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Arnold Ludvig

Award winning composer and bassist - Arnold Ludvig - Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

About Me

Havnar Jazzfelag (HJF) was founded in 1975, when Arnold Ludvig was 7 years old. He knew nothing about HJF until 1980, when Arnold started playing bass with the band PlayBoys (later: PLÚMM). They were thankful to HJF’s venue, PERLAN, for using it as a rehearsal space in 1981. This is when he discovered the very existence of TUTL Records and that Faroese jazz could be heard on various LPs and singles. Arnold was quite impressed by these records with both local and foreign musicians. His biggest role model at that time was undoubtedly the Faroese bass player Jóhannus á Rógvu Joensen, who is, and has been, one of the leading musicians in the Faroe Islands. In addition to being a composer and producer of foreign musicians, Holger Laumann (DK) made a strong impression on Arnold, both as a saxophonist and as a composer. This insight ignited a dream in Arnold that he struggled to realise in 1981, when he was 13. His dream was to become a good jazz bassist and composer. With patience, persistence, practice, curiosity, and courage, he achieved his dream. After a year at the Music School F.Í.H. in Reykjavík, where Arnold studied jazz and received a scholarship, he met students, had a teacher, and played with the future créme de la créme of Iceland’s finest jazz musicians that he would join 25 years later. The album “ALLAR ÆTTIR,” Holger Laumann & PLÚMM was released in 1991 on TUTL Records. In 1998, Arnold wrote three jazz compositions, “Samba For Sunshine”, “For Old Time Sake”, and “Little Black Sambo”. In 1998, Plúmm released “Green Gate” on Tutl Records, featuring Arnold Ludvig’s melancholic “Pastel Shades”. In 2005, he won the Best Bassist award at the Atlantic Music Event. In 2013, he released “VOYAGES”, and in 2016, Ludvig released “ICELAND”, with award-winning Danish-based musicians, Alain Apaloo, Mariane Bitran, Simon Spang-Hanssen, Marco Martinovic and Nicolas Campagnol, both with ARNOLD LUDVIG SEXTET on TUTL Records, which received great reviews and was nominated for Best Soloist and Best Band at the 2017 Faroese Music Awards. In 2019, Ludvig earned a Master’s degree in music from Iceland University of the Arts, where he reunited with his FIH classmates and teacher performing at festivals and jazz venues in Iceland. Arnold’s latest album was released digitally on April 4th, 2025, with ARNOLD LUDVIG QUINTET, comprised of all award-winning musicians with his FIH students and teacher Sigurður Flosason on alto and soprano sax, Jóel Palssón on tenor and soprano saxophone, Kjartan Valdemarsson on piano, and Einar Scheving on drums. This is the rare “LIVE @ Maggies ‘18” – concert recording, which will be released on LP later in 2026. “LIVE @ Maggies ‘18” won the 2026 Faroese Music Award for Special Release Album of the Year and Arnold Ludvig was nominated for Composer of the Year. Why Arnold loves jazz: I love jazz because it allows for improvisation and freedom of expression, which I enjoy both as a performer and a listener. I was first exposed to jazz in my teens when I was introduced to Keith Jarrett's European quartet in 1983. I met Benny Golson at his master-class when I studied Jazz Performance at McGill University in 1994.

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