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Thomas Johansson

Thomas was born and raised in Skien, Telemark. With a bachelor degree from the University of Stavanger, and Masters from The Norwegian Academy of Music, he is a part of the strong young Norweigan jazz elite. He has done extensive touring in Scandinavia, Europe, Japan and USA, with both his own projects and as a sideman in several other bands.

His main project is Cortex, which is a quartet consisting of Thomas, Kristoffer Alberts, Ola Høyer and Gard Nilssen. Cortex is a Norwegian band which plays enerergetic jazz of the finest brand. With over one hundred live perfomances and four highly acclaimed albums, they position themselves as one of the strongest additions to the Norwegian jazz scene. He is also a part of several distinctive bands and projects, including his own record label Tammtz Records which was established April 2016. Scroll down on "Projects" from the menu to check out the various projects.

Thomas currently lives in Skien, working as a freelance trumpet player and composer.

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3
Album Review

Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra: Family

Read "Family" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Why can't all music be supersonic? That does not mean supersonic as in a speed exceeding that of sound, but sound that is sonically superlative. Drummer, composer, and bandleader Gard Nilssen's music is seemingly always sonically superb. His 17-piece Supersonic Orchestra was captured in 2022 at the Mondriaan Jazz Festival in Den Haag, Netherlands, for Family, his follow-up to If You Listen Carefully The Music Is Yours (Odin 2020). The Supersonic Orchestra is made up of seven saxophones ...

10
Album Review

Rodrigo Amado Northern Liberties: We Are Electric

Read "We Are Electric" reviewed by John Sharpe


Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado hits the jackpot with the debut by his Northern Liberties quartet. He's found gifted collaborators in the Norwegian threesome of trumpeter Thomas Johansson, drummer Gard Nilssen and bassist Jon Rune Strøm. Amado's preferred domain is muscular free jazz. It's territory he's thoroughly explored with his Motion Trio, supplemented by guests like trumpeter Peter Evans and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, and with his This Is Our Language band with Joe McPhee. While the Scandinavian ...

10
Album Review

Rodrigo Amado Northern Liberties: We Are Electric

Read "We Are Electric" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The predicament with modern albums is that an album is often more than just one album. With the advent of streaming music, and compact discs before it, music expands beyond the unit we traditionally designated as side one or side two of an LP. A perfect example of this concept is We Are Electric by the Portuguese-Norwegian collaboration Rodrigo Amado Northern Liberties. Three of the four tracks here could easily be considered a freestanding LP side and, if that were ...

9
Album Review

Rodrigo Amado Northern Liberties: We Are Electric

Read "We Are Electric" reviewed by Troy Dostert


By all accounts, 2021 was a very good year for Rodrigo Amado. One of the leading lights of the Portuguese avant-garde, the indefatigable tenor saxophonist first released The Field (NoBusiness), featuring his Motion Trio (with cellist Miguel Mira and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini) alongside guest pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, and Let the Free Be Men (Trost), with his now-frequent collaborators saxophonist Joe McPhee, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Chris Corsano. But if these two albums come to overshadow We Are Electric, ...

5
Album Review

Friends & Neighbors: The Earth Is #

Read "The Earth Is #" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The importance of choosing a name for your jazz band is often underestimated. Take the quintet Friends & Family for instance. When it was formed in 2008, it wasn't dubbed the André Roligheten Quintet or the Oscar Grönberg Band. No. From its beginnings, the quintet shared composing duties among its members as well as dutiful deference to each musician's sound. Proof of this friendship among neighbors (all live in Norway) is a string of excellent releases. The Earth Is # ...

9
Album Review

Cortex: Legal Tender

Read "Legal Tender" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The Norwegian quartet Cortex answers the question, what would have happened if the Wynton Marsalis and Branford Marsalis, had advanced the jazz canon instead of looking backwards for inspiration. Remember when the two young lions burst onto the scene in the 1980s with their self-righteous mission to save jazz? They did so by stuffing it, much like a taxidermist, to preserve an endangered species. Their neocon approach actually can make us grateful for bands like Cortex with their inclinations to ...

31
Album Review

Scheen Jazzorkester & Thomas Johansson: As We See It...

Read "As We See It..." reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Given the breadth of the Clean Feed label's extensive Scandinavian improvisation and free jazz discography, this large-scale orchestra, featuring venerable trumpeter Thomas Johansson, is not strictly framed on avant-garde persuasions. In fact, the predominate x-factor that deals the KO punch is how hummable melodic hooks alluringly coexist with emotive soloing without an endless range of cacophonic dialogue, which is an element that, at times, can pose severe listening fatigue for the willing listener. With forceful melodies and a ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Circles

Clean Feed
2024

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Family

We Jazz Records
2023

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The Earth Is #

Clean Feed Records
2021

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We Are Electric

Not Two Records
2021

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Legal Tender

Clean Feed Records
2020

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As We See It...

Clean Feed Records
2019

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