Stefan Isaksson

Swedish tenor saxophonist Stefan Isaksson is an expressive hard bop/post-bop musician along the lines of Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, and George Coleman. While Isaksson isn't well known in the United States, he is well respected in Scandinavian jazz circles and has played with some of Sweden's top jazzmen. Born in Sweden in 1956, Isaksson was in his early twenties when, in the late '70s, he was hired to play bop in the big band of drummer Fredrik Norén. In 1982, he joined singer Monica Borfors' quintet, and he stayed with her on a part-time basis until 1993. Borfors' quintet was hardly Isaksson's only gig in the '80s; that decade also found him being featured as a sideman in the Radio Jazz Group (an outfit led by American arranger George Russell) as well as the big band of fellow tenor Bernt Rosengren and various groups led by pianist Per-Henrik Wallin. In 1986, Isaksson joined Sweden's Contemporary Bebop Quintet -- whose members have included pianist Ake Johansson and trumpeter Bosse Broberg -- and he was still playing with that group in early 2000. Isaksson (who formed his own quartet in 1983) had a chance to record as a leader when he provided Three Cushions for Phono Suecia in 1997.
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