Mentioned in the same breath as Sweden’s legendary musicians Esbjörn Svensson and Jan Johansson, Swedish jazz pianist, composer and Steinway artist Jacob Karlzon makes music that sits where Scandinavian qualities (space, melancholy and sensitivity) meet their emotional opposites (warmth and passion).
Karlzon creates music for ‘inner films’ and loves it when others connect with these worlds. Karlzon explains what drives him:
“We are a modern people with a long history, and that is exactly what I want to reflect in my music. I am fascinated by the possibilities of new technology, but I also need warmth and a connection to the world in order to feel happy.”
A classically trained pianist, Jacob Karlzon has shared the stage with jazz musicians such as Dominic Miller, Kenny Wheeler, Billy Cobham, Till Brönner, Nils Landgren and Viktoria Tolstoy, but he prefers to describe himself as an ‘alternative musician’.
As a piano virtuoso who loves to explore the extremes, Karlzon brings metal and electronic elements into his music, as well as Swedish folk songs.
Awarded Sweden’s Django d'Or in 2010, Karlzon was added to the Steinway artist roster in 2012, an international recognition of excellence.
Over a 30-year solo career, Karlzon has released 14 albums of his own music in solo, duo and group projects.
QUESTAR
JACOB KARLZON – piano, keyboards, electronics MADS LA COUR – trumpet THOBIAS GABRIELSON – bass guitar ROBERT MEHMET İKİZ – drums, electronics
Born from a desire to explore new sounds and new musical spaces, QUESTAR brings together deep grooves and flowing rhythms with boundary-crossing Nordic soundscapes. In the open, ever-changing atmosphere the music creates, takes its own shape in every concert: composition meets improvisation, acoustic and electronic intertwine, and listeners are invited to create their own stories.
Meaning ‘one who seeks’, QUESTAR offers music for the film inside you and an invitation to a gentle journey into the unknown, creating an experience shared with energy and a sense of discovery.
KARLZON & KRIJA – MOSAIC
JACOB KARLZON – piano, keyboards RHANI KRIJA – percussion
MOSAIC is the playground of Swedish pianist Jacob Karlzon and Moroccan percussionist Rhani Krija: a duo where rhythm and harmony trade places and every piece takes shape live on stage.
Fed by jazz, North African musical traditions, Scandinavian music and other genres, and shaped by their deep love of improvisation, this music travels between continents and moods – subtle, spacious, both raw and refined. In their performance the piano keeps the pulse and the percussion sings; roles shift and brand-new stories emerge.
No set formulas, no boundaries – just two musicians listening deeply to each other, and a creation that brings the pieces together into a whole. Theirs is a music built on trust, shaped by intuition, and most meaningful in the moment.
TOLSTOY & KARLZON
VIKTORIA TOLSTOY – vocal JACOB KARLZON – piano, keyboards
The 30-year musical dialogue between Viktoria Tolstoy and Jacob Karlzon rests on trust, curiosity and quiet courage. The world has changed many times since, and so have they, but their shared musical language has endured, deepening and growing richer. Their collaboration carries the ease of two artists who no longer need to explain themselves to each other, and the confidence of knowing when to step forward and when to step back. Their music is like an intimate conversation shaped by time, friendship and change.
Tolstoy & Karlzon move with great ease between light and shadow, fragility and strength, the familiar and the new. What emerges is the simple beauty of two musicians drawing on a life fully lived — and the excitement of all that is still to be discovered.
