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Helge Albin
For over thirty years, Helge Albin has been working hard to turn the the small Swedish city of Malmo into an international destination for the best in forward-thinking jazz music. And he has a lot to show for it—The Tolvan Big Band, an 18-member ensemble dedicated to performing new music by Albin and others has toured in Europe, Australia and South America, and worked with jazz masters Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Liebman, and Michael Brecker, among many others.
The ensemble has released twelve recordings, four of them featuring Albin’s music. All About Jazz said the most recent album of Albin’s music, Effortlessly, released in 2013 by the Swedish label Kopasetic, tells a “nuanced story full of twists and suspense” through the intricate details of the compositions. “I’ve always wanted the big band to play with the flexibility of a quartet,” Albin says about how he leads the band, “So, I chose players who play creatively even as they are reading sophisticated parts.” And it has paid off. The Tolvan Big Band performs polished ensemble music with the personality of a small group—they are light on their feet even when the band’s 18 members are playing at full power.
Helge Albin has also built bridges to the classical music community. His four-movement suite “Thetris,” written in 2008 and featuring the Malmo Symphony Orchestra along with the Tolvan Big Band, is a collaboration on a grand scale. This concert-length suite asks the orchestra to provide a dynamic and challenging accompaniment to jazz improvisations—the orchestral musicians provide incisive counterpoint and constantly shifting colors that build on the foundation of Albin’s warm melodies and brilliant rhythms. This piece had its world premiere in Malmo on the summer of 2008, and was released by the Stockholm label Caprice Records.
This veteran saxophonist, composer and bandleader is not slowing down. Since retiring from his professorship at Malmo Academy of Music, Albin has renewed his commitment to his creative work and continues to initiate new projects. And as he does, his warmth of personality, his finely-honed skill, and his enthusiasm for his art form will be at the core of everything this creative musician undertakes.
Awards
Received the 2011 GULDNÅLEN award, the 2010 JAZZKANNAN award, the 1995 Sydsvenska Dagbladets Europapris, and the 1984 Golden Disc award, in recognition of his work not only as a performer but as leader and statesman in Sweden’s arts community.
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Helge Albin: Homemade
by Fran Kursztejn
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 ...
Continue ReadingTolvan Big Band: Interacting
by Jack Bowers
There's an ample supply of engaging music on Interacting, the fourteenth recording by Sweden's splendid Tolvan Big Band, all of it written and arranged by director and lead alto saxophonist Helge Albin. A shame there isn't more than thirty-two minutes worth. Be that as it may, the music itself is by and large buoyant and swinging, with seamless interplay among the various sections and sharp solos by Albin ("Dancing Shoes," “Lightsome") and his colleagues. Trombonist Peter Dahlgren ...
Continue ReadingTolvan Big Band: Effortlessly - Music by Helge Albin
by Eyal Hareuveni
Swedish saxophonist, composer and arranger Helge Albin has led the Tolvan Big Band since 1979. Albin turned this ambitious, up-to-date big band, located in Malmö in southern Sweden, into a musical institution with an international reputation. They have collaborated with notable American musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Liebman and Michael Brecker, British composer Mike Westbrook and Danish saxophonist Lars Møller; the band even dedicated one of its programs to new arrangements of the John Lennon songbook. ...
Continue ReadingTolvan Big Band: Tarantula Suite
by Eyal Hareuveni
The Tolvan Big Band is one of Scandinavia's most experienced big bands. Located in Malmö, in southern Sweden, this orchestra has been working since 1979 and, under saxophonist/musical director Helge Albin, has collaborated with notable Americans such as Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Liebman and Michael Brecker, British composer Mike Westbrook and Danish saxophonist Lars Møller; the band has even dedicated one of its programs to new arrangements of the John Lennon/Paul McCartney songbook. On Tarantula Suite, reed player ...
Continue ReadingTolvan Big Band: Code Red
by Edward Blanco
From the coastal town of Malmo, Sweden, the eighteen-piece Tolvan Big Band has developed into one of the finest contemporary jazz orchestras in the world. Led by saxophonist and composer Helge Albin since 1979, the band entered Sun Studios in Copenhagen on April 22nd of 2007 and emerged with Code Red, a powerhouse recording of seven original big band arrangements in the finest tradition of the genre.
Leader Albin contributes three compositions, including the muscular opening ...
Continue ReadingTolvan Big Band: Code Red
by Chris Mosey
Sweden must have more jazz big bands per head of population than any other country in the world. Tolvan Big Band, based in the southern port city of Malmö, is the cream of the crop. Tolvan means The Twelve, the number of musicians in the band when it was formed in the late 1960s. It also refers to the 12 centiliters of aquavit each of them would routinely consume on a gig! Arrangements were pretty loose in those days. When ...
Continue ReadingThe Tolvan Big Band: A Walk in the Centerpoint
by Jack Bowers
When it comes to swinging in a contemporary groove, Sweden’s Tolvan Big Band takes a back seat to no one. This is a killer ensemble, able to stare down the most formidable charts without flinching or even blinking an eye. Regardless of mood or tempo the sense of forward motion is always there, thanks to fastidious unison work by all hands and a strapping rhythm section governed by drummer Lennart “In the Groove” Gruvstedt.
Music director Helge ...
Continue Reading“The Best Big Band I’ve played since 1947 - - D I z z y G I l le s p I e “ You can’t find such a band even in New York” - - M I k e B r e c k e r - - “ this latest CD reinforces its reputation as a world - class outfit” - - A l l A b o u t J a z z ,,,, “must be among the best in jazz at the moment” — Irish Times
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Helge Albin
Location: Malmo
Instrument: Saxophone, alto
Born: March 31, 1941
