Jon Larsen
Jon Larsen ( born January 7, 1959 in Oslo) is a Norwegian painter, record producer, jazz musician (guitarist and composer ). He mainly plays gypsy swing or Gypsy jazz in which he founded in 1979 jazz quartet Hot Club de Norvège, with whom he recorded 25 CDs, and also to 2009 still regularly tours worldwide. He founded in 1980 the Django Festival and launched numerous crossover projects of gypsy jazz with classical ensembles, for example, in the Symphonic Django concert tours, among others, Stochelo Rosenberg.
Larsen's formative influences in his own words, Frank Zappa, Astor Piazzolla and gypsy swing à la Django Reinhardt and Boulou Ferré, and surrealist painting by Salvador Dalí in particular, which he studied in Barcelona for a year in 1978. From 1976 to 1995, he had annual exhibitions as a painter in Oslo, but then focused on composing. In 2009 they had a book (painter i solnedgang ) about him as a painter and he also has its own art book publishing ( The golden banana).
He produced over 350 jazz records for Hot Club Records (founded by him in 1982 ), among others, Chet Baker, Philip Catherine, Stephane Grappelli, Warne Marsh and Gypsy musicians such as Bireli Lagrene, Stochelo Rosenberg.
In the 2000s, he is also involved in various projects Zappa, so Strange News from Mars project and as a producer for the label he founded in 2007 Zonic Entertainment, which is dedicated to the music of Zappa and his epigones.
In 2008 he received the Artist Award of the City of Oslo.