Harald Lassen

Harald Lassen
Birth name Harald Hagen Lassen
Born (1987-03-13) 13 March 1987
Kristiansand, Vest-Agder
Origin Norway
Genres Jazz
Occupation(s) Musician, composer
Instruments Saxophone, piano, percussions, vocals
Labels Jazzland Recordings
Cuneiform Records
NorCD
Havtorn Records
Associated acts Duplex
Mopti
Pixel
Website haraldlassen.com

Harald Lassen (born 13 March 1987 in Kristiansand, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz musician who has devoted his career exclusively to his own band. His unpredictable, but characteristic, mixture of saxophone, voice, effects and percussion has become his "brand". He is also a composer, and known from the bands Pixel, Mopti (feat. Bendik Baksaas on the album Bits & Pieces) and DUPLEX. He was in an early age picked up by legendary musicians such as bass player Arild Andersen and drummer Jon Christensen . Recent years he has played with musicians such as Bugge Wesseltoft, Morten Qvenild, Emilie Stoesen Christensen, Beady Belle, Ole Morten Vågan, Espen Rud, Anja Lauvdal, Rob Waring, Mathias Eick, Ray Phiri, Ruaridh Pattison, Ediz Hafizoglu Nazdrave and Torgrim Sollid among many others. He also played with the Norwegian rock band "The Switch" in their early years and again joined(2016) the Norwegian pop band No. 4 after two years break between 2014 and 2016 - concentrating on his own career.

Career

Lassen was raised in Greipstad, Songdalen. He took up the saxophone after many years of playing the piano. He attended the Toneheim Folkehøgskole (2006–07), Unviersitetet i Agdera- Institutt for rytmisk musikk(2007–08)nd did further studies in jazz and improvised music at the Norwegian Academy of Music (2008–12).

Since 2012 Lassen has been working as a freelance musician with saxophone as the main instrument, with base in Oslo. Collaborating with bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen in the duo "DUPLEX Lassen & Svendsen", and in bands like "Mopti" including Svendsen, Kristoffer Eikrem (trumpet), David Aleksander Sjølie (guitar) and Andreas Wildhagen (drums), and "Pixel" including Ellen Andrea Wang (bass and vocals), Jon Audun Baar (drums, percussion and backing vocals), and Jonas Kilmork Vemøy (trumpet and backing vocals), he has released several acclaimed albums,[1][2] and the gig by "Pixel" was noted as "one of the most memorable moments" of the Match and Fuse Festival in London 2012, by the jazz magazine Down Beat.[3]

Lassen has worked with African musicians and dancers in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Uganda. In 2013 Lassen moved to Zanzibar for three months to teach and build up a jazz department for young music students at Dhow Countries Music Academy.

Lassen is currently a board member of Oslo Jazzfestival (2015).

Honors

Discography

His own projects

Within Pixel
Within Duplex
Within Mopti

Other collaborations

With No. 4

With Dr. Kay and his Interstellar Tone Scientists
  • 2013: Dr. Kay and the search for true happiness (Bangles and Brass Records)
With Bendik Baksaas Band
With Andrea Kvintett

References

  1. ↑ Mosnes, Terje (31 August 2013). "Med ilden full av jazzjern" (in Norwegian). Dagbladet. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
  2. 1 2 Brauer, Camilla Slaattun (17 July 2012). "Mopti vant Jazzintro" (in Norwegian). JazzINorge.no. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
  3. ↑ Graham, Stephen (26 June 2012). "Match & Fuse Artists Light Up London". Down Beat. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
  4. ↑ "Young Nordic Jazz Comets". Young Nordic Jazz Comets. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
  5. ↑ Wicklund, CErling (17 September 2013). "MOPTI utfordrer – Logic Review" (in Norwegian). NRK Jazz. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
  6. ↑ "Andrea Kvintett" (PDF). NorCD. 27 April 2012. Retrieved 2013-11-16.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.