BIO story
Fredrik Kronkvist was born 1975 in a musical family. His mother plays the piano and his father, Rