Rolf Billberg
Rolf Bill Berg (* 22. August 1930 in Lund , Sweden ; † 17th August 1966 ) was a Swedish jazz - saxophonist (tenor, alto).
Live and act
Billberg grew up in Gothenburg . At the age of 17, he played the clarinet in a military band for four years, but then switched to the tenor saxophone. He played in Gothenburg, Visby and Borås . In 1954 he went to Stockholm to the big band of Simon Brehm to play. In 1954/5 he played with the saxophonist Lars Gullin , with whom he also recorded. From 1955 he lived in Copenhagen , where he played in Ib Glindemann's big band in 1956 . At the same time he toured American clubs in Germany and France in a quintet by the Austrian vibraphonist Vera Auer , where he switched to the alto saxophone. In 1957 he played in Jan-Erik Norin's orchestra in the Nalen dance palace in Stockholm. He continued to play in Gullin's groups and a lot with the trumpeter Jan Allan. He accompanied u. a. Lee Konitz (with whom he has often been compared in style) and played with Stan Kenton in Copenhagen, where he was last member of Glindemann's Danish Radio Jazz Group in 1966 . Surprisingly, he died of a sudden illness on the way to the hospital while he was helping out at his mother's holiday hotel on an archipelago island near Gothenburg. In the field of jazz, according to Tom Lord , he was involved in 57 recording sessions between 1954 and 1966, most recently with Nils Lindberg .
In 2004 he was posthumously awarded the Django d'Or (Sweden) as a legend of jazz .
Discographic notes
As a leader:
- Rolf Billberg ( Storyville , 1956–57)
- Darn that Dream ( Dragon Records , 1964–66) with Jan Allan , Allan Botschinsky , Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen , Knud Jørgensen
- Altosupremo (Anagram Records)
- Rare Danish Recordings by a Swedish Jazz Legend (Storyville, 1956-66)
As a sideman:
- Lars Gullin : Portrait Of My Pals (Capitol)
- Lars Gullin: Alma Mater - Alma Almah (Anagram)
- Stan Kenton: Stan Kenton with the Danish Radio Big Band (Storyville, 1966)
- Nils Lindberg : Sax Appeal & Trisection (Dragon 1960–63)
Lexical entry
- Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
Web links
- Rolf Billberg at Allmusic (English)
- Rolf Billberg at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Billberg, Rolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish jazz saxophonist (tenor, alto) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 22nd August 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lund , Sweden |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th August 1966 |