Harald Gundhus

Harald Gundhus (born January 3, 1942 in Ådal near Hønefoss , † August 10, 2007 in Kragerø ) was a Norwegian jazz saxophonist and flutist.

Life

Gundhus was the chairman of a jazz circle in Hønefoss from 1959 to 1961. He began with alto saxophone and played at the Norwegian amateur jazz championships in 1960 and received second prize for bands at the Drammen festival with his Jazz Forum Octet. At the first jazz festival in Molde in 1961 he played with his own quartet. In 1961/62 he was a teacher in Kristiansund , where he played in the Blue Atlantic Jazz Club, and then again in Oslo, where he won the audience award at a young talent competition with a quintet.

He studied flute and composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music (Norges musikkhøgskole) in Oslo . He supplemented this with studies with Frank Wess and George Coleman in New York City .

From 1970 to 1988 he directed a series Sing, Klatsch und Swing (Syng, klapp & swing) in the children's program of the Norwegian broadcaster NRK, where he worked as a freelancer (especially in the jazz program). The series was popular and two records emerged from it ( Grammofonplate med barn og Harald Gundhus 1974 and Swing med oss , 1978). In 1976 a jazz album based on Norwegian folk music was created Å det va du, å det va je with Anne Karin Tønset.

During this time he switched to the tenor saxophone and played in the Oslo jazz scene in his own band from 1985 to 1987 with the trumpeter Atle Hammer (* 1932), led a band with the pianist Eivin Sannes from 1979 to 1982 and in 1988 a big band with the drummer Ole Jacob Hansen . From 1982 to 1984 he also had a band (Umbraco) in his native Hønefoss, but lived in Oslo since 1983. He also played occasionally in the big band (Radiostorbandet) of NRK. From 1987 to 1989 he led the vocal group Caramel .

He has worked with Czech jazz musicians since the mid-1980s. With them he performed at the Kongsberg Jazzfestival 1988 with the Czech-Norwegian Band and released with them the album Jazznost (Hot Club Records 1990), on which Benny Bailey also played, and Bohemian Nights (1993, Gemini Records, with the rhythm group Robert Balzar (bass), Josef Vejvoda (drums), Emil Viklický (piano)). He also recorded Why my lady sleeps with Bailey in 1991 . In 1988 and 1993 he played with Gustav Brom's big band and in 1992 was a soloist in the big band of the Prague Radio.

In 1991, his commissioned work Gress was performed at the Kongsberg Festival . In the same year he received a Norwegian chamber music scholarship. In 1992 he led the band Tenor Gladness . In 1999 his last album Don´t Drop the Bop was released by Gemini Records .

He led the Harald Gundhus Quintet with Terje Venaas (bass), Roger Johansen (drums), Emil Viklický (piano) and Frode Thingnæs (trombone).

In 1997 he moved to Kragerø. The last few years have been marked by illness.

Web links

• Biography from the Nordic Jazz Archive 2007