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Anders Jormin

Anders Jormin was born 1957 in Jönköping, Sweden. After intense studies, he left Musikhögskolan in Göteborg with diplomas in double-bass and improvisation / pedagogy in 1979.

Today as a doublebass-player and composer, AJ is a frequent and highly respected performer on the international concert scene. As a musician in great demand, AJ has recorded and toured with many of the legends in jazz. Among others : Gilberto Gil, Lee Konitz, Elvin Jones, Joe Henderson, Don Cherry, Charles Lloyd, Mike Mainieri, Joe Lovano, and Jack deJohnette, as well as Kenny Wheeler, Albert Mangelsdorff, Tomasz Stanko, Dino Saluzzi, John Surman, John Taylor, Mark Feldman , Paul Motian, Joey Baron, Tom Rainey , Jon Balke, Vertavo string quartet , Ann-Sofi von Otter, Norma Winstone and Marilyn Crispell. For many years, AJ was also a front figure in one of Scandinavias foremost ensembles, "Entra".

AJ today performs regularly all over Europe, USA/Canada, and Japan, but has also for shorter periods performed and studied ethnic music in Cuba and Mocambique. At the present AJ is a member of Bobo Stenson trio, and the unique swedish group "dr Dingo". AJ is also constantly creating new projects of his own. AJ is an "ECM recording artist"

As a composer, AJ has a rich production for various ensembles in contemporary jazz/chamber music. Among his commissioned works are:

for I.S.C.M - "Jord"

for SAMI -"Post scriptum"

for Gothenburg int. Jazz Festival -"Eight pieces"

for Swedish Radio (SR) - "Ytterligare åtta", "Silvae"

for Stockholm - 98 - "Utkast"

for Musik i Västernorrland - "Rävjakten" (for woodwind quintet/childrens choir)

for H.M. the queen of Norway - "Skogar-hav"

for Mats Bergström - "Three angels"

for the cathedral of Västerås,Sweden - "Bortom"

for Sundsvall Chamber Orchestra - "Scores of winterlight"

for Umeå Sinfonietta - "Whitman intonations"

In Sweden, AJ has been given several prizes and awards, such as the rare "Jan Johanssson - award". His solobass recording "Alone" won "Record of the year - all categories worldwide" in 1991. He is three times winner of the swedish "Grammy" - award for best jazz recording.

On a part - time basis, AJ has for almost 25 years been a teacher of doublebass and improvisation at Musikhögskolan in Göteborg, where he has participated in building up a strong jazz department. AJ is also a lecturer much in demand at clinics, master-classes and workshops all over Europe. 1995 AJ was given a professorship at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. 2002 he was given a professorship also at Musikhögskolan in Göteborg, Sweden. AJ is, as the first contemporary improviser ever, a member of the swedish Royal Academy of music and he was 2003 given the title "doctor honoris causa", together with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Georg Sokolov, at Sibelius-academy,Finland.

Marilyn Crispell / Anders Jormin: Memento

Read "Memento" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
April 11, 2026

Even with her most youthful and combustible studies into our common language--1988's solo watermark Labyrinths (Victor); with Paul Motian and Reggie Workman, Live In Zurich (Leo, 1989); to the mature, questing, and timeless Amaryllis (Blue Note, 2001) with Motian and Gary Peacock; and the trio muscle of Dreamstruck (Not Two, 2018) alongside bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Harvey Sorgen--a quiet, abiding awe of human potential has always and forever held the center of Marilyn Crispell's heart, and thus, her music. ...

Album Review

Marilyn Crispell, Anders Jormin: Memento

by Neil Duggan
March 13, 2026

US pianist Marilyn Crispell and Swedish bassist Anders Jormin filter their decades of musical experience and improvisational instinct into Memento, their debut duo recording. Combining original compositions with four freely created pieces, the album focuses on the universal themes of memory and loss. Crispell, recently honored with a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master award, first met Jormin at a jny: Stockholm festival in 1992. It left a lasting mark on her musical thinking. “When I ...

Album Review

Ingi Bjarni Skúlason: Hope

by Tyran Grillo
February 22, 2026

On Hope, Icelandic pianist and composer Ingi Bjarni Skulason opens a quiet interior, one shaped by listening as much as by sound. Joined by bassist Anders Jormin, guitarist Hilmar Jensson, and drummer Magnus Trygvason Eliassen, he presents a quartet steeped in introspection, where each note seems to arrive after careful consideration, as if feeling its way forward. The album gathers itself around loss, tracing the many chambers of grief that followed the death of his mother, yet it never settles ...

Album Review

Ingi Bjarni Skúlason: Hope

by Glenn Astarita
July 22, 2025

Ingi Bjarni Skúlason's seventh album, Hope, released on January 17, 2025, is a poignant exploration of grief and resilience, exquisitely woven into a Nordic jazz tapestry. This Icelandic pianist and composer, joined by truly estimable artists--Anders Jormin on double bass, Hilmar Jensson on guitar and Magnús Trygvason Eliassen on drums--crafts a soundscape that is both introspective and expansively beautiful. The quartet's synergy, finely honed at the Reykjavik Jazz Festival, shines across nine tracks, each a quiet meditation on loss and ...

