Jazz Articles about Jacob Karlzon

Helge Albin: Homemade

by Fran Kursztejn
April 8, 2025

If the word “fussy" occasionally rears its head when relating the Helge Albin Quintet's newest release, it is not meant as a slight. Albin--an undeniable staple of the Swedish and wider North European jazz scene--is nothing if not insatiable. Before the quintet's founding, he led the impressive Tolvan Big Band, certainly Sweden's most ambitious musical project in recent memory, an 18-man ensemble almost entirely devoted to Albin's compositions. His record as a sideman is no less storied, working closely with ...

Dominic Miller: Vagabond

by Cary Tenenbaum
April 25, 2023

The third album by guitarist Dominic Miller echoes the melodic, moody, romantic sounds of a Sting album without lyrics or singing. What we hear is the instrumental interplay of Miller with pianist Jacob Karlzon, bassist Nicolas Fiszman and drummer Ziv Ravitz. The comparison is not surprising as Miller has played with Sting for the last 30 years. He co-wrote one of Sting's hits, 1993's “Shape Of My Heart." Maybe, in fact, Sting's albums are really Dominic Miller records with lyrics ...

Jacob Karlzon 3: More

by Bruce Lindsay
August 24, 2012

Pianist/composer Jacob Karlzon--Swedish Radio's 2010 Jazz Musician Of The Year--is difficult to pigeonhole. He's an improviser, a solo artist, a composer and an accompanist, with a longstanding musical relationship with singer Viktoria Tolstoy. In his 20-year career he's released half a dozen albums under his own name and appeared on around 40 others. The Jacob Karlzon 3--the pianist's collaboration with bassist Hans Andersson and drummer Jonas Holgersson--released its first album, The Big Picture (Stunt Records / Sundance Music), in 2011.

Jacob Karlzon: The Big Picture

by Jack Huntley
July 22, 2011

There is a crisp lyricism to even the most penetrating tracks on Jacob Karlzon 3's The Big Picture that propels the music from the somber to the majestic with equal vitality. Karlzon's nuanced keyboards seamlessly move from spacious repeating themes to intense flurries of solos, all the while supported by Hans Andersson's nimble bass and Jonas Holgersson's plush percussion. This is truly a group recording, with each member providing to a whole, which adds up to a prolific musical experience. ...

Jacob Karlzon: Heat / Improvisational Three

by Chris Mosey
May 26, 2009

Jacob Karlzon is one of the most interesting pianists on today's Swedish jazz scene--percussive, intense, yet capable of great lyricism. Unwilling to be pigeonholed, he plays in a great many different constellations, most visibly with vocalist Viktoria Tolstoy, great granddaughter of Leo, for whom he composes and arranges.

At the age of 39, Karlzon has already released six albums under his own name, but Heat and Improvisational Three are his boldest statements to date, revealing new facets of a complex ...