Song:Strange Place For Snow
Album:Strange Place for Snow
Swedish jazz pianist Esbjorn Svensson was very popular in Europe and was making inroads in the US when he died in a tragic scuba diving accident in 2008. He was born Apr. 16, 1964 in Skultuna, Sweden. His mom was a classical pianist and his dad was a big jazz fan. He studied classical piano as a child and played in garage bands as a teen. He returned to classical music and then gravitated to jazz. Svensson studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm for four years. He worked as a sideman in local clubs and formed his first band in 1990. This turned into the Esbjorn Svensson Trio or E.S.T. for short with Dan Berglund on bass and Magnus Ostrom on drums. They released three albums. But the fourth album Gagarain's Point Of View in 1999 got them acclaim in Europe outside Sweden and this led to a US record deal with Columbia Records. The 2002 CD Strange Place For Snow was their second US release. It is available as a budget CD. They won Best International Artist at the BBC Jazz Awards and were the first European jazz act to ever appear on the cover of Down Beat magazine. Svensson also produced albums by singer Viktoria Tolstoy. He was working on music that would integrate electronic and mechanical sounds with jazz when he went missing while scuba diving on June 14, 2008. He was later found unconscious and died in hospital. Svensson was 44 years old and left a wife and two sons. This was a big loss for the European jazz community. Jazz fans should check him out. Here's the Esbjorn Svensson Trio performing Strange Place For Snow 2003.
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