.

Arild Andersen will be performing four different concerts as part of the Artist in Residence. Starting on Monday July 18, Andersen will perform the opening concert “Electra” at the Moldejazz, followed by a solo concert at “Forum” on Tuesday July 19. On Thursday July 21, Arild Andersen will be performing a trio at the “Kulturhuset” venue with Hungarian guitarist Ferenc Snetberger and long time collaborator, percussionist Paolo Vinaccia. The final concert will be with a reunion with legendary Brazilian percussionist  Nana Vasconcelos as well as a new collaboration with Turkish musician Kudsi Erguner, a virtuoso on the Turkish flute ney.

Arild Andersen had his official debut at the Molde International Jazz Festival in 1968 with the Jan Garbarek Trio. Andersen (60) has since been performing at over 20 jazzfestivals in Molde. In 1981 Arild Andersen were asked to put together his “dream band”. The band with guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist John Taylor and drummer Alphonse Muzon resulted in the legendary record “A Molde Concert”. The 1995 concert resulted in the ECM record “Hyperboeran”.

After his breakthrough in the late 1960’s, Arild Andersen helped launch Norwegian Jazz to an international audience through the collaboration with other Norwegian jazz greats such as Karin Krog, Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal and Jon Christensen.

During the 1970’s Arild Andersen led bands that introduced young Norwegian jazzmusicians such as Pål Thowsen and Jon Balke, and worked closely with the late singer Radka Toneff. During the 1980’s Andersen founded the band Masqualero with John Christensen. He later worked extensively with Norwegian folk musician Kirsten Braathen Berg, mixing traditional Norwegian music with rhythmic and improvised music.

Over the last couple of years, Arild Andersen has been working in the trio format with such greats as German trumpeter Markus Stockhausen, Greek pianist Vassilis Tsabroupolos and Danish pianist Carsten Dahl.

http://www.arildandersen.com/