Album Review

Bobo Stenson Trio: Sphere

by Mike Jurkovic
March 20, 2023

Bobo Stenson first rose to recognition as a sideman and in-house pianist in the late '60s with saxophonist Sonny Rollins, vibraphonist Gary Burton, and saxophonist Charles Lloyd, among many others. But it was in 1971, alongside drummer Jon Christensen, that he established his subtle, humorous shadings and folkish, earthy style with Underwear (ECM). Yet Stenson's intimate articulations are, for the most part, about as familiar to the less-than-fixated jazz world at large as one of those comets or asteroids blaze ...

Album Review

Anders Jormin: Poems for Orchestra

Read "Poems for Orchestra" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
February 27, 2020

Suggestivo e inusuale lavoro del contrabbassista svedese Anders Jormin, uno dei grandi interpreti scandinavi dello strumento, questo Poems for Orchestra mette in musica una serie di poesie dedicate alla natura, avvalendosi della Bohusiän Big Band e, come solisti, della cantante svedese Lena Willemark—ben nota per i suoi lavori in equilibrio tra folk, improvvisazione e contemporanea, editi da ECM—e della giapponese Karin Nakagawa, specialista di koto. I testi poetici utilizzati sono parte di poeti scandinavi, parte scritti da Jormin ...

Album Review

Anders Jormin: Poems For Orchestra

Read "Poems For Orchestra" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
April 26, 2019

Swedish bassist and composer Anders Jormin has been recording since the mid 1980s, playing with greats such as his countryman Bobo Stenson, American saxophonist Charles Lloyd and Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko among others. Since his debut as a leader for ECM in 2001, he has kept close to the label. But the concept on Poems for Orchestra marches to somewhat of a different tune and that it is being released on the Scandinavian label Losen Records seems appropriate, considering the ...

"The sound he gets, the fills he executes, his soloing ability in and out of chord changes is amazing. For me he is one of the world's greatest bassists."

(Dave Liebman, Hunters and Gatherers)

"Jormin is a treasure - everything a bassist should be"

(Down beat, USA)

"Formidable Jormin's mastery came through in his solointroductions. He is one of the finest living jazzbassists, whose instrumental command and intonation are so seamless, he makes it look easier than it is. He is a virtuoso, but deep, natural musicality prevents him from grandstanding".

(Los Angeles Times)

"The sound he gets, the fills he executes, his soloing ability in and out of chord changes is amazing. For me he is one of the world's greatest bassists."

(Dave Liebman, Hunters and Gatherers)

"Jormin is a treasure - everything a bassist should be"

(Down beat, USA)

(Los Angeles Times)

On his CD "Silvae":

"Anders Jormin is, both as a composer and soloist, a magician of absolute worldclass......What a constellation! This piece of art sounds fantastic! Brilliant music."

(OJ, Sweden)

"Anders Jormin who must be counted among the most interesting jazz bassists in the world continues introducing us to his incredibly strong compositions and studio groups ....... "Silvae" is Jormin's finest album to date, clearly a bullseye!"

(Soundi, Finland)

On his CD "Xieyi"

"To enjoy Xieyi is to stay in a musical garden of zen"

(Dagens nyheter,Sweden)

"Jormin relies on a perfectly honed melodic sense and an impassioned, lyrical approach to solo bass language that relies as much on folk and classical influence as it does on jazz. His technique, though impressive, is never allowed to grandstand and is completely at the service of the music (though there are occasions when the listener is led to wonder exactly how many hands he posseses). It's the warm, dark song of Jormin's bass thats at the heart of this impressive and rewarding release. "

(BBC Music, England)

" A feat- nothing less"

(Gramophone/Korea)

On his CD "In winds, in light"

"Jormin's pure pursuit of musicality and art places substance far ahead of style. This hour-long performance transcends definition- it is music to be felt, to be experienced, and to be absorbed as a whole. Compelling, provocative and evocative, with "In winds, in light" Jormin asserts that music should not be about technical prowess, rather it is about taking extra- ordinary ability and creating something deeply personal and spiritually moving"

(Allaboutjazz /USA)

"You come to think of such major and important works as John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" or the "Sacred concert's" by Duke Ellington. With "In winds, in light", Anders Jormin brings another major piece that adds a european dimension to this tradition."

(Der Bund/ Switzerland)

On his CD "AVIAJA"

"While he possesses the kind of technical facility that makes most bassists scratch their head in wonder, Jormin has always been more concerned with making his instrument sing, and playing music that touches the heart in the most personal of ways. Aviaja's intimacy is so personal that it almost feels like intruding on a private conversation.... Aviaja remains vivid long after the final song is over."

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