Jon Larsen
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Jon Larsen (b. Oslo, Norway, 1959- ) is an autodidact guitarist, composer, surrealistic painter, and record producer with heavy influence on the revival of Gypsy jazz worldwide. Founder of the Django Festival (1980 - ), Hot Club de Norvège (1979 - ) and Hot Club Records (1982 - ), in 2007 he was awarded the Buddy Award for his lifelong contribution to jazz.
He started out as a painter and guitar player, inspired by Django Reinhardt and Frank Zappa. Much later he changed to composition, and created numerous crossover projects with jazz/classical ensembles, like Gypsy jazz groups together with classical string quartets, chamber orchestras and full symphony orchestras.
He has produced more than 350 jazz records, including CDs with Chet Baker, Stephane Grappelli, Warne Marsh, Philip Catherine, and most of the prominent Gypsy jazz musicians, like Jimmy Rosenberg, Angelo Debarre, Biréli Lagrène, and Stochelo Rosenberg.
In recent years he has been leading the "Strange News From Mars" project, featuring various Frank Zappa alumni: Tommy Mars, Bruce Fowler, Arthur Barrow, Jimmy Carl Black, etc.
Documentation: Storm Film produced a film documentary about Jon Larsen and the guitar virtuoso Jimmy Rosenberg, to be presented in 2008.
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[edit] Paintings
Jon Larsen started out as a painter, inspired by surrealism, especially Salvador Dalí. He made his debut solo exhibition of pictures as early as April 1976, the same month he had his first gig with the string trio Clo-Z. This was followed by annual exhibitions until 1995, when he started composing music full time. 1976-78 he received training in drawing by his mentor, the Polish artist Ryzard Warsinski. In 1978 he moved to Barcelona, in order to study Salvador Dalí, and became a part of the Catalán surrealist movement at the time. In 1979 he returned to Norway, and established the jazz quartet, Hot Club de Norvège, but continued to paint full time. Larsen's paintings are often atmospheric landscapes, filled with stones, mountains and unexpected objects, and are often humorous or whimsical. A book with Jon Larsen's surrealistic pictures is in the making.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Solo works
- Superstrings - 1992
- Guitaresque - 1994
- The Next Step - 2003
- Short Stories From Catalonia - 2005
- Live with Vertavo String Quartet - 2006
- Strange News From Mars - 2007
[edit] With Hot Club de Norvège
- String Swing - 1981
- Old, New, Borrowed & Blue - 1982
- Gloomy - 1984
- Swing de Paris - 1986
- La Roue Fleurie (with Angelo Debarre) - 1992
- Swinging With Jimmy (with Jimmy Rosenberg) - 1994
- Portrait Of Django (with various French gypsy musicians) - 1995
- Vertavo (with Vertavo String Quartet) - 1995
- Hot Shots (with Babik Reinhardt, etc) - 1997
- Moreno (with Moreno and Angelo Debarre) - 1998
- Presenting Ola & Jimmy (with Ola Kvernberg and Jimmy Rosenberg) - 2000
- Angelo Is Back In Town (with Angelo Debarre) - 2001
- White Night Stories (with Tromso Symphony Orchestra) - 2002
- White Night Stories Live - 2002
- Django's Tiger (with Jimmy Rosenberg and Andreas Öberg) - 2003
- A Stranger In Town (with Bjorn Vidar Solli) - 2004
- Hot Cats (with Camelia String Quartet) - 2005
[edit] Main compositions
- Jimmy's Suite - 1993
- Vertavo - 1995
- White Night Stories - 2002
- Short Stories From Catalonia (Musique Noir) - 2005
- Luna Suite - 2006
- Strange News From Mars - 2007
