Jon Christensen

Jon Christensen ( born March 20, 1943 in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz drummer.

Life and work

Christensen began playing the drums in 1959 as an autodidact and a year later won a prize at the Norwegian amateur festival. Early 1964 he played with Kenny Dorham in his home town (of which there is a recording) and in the same year with Karin Krog at the festival in Antibes; He then performed regularly with Jan Garbarek. In 1967 he worked with Steve Kuhn and Monica Zetterlund. About projects by George Russell, he was internationally perceived (including performances in 1970 at the Berlin Jazz Festival). The early 1970s he was a wider circle through his involvement in groups of Garbarek and Terje Rypdal, then from 1974, also known in Central Europe and to the European quartet of Keith Jarrett with Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielsson and. He served for a time as a kind of house drummer for the ECM label and so on recordings with Eberhard Weber, Ralph Towner ( Solstice, 1974), Barre Phillips, Enrico Rava, John Abercrombie, Michael Mantler, Miroslav Vitous, Rainer Brüninghaus, Charles Lloyd to hear Dino Saluzzi and Tomasz Stanko. In 1977 he founded the first time a separate group. He has also worked with Sidsel Endresen and performs regularly with the trio of Bobo Stenson and Rypdal.

For his well with Knut Riisnas album " Featuring John Scofield and Palle Danielsson ," he received the 1992 Norwegian record award. From the Association of Norwegian jazz musician, he was declared in 1993 "Jazz Musician of the Year ".