Jon Larsen

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Jon Larsen
Jon Larsen, 2008
Jon Larsen, 2008
Background information
Born (1959-01-07) 7 January 1959 (age 65)
Bærum, Norway
GenresJazz, gypsy jazz
Occupation(s)Musician, composer, painter, scientific researcher
Instrument(s)Guitar
Years active1976–present
LabelsHot Club
Websitewww.hotclub.no/jonlarsen/index.html

Jon Larsen (born 7 January 1959) is a gypsy jazz guitarist, record producer, painter, and amateur scientific researcher. He is the founder of the group Hot Club de Norvège.[1] In 2007 he received the Buddy Award for his lifelong contribution to jazz.[2]

Career

When he was in his early teens, he learned rock and soul songs on an acoustic steel-string guitar. Through friends, he learned about blues, jazz, flamenco, and classical guitar. After he heard "

Tears" by Django Reinhardt on the radio, he decided that this is how he wanted his guitar to sound. At seventeen he formed a string trio and had his first professional job.[3]

In the 1970s, Larsen worked mainly as a painter.

Hot Club de Norvege in 1980 with guitarists Per Frydenlund and bassist Svein Aarbostad. They had a hit record when they performed with pop singer Lillebjørn Nilsen. Larsen started the label Zonic Entertainment to record musicians who have been influenced by Frank Zappa.[3] He has worked with Chet Baker, Philip Catherine, Stéphane Grappelli, Warne Marsh, Biréli Lagrène, Babik Reinhardt and Jimmy Rosenberg.[3] He has produced more than 450 jazz records for the label he founded, Hot Club Records.[2]

He has led a group of musicians who played with Zappa, including Arthur Barrow, Jimmy Carl Black, Bruce Fowler, Bunk Gardner, Tommy Mars, and Don Preston.[5] They recorded the album Strange News from Mars.[4]

Symphonic Django was released in 2008 by Storm Films, which also produced a documentary about Larsen and guitar virtuoso Jimmy Rosenberg titled Jon & Jimmy. In 2012, the documentary won the Dutch Edison Award.[2]

After eight years of research, his book on cosmic dust in urban environments – In Search of Stardust: Amazing Micro-Meteorites and Their Terrestrial Imposters – was published in 2017.[1]

In 2020, he appeared in

micro-meteorites
from urban environments.

Discography

As leader

  • Guitar Sax Guitar & Bass (Hot Club, 1985)
  • Superstrings (Hot Club, 1992)
  • Jon Larsen & Pascal De Loutchek (Hot Club, 1994)
  • Guitaresque with Pascal De Loutchek, Stian Mevik (Hot Club, 1994)
  • The Swinging Guitar of Jon Larsen (Hot Club, 1995)
  • The Next Step (Hot Club, 2003)
  • Vertavo Live in Concert (Hot Club, 2006)
  • Short Stories from Catalonia (Hot Club, 2006)
  • Strange News from Mars (Zonic, 2007)
  • The Jimmy Carl Black Story (Zonic, 2008)[6]
  • Willie Nickersons Egg (Hot Club, 2009)

With

Hot Club de Norvege

  • String Swing (Herman, 1981)
  • Old, New, Borrowed & Blue (Hot Club, 1982)
  • Gloomy (Hot Club, 1984)
  • Swing de Paris (Hot Club, 1986)
  • La Roue Fleurie (Hot Club, 1992)
  • Vertavo (Hot Club, 1995)
  • Moreno (Hot Club, 1999)
  • Swinging with Vertavo, Angelo & Jimmy (Hot Club, 2001)
  • White Night Stories (Hot Club, 2002)
  • A Stranger in Town (Hot Club, 2003)
  • Django Music (Hot Club, 2008)
  • A Portrait of Jon Larsen (2009)[7]

As sideman

  • Lillebjorn Nilsen
    , Original Nilsen (Studio B, 1982)
  • Lillebjorn Nilsen, Hilsen Nilsen (Grappa, 1985)
  • Ole Paus, Pausposten Extra! (Norsk 1996)
  • Jimmy Rosenberg, Django's Tiger (Hot Club, 2003)
  • Volbeat, 8 PM Tonight Live 2007 SOLD OUT (Mascot, 2008)
  • Volbeat, Heaven Nor Hell (Vertigo, 2010)

Books

  • Maler I Solnedgang (Painter in the Sunset) – 2009
  • Norske Meteoritter – 2014
  • Zappa I Norge – 2015
  • In Search of Stardust – 2016
  • Robert Normann - Tusenkunstneren fra Sundløkka – 2016
  • Hot Club de Norvège 1979-2019 – 2019
  • On the Trail of Stardust – 2019
  • Atlas of Micrometeorites – 2020

Film

  • Symphonic Django – Storm Studio – 2007
  • Jon & Jimmy – Storm Studio – 2010, Winner of the Dutch Edison Award 2010

References

External links

Awards
Preceded by Recipient of the Buddyprisen
2007
Succeeded by