Jacob Karlzon

Über Jacob Karlzon

Swedish jazz pianist and composer Jacob Karlzon has been compared to Sweden’s own legends Esbjörn Svensson and Jan Johansson.
Karlzon’s playing style oozes technical brilliance, rhythmic and harmonic complexity with a perfect feeling for form. Karlzon describes what drives him:
“We are a modern people with a long history, and it is precisely this which I want to reflect in my music. I am fascinated with the possibilities of new technologies but I also need warmth and a connection with the earth in order to feel happy.”

For a piano virtuoso, he likes to add edge; metal and electro all have their place in his music as well as folk songs from his Swedish homeland. With such an open attitude, Karlzon balances depth and musical ideas to achieve vibrant pulsating soundscapes ranging from light to energetic, fragile to powerful, organic to electronic, sometimes all at once. He calls this approach 'technorganic', a kind of improvisation which bursts out of conventional musical borders. 
He has also manifested this aesthetic direction in his collaboration with d&b audiotechnik and their Immersive Sound-system Soundscape. 

Karlzon's music sits at the intersection of cool Scandinavian sensibilities (space, melancholy and sensitivity) and their emotional opposites (heat and passion). Karlzon’s powerful techniques and deep sensibility have made him a popular sideman working together with stars like Cæcilie Norby, Gino Vannelli, Till Brönner, Nils Landgren, and as well as being a sought after musical director for artists such as Viktoria Tolstoy . 

Whilst he has a great reputation as an ensemble performer, his personal projects have also received great recognition. In 2010 he was awarded the Swedish Django d'Or and voted Jazz Musician of the Year. 
In 2012 he was added to the Steinway Artist roster, an international recognition of excellence and in 2015 was acclaimed Jazz-group of the Year in the Swedish Radio’s audience poll.