Krister Jonsson
web site: www.kristerjonsson.net
Born in Sundsvall, Sweden in 1971. Educated at Skurups and Fridhems Folkhögskola and at the New School in New York, US. Resident in Malmö, Sweden.
Krister Jonsson has for a long time been one of the most respected and coveted musicians from Malmö and has been highly commended by critics, audience and musicians all over Scandinavia. His variying and expressive guitar playing can been heard in Fredrik Lundin Overdrive, Cennet Jönsson Quartet and Peter Danemo Kapell etc. He has recorded two albums with his own group Krister Jonsson Trio, featuring cellist Svante Henryson on the most recent one.
Krister has also performed with Miroslav Vitous, Marilyn Mazur, Trine-Lise Vaering, Jim Black, Rigmor Gustavsson, Anders Bergcrantz, Audun Kleive etc.
Voices about Krister Jonsson: «Krister Jonsson’s compositions are subtle and open. All complete patterns are thrown in the wastebasket, welcome to the freedom! It¹s difficult to have a personal sound on the guitar... but Krister Jonsson succeeds in being himself.» Sven Gustafsson, Gränslöst «Particularly cunning and rather original variants where the New York-trained Jonsson appeared as a cousin to Bill Frisell and a distant relative to Marc Ribot: country-touch, volume pedal, blues and rock, fast turns between heaven and hell, a lot of humour and a balanced excitement. But is it really legal to use the slide on a jazz festival?» Alexander Agrell, Sydsvenska Dagbladet.
«It had a tradition, which is important to me, combined with the freedom to import influences from other forms of music, depending on the circumstances you?re in. The reason I play any form of jazz or improvisation music is probably the possibility to create new dialects and move in different mood directions.»
Here, quiet chamber music mingles with melodic phrases with an Indian feel, blues-based rock, stroboscopic psychedelia and funk. This is all served up with a healthy portion of improvisation, which has its origins more in the improvised rock of Cream and Jimi Hendrix than jazz or Indian art music.
Krister Jonsson can be found in many different settings: Electronically tweaking his guitar into out-of-worldly soundscapes and outbursts of distorted anti-tonal rhythmic excursions with the likes of Marilyn Mazur, Cennet Jönsson and his own trio. On another day, classic bluesy lines with Fredrik Lundin Overdrive, or soft spoken, melodically accompanying vocalists such as Romanian Maria Raducanu and his fellow northern swede, Linda Pettersson Bratt.
Jonsson does, when requested, label himself as a jazz musician, possibly with a slight reservation: -«Early on, when first starting to play, I was deeply fascinated by the possibility of communicating through music, playing together with absolute strangers and making something up as you go along.» The expressive possibilities in jazz as well as its tradition appealed to the youngster, along with a desire to explore its outer boundaries. «For me, it is important to allow myself to be inspired by everything that communicates in a convincing manner — be it other genres of music, other art forms or even aspects of life. Rather than a sonoric or dogmatic label, I prefer to regard „Jazz“ as a mindset, an intuitive openness, and a means to communicate. Just listen, it’ll be just fine...!»