BIOGRAPHY
Anders Widmark
Anders Widmark was born 1963 in Uppsala, Sweden. At the age of seven, he started to compose and improvise parts on his piano. After his examination at the University of Music in Stockholm 1986, Anders started to work as a professional musician.
During his career he has collaborated with OD-choir, Uppsala Chamber Musicians and Sundsvall's Symphony Orchestra, and musicians such as Bob Brookmeyer, Eddie Harris, Clark Terry and with the Swedish singers Louise Hoffsten, Sara Isaksson, Helen Sjöholm and Rebecka Törnqvist.
In 1991 Anders worked with Rebecka Törnqvist and released “Sylvesters sista resa”. The album contained, among other things, Anders's version of Jussi Björling's most famous song;”Till havs”. This was a debut for both of them.
The year after he released the album “Anders Widmark and The Soul Quartet”. That was the first Swedish record where jazz was intermixed with hip-hop and acid jazz influence. The record got big response among the younger audience and was played in clubs all over Scandinavia.
In 1994 Anders wanted to try something different and took a break from the jazz and started to play and sing songs of his own. The same year, the album “Holly Hannah” was released and in 1995 it was followed by “Freewheelin´” where Sara Isaksson and André De Lange contributed among others on the cd. In 1996 he released his solo-album “Anders Widmark”, with his own songs in Swedish.
1997, Anders played through 694 hymns from the Swedish hymn book. Sixteen of them ended up on the album “Psalmer”. On the cd, you can hear different hymns from different times like ”Världens frälsare kom här” (4th century) to Sven Erik Bäck´s ”Du som gick före oss” (1959). The album got fantastic response from the critics.
In 1998, Anders had a world-tour with 100 concerts. The year began with a crowded Stockholm's concert house along with Esbjörn Svensson Trio. He continued the tour in Norway, Germany, Belgium and USA, where he had his opening-concert on the Corcoran Gallery of articles in Washington. They also played in Jamestown, Chicago and Minneapolis and performed at KTCA-TV.
Anders continued his concerts 1999 in England, France, Belgium, Finland and Sweden. The year after “Carmen” was released, which was Anders own interpretation of Bizet’s classical works. Anders tour continued afterwards in Mexico, where he along with his musicians played at the Latin-American’s biggest culture festival, “Festival Internacional Cervantino” in Guanajuato.
In 2002 the album “Anders Widmark featuring Sara Isaksson” was released. On the album Anders worked with the singer Sara Isaksson, where Widmark's compositions and texts were interpreted by Sara Isaksson. This is a musical meeting that gets a hold on the listeners. The music was expressed by jazz musicians, who played on acoustic instruments.
In 2003, he started to work with the singer Helen Sjöholm and together they created the album “Genom varje andetag”. The album sold gold and was awarded with a Grammy in the category “The Song of the Year”.
In 2004 “Hymn” was released , an album with piano-improvisations over traditional chorals, which were taken from the 16th century. The album was the follow-up to the successful album; “Psalmer”.
In 2005 Anders received the Jan Johansson Scholarship. The jury established, among other things, that Anders “has in Jan Johansson's spirit taken good care of and developed Swedish tradition and cherished hymns and songs with the same tenderness and with the jazz as the connected formal language”.
Furtermore,
during 2005 - 2006 Anders was host of the show “Album” in Swedish National TV, SVT2.
Last year Anders Widmark took us on a musical journal with new compositions and amazed his listeners with very personal interpretations of songs like ”No Woman No Cry”, ” Waiting For A Train” and ”Light My Fire”. The name of the record was “Waiting for a train”. On the album, Anders worked with Mattias Welin on the bass and Marcus Lewin on drums. The record was chosen to the album of the year by the Swedish newspaper Expressen and was produced by Daniel Grönberg and Jim Wahrenstedt (Lorien production).
This year Anders continues his tour and he is also recording an entire new album along with the singer Sara Isaksson. Via his homepage anderswidmark.com you can hear several of his concerts live (in collaboration with Lorien production) and it is now possible to download live music.
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