Mikkel Flagstad

Michael "Mikkel" Flagstad (born April 23, 1930 in Oslo ; † June 29, 2005 ) was a Norwegian (tenor) saxophonist and clarinetist of modern jazz .

Live and act

Flagstad made his debut with the Tage Wilford Orchestra at the age of fifteen. He worked for a short time with Hans Backes and with the trumpeter Kjell Johansen and toured with Per Asplin and Karl Otto Hoff in 1948. As one of the first Norwegian bebopers , he led his own be bop band from 1949 to 1952 .

In 1951 he played in Egil Monn-Iversen's orchestra and worked with the experimental band of Ragnar Robertsen and Kjell Johansen. From 1952 to 1954 he worked in Sweden: He had a job with Simon Brehm in Sweden; he also performed with Rolf Ericson and gave concerts with his own quartet.

In 1954 he returned to Norway for health reasons. There he worked with the Norsk Jazz Elite and the Kjell Johansen Radio Orchestra; in the Humlen Restaurant he performed under Alf Søgaard (1955–1957) and Åge Kjelstrup (1957–1958). Here he met Karin Krog , who appeared frequently with his quartet in the late 1950s. In 1958 he also worked with Rowland Greenberg .

From 1959 to 1962 he was a member of Kjell Karlsen's band; He also gave concerts with his own quintet, which included Atle Hammer, Kjell Karlsen, Erik Amundsen and Ole Jacob Hansen . By 1964 he largely withdrew from the active music business because of pulmonary tuberculosis. After that he stepped sporadically u. a. with Kjell Karlsen (1965–66) and Bent Sølve and between 1967 and 1970 with their own quartet and quintet formations. After a stroke in 1990 he lived in a nursing home.

In 1960 Flagstad was awarded the Buddy Prizes of the Norsk jazzforum . In 2001, a double album with recordings from 1957 to 1959 was dedicated to him in the Portrait of a Norwegian Jazz Artist series .

Web links

• Modern Jazz in Norway (English)
• Mikkel Flagstad at Discogs (English)