# Palle Danielsson internationally best-known bassist from Sweden: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/10/15/palle-danielsson-internationally-best-known-bassist-sweden-video/
- Published: 2017-10-15T12:53:15+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**15.10. – Happy Birthday !!! Double-bass player Palle Danielsson was born in 1946
and grew up in Stockholm. In a 1951 jazz magazine you could read: “The name of the
youngest dance musician in Sweden is Paul Danielsson, five years old, who plays 
the mouth-organ and the swanee whistle. **

He knows ‘Mocking Bird Hill’ almost by heart”. – Palle had performed together with
his eleven-year-old sister Monica who had in turn played a boogie-woogie tune. Today
Monica (Dominique) is a well-established pianist and composer.

At this early stage in his life he had no idea that he would become a musician. 
It wasn’t until a few years later when there was a selection for admission to what
was the first music school in Stockholm. His sister who studied there seemed to 
enjoy it very much when she sang together with her schoolmates and he thought that
he would like to do the same. Palle started playing the violin but changed to the
double-bass. When graduating from the school he became a student at the Royal College
of Music in Stockholm in 1962 and at around the same time he started playing as 
a professional. He almost immediately was ranked among the very best Swedish jazz
musicians and started touring with different groups. In the autumn of 1965 when 
he was only 19 years old, he got a job with Bill Evans at the jazz club “The Golden
Circle” in Stockholm. Before the gig he had a brief meeting with Bill Evans, they
played a couple of tunes and Palle was accepted. A reviewer wrote: “Danielsson is
either too naive or too talented not to get automatically frightened to death”. 
But Palle didn’t think that way. Says Palle: “If you know how to ride a bike, well,
then you know!”

So Palle discovered his musical identity very early. He liked some of the music 
that he listened to at The Golden Circle, for example Jim Hall and Art Farmer with
Steve Swallow and Pete LaRoca. They played music on a very high level, at quite 
a low volume but containing an enormous energy. He had heard Bill Evans before the
opportunity came to play with him and he preferred Evans’ way of playing to bebop
jazz, which he considered somewhat vulgar at times with a little too many “licks”
and quotations. But actually he didn’t dislike any particular style.

In the 60’s Palle toured Europe together with trombonist Eje Thelin, drummer Billy
Brooks and saxophone player Barney Wilen. Touring foreign countries gave him a particular
perspective on Sweden and how it was to be a jazz musician there. So once, after
having returned to Sweden, he decided not to allow anyone to oppress him. Usually
he survived for a while on the inspiration of what he had experienced but then the
treadmill began to wear him down again. It was Eje Thelin who taught him to stand
up for what he was doing on stage and who also encouraged him to take responsibility,
to express himself clearly and honestly. Eje also gave everyone in his group complete
freedom, but at the same time responsibility to take care of his own role in the
music.

Palle has broad musical references and gets very moved by beautiful harmonies and
he can gets gooseflesh listening to, for example, Bach, Bartòk and Alban Berg. He
is also a player with an exceptional technique, combined with an uncanny ability
to ‘localize’ the natural spaces in music and fill them with lightning reflexes.
For all this, he is essentially a group player, uninterested in being the star of
the show.

Palle Danielsson is undoubtedly the internationally best-known bassist from Sweden.
As a member of Keith Jarrett’s “European quartet” he laid the foundation for a worldwide
reputation as a tasteful player with rock-steady time, a reputation he has built
upon and refined with equal parts calmness, good judgement and talent. Parallel 
with his stint with Keith Jarrett’s group, Palle was a member of the renewed Swedish-
Norwegian group with Jan Garbarek and Bobo Stenson for a couple of epoch-making 
years during the 70’s. He was also the obvious choice when saxophone legend Charles
Lloyd – after a 12-year silence – made his comeback in the beginning of the 80’s
and for several years Palle was the anchor for the French wizard Michel Petrucciani.

During the 90’s Palle has recorded and toured regularly with the English pianist
John Taylor, and ex-Weather Report drummer Peter Erskine’s trio. Currently he is
also a member of Nordan, the constellation that has spread Swedish folk music far
beyond Scandinavia’s borders and for the past few years he has led his own quartet,
Contra Post. Together with three of his favourite musicians – drummer Anders Kjellberg,
pianist Rita Marcotulli and saxophonist Joakim Milder – he makes his timeless journey
in a contemporary jazz circle with the freshness of unbroken ground.

![Image result for Palle Danielsson](https://i0.wp.com/dominiquemusik.se/wp-content/
uploads/2015/11/Palle-Enk%C3%B6ping.jpg?w=640)

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