Jazz Articles about Jonas Hellborg

Hellborg/Lane/Selvaganesh/Umashankar/Umamahesh: Icon

by Dan McClenaghan
March 10, 2003

Swedish-born bassist Jonas Hellborg--whose category-defying CDs have incorporated aspects of metal, jazz, fusion, Middle Eastern sounds, classical and punk--offers up Icon, music tinged with Sub-Continent sounds. He is joined by guitarist Shawn Lane, Indian percussionists V. Selvaganish and V. Umashankar, and Indian vocalist V. Umamahesh.Hellborg has played with John McLaughlin and The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Public Image Ltd., and he cites as influences Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, and--interestingly--the original '60s power rock trio Cream. Interestingly, because Hellborg's bass ...

Jonas Hellborg, Shawn Lane and Jeff Sipe: Personae

by Jim Santella
April 12, 2002

Recorded during a live appearance in Mainz, Germany and composed by bassist Jonas Hellborg with Shawn Lane, the program asks the question, “Is modern music really a universal language, or does one musical persona differ too much from the next?"

How do hard rockers fit into a Jazz scene? How do Country & Western or R&B singers manage? Can sidemen feel somewhat comfortable in any situation? Hellborg, a veteran artist with over 20 album releases, wanted to explore ...

Hellborg / Lane / Sipe: Personae

by C. Michael Bailey
April 12, 2002

Caution! This is not the same Jazz Your Parents listened to.

In the mid-1970s, Jeff Beck ruled the world with Blow by Blow and Wired. These two hard fusion recitals went a long way to completing what Miles has started and Return to Forever and Weather Report perfected. Now, if one were to take that musical philosophical thread and cross it with the sensibilities of Jimi Hendrix Experience, early Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, and Cream, one would get ...

Hellborg/Lane/Selvaganesh: Good People In Times of Evil

by Todd S. Jenkins
February 1, 2001

Virtuoso bassist Jonas Hellborg first came to wide public attention in 1984 when he was selected by John McLaughlin to join the revamped Mahavishnu Orchestra. Since that time he has carved a name for himself as a premier fusion bass artist, deftly blending world musics with jazz and rock elements. Despite a critically acclaimed partnership with ex-Black Oak Arkansas guitarist Shawn Lane for the past several years, Hellborg has yet to receive all the public renown he’s due. This album ...

Jonas Hellborg: Good People, In Times Of Evil

by Mark Corroto
January 1, 2001

Is Jonas Hellborg the Swedish Bill Laswell? Maybe. The bassist has a grounded, driving funk/world/jazz attack like Laswell and his music mixes Eastern and Middle Eastern influences for color. But unlike Laswell, Hellborg’s music rarely overshadows the flavors he introduces. His reserved, yet slamming signature is once again displayed on this trip to a very urban India.

Hellborg, Swedish-born and raised on Hendrix, soon turned to electric Miles and Albert Ayler for inspiration. He has worked with the fusion Gods ...

Jonas Hellborg: Aram of the Two Rivers (Live in Syria)

by Eric Saidel
March 1, 1999

The first thing to notice about this cd is that the leader plays bass guitar. That's acoustic bass guitar. In Hellborg's hands this is a bass in name only. He plays it, for most of this cd, as if it were a guitar, using it to establish the melody, to improvise, and to play in unison with either of the other melody instruments, the ney (an obliquely blown flute) and the violin. The only clue that it is not a ...

Jonas Hellborg: Aram Of The Two Rivers: Live In Syria

by Jim Santella
March 1, 1999

Swedish bass guitarist Jonas Hellborg recorded these two sessions in September 1996. Hand drums and tambourine back the Middle Eastern melodies; all were composed by Hellborg. Ney player Mased Sri al Deen joins the bass guitarist on the first three tracks; violinist Hadi Backdonas appears on the last three. Blending classical guitar, jazz, and world music in his live performances, Hellborg has created suites that flow evenly from one movement to the next. The riqq is a percussion instrument similar ...