Jacob Karlzon
Sweden´s Caprice Records has just released Jacob Karlzon’s sixth CD - entitled "Heat". It is an album inspired by human power and passion. Jacob Karlzon’s music rests firmly at the intersections between typical Scandinavian styles with ingredients such as space, melancholy and sensitivity blended with heat and passion – with “a burn,” as Jacob calls it, and explains: “I’ve always been fascinated by people who burn with passion for their work, for their commission or for their sideline projects, and who pursue it tirelessly. The album pays homage to those people who have a passion for what they do. As a musician, I recognise this – you play, because you have to.”
At 38, Jacob Karlzon is already a jazz veteran. His first album came out in 1992. Since then he has recorded five more under his own name, and was featured guest on at least 40 others. He has been awarded with prizes and recognition over the years. In 1997 he won the Jazz in Sweden award with his band from Malmö, the "Blue Pages", and was voted Newcomer of the Year by Swedish Radio’s annual jazz critic poll.
Over the years Jacob´s playing has been compared to such luminaries as Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans and Sweden’s own legendary pianist Jan Johansson. Jacob’s playing style boasts technical brilliance, great rhythmic and harmonic complexity and a perfect feeling for form.
Since 1999, he has been musical director and composer for singer Viktoria Tolstoy’s band, with which he has recorded four albums, the latest being "My Russian Soul". He is also a key member of Swedish trumpet star Peter Asplund’s quartet. In 2007, the band – including Jacob – won both the Swedish Golden Disk award and the Manifest Gala award with "Lochiel’s Warning".
In addition, Jacob has played with many other leading jazz musicians: Billy Cobham, Kenny Wheeler, Bob Berg, Tim Hagans, Jeff Ballard, Norma Winstone, Cæcilie Norby, Nils Landgren, Silje Nergaard, Rigmor Gustafsson, Lina Nyberg, Trine-Lise Væring, Anders Bergcrantz (Jacob featured on Bergcrantz’s Golden Disk winner "About Time" and Putte Wickman, to name a few. In the past few years Jacob has also been pianist in the Tolvan Biog Band, one of Sweden’s top big bands.
The most important forum for Jacob, however, is his own trio. Their first album, "Take Your Time", was released on the Dragon label in 1996, when his band comprised of Mattias Svensson on bass and Peter Danemo on drums. He followed this two years later up with "Going Places" on Prophone, and again another four years later (2002) with "Today" on the same label. In 2003 he released his highly lauded "Big5", by which time his trio had become a quintet, with Peter Asplund on trumpet and Karl-Martin Almqvist on sax.
Jacob released his first solo piano album, this time on Caprice Records, in the autumn of 2008. The third volume in a new series of improvised piano music, "Improvisational three" had Jacob interpret and be inspired by French composer Maurice Ravel. The album was enthusiastically received by the critics.
Caprice Records is now releasing the sixth album with Jacob Karlzon as leader. "Heat" consists mainly of his original material, but also includes numbers by the nu metal outfit KoRn and Maurice Ravel, along with a track from Peter Jackson’s "The Lord of the Rings". The lineup includes Hans Andersson on bass and Jonas Holgersson on drums. On a few tracks his old friends Peter Asplund and Karl-Martin Almqvist have features.
