Jonas Hellborg | |
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 Hellborg in 1983 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1958-06-07)7 June 1958 (age 67) |
| Origin | Sweden |
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| Instrument | Bass |
Jonas Hellborg (born 7 June 1958) is a Swedish bass guitarist. He has collaborated withJohn McLaughlin,Ustad Sultan Khan,Fazal Qureshi,Bill Laswell,Shawn Lane,Jens Johansson,Anders Johansson,Ginger Baker,Michael Shrieve,V. Selvaganesh,Jeff Sipe,Mattias IA Eklundh,Public Image Ltd, andBuckethead.
Hellborg began his music career in 1976 in Sweden touring with local rock acts. He was spotted by percussionistReebop Kwaku Baah in a small club in Stockholm 1979 and he moved to London for a year to work with Reebop on different projects.[1] He played the Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland in 1981 and metMichael Brecker, who introduced him to John McLaughlin,Billy Cobham and other fusion stars.[2] He was asked to join McLaughlin's reformedMahavishnu Orchestra in 1983. He stayed with McLaughlin until 1988, touring and recording with Mahavishnu Orchestra. He also did several duet tours with McLaughlin during this time.[3]
In 1986 and 1987 he toured with a project featuringGinger Baker on drums andBernie Worrell on keyboards, which appears on Hellborg's 1988 albumBass.[4] They continued to perform together in 1989.[5]
In 1988 Hellborg moved to New York and started his own band which first included keyboardistAydin Esen and drummerKenwood Dennard,[6] and later the Johansson Brothers, Jens on keyboards and Anders on drums. He started a recording studio together with producer/bassistBill Laswell called Greenpoint Studios. They recorded a multitude of records there until early 1993, includingThe Word together withTony Williams,Octave of the Holy Innocents withMike Shrieve andBuckethead,Material's Hallucination Engine, andE with the Johansson Brothers.
In 1993 he sold his part in the studio to Laswell and resettled in Paris, France. The following year he teamed up with guitaristShawn Lane, a cooperation that would last nine years. The first record wasAbstract Logic with Ginger Baker's sonKofi on drums; this was followed byMichael Shrieve'sTwo Doors. By the third record they were joined by drummerJeff Sipe and embarked on a long stretch that produced four records and a lot of touring between 1995 and 1997.
In 1998 Hellborg met percussionistV. Selvaganesh at aZakir Hussain concert in Paris. The two formed a musical partnership that has been ongoing since then. To start with, Selvaganesh joined Hellborg in duets and in different "classical" settings Hellborg was working on at the time. Later a group was formed, first in trio with Lane, then a quintet including Selvaganesh's two brothers V. Umashankar and V. Umamahesh. Two CDs and a DVD were produced with this group. After Shawn Lane's death in 2003, Hellborg has continued to explore amalgamations of Indian and Western music, working with Indian masters asDebashish Bhattacharya,Niladri Kumar,Vikku Vinayakram,Tanmoy Bose andU. Shrinivas. He has also started a newmetal-fusion project with guitaristMattias IA Eklundh called Art Metal.
Hellborg founded his own record label, Day Eight Music (D.E.M.), in 1979, releasing his first solo bass record,The Bassic Thing – an early showcase of his pioneering chordal, and for the time very advanced, slapping approaches. It was the first LP ever to feature solely bass guitar. With the move to the US, a new entity was formed, called Bardo Music, that took over the responsibilities of Hellborg's output, now counting around 40 releases.
Hellborg has been involved in instrument design from early in his career. His work includes a signature model forAria, the first ever biamped bass amplifier (in cooperation with Italian company FBT), a double neck bass, fretted and fretless, for British companyWal in 1983, and, in 1984, an acoustic bass in collaboration with master luthierAbraham Wechter.
After working with a half dozen other companies with signature models and inventions he, together with the German manufacturerWarwick, created a new bass and a high end line of bass amplification.[7]
Hellborg published two books in the early '80s with Music Sales of London, one onslap bass calledThumb Bassics, and a chord book calledChord Bassics.
As a teenager Hellborg appeared as an actor in the TV seriesHem till byn (Home to the Village), a widely popular dramatic series inspired by everyday life in Sweden, in which Jonas's mother, actress Tove Waltenburg, played one of the main characters. He appeared in the first three seasons, in 1971, 1973 and 1976, as well as in one episode in season four (in 1990), where his character has become a famous bass player. According toIMDb,[unreliable source?] playing Anders Persson inHem till Byn is his only acting credit.
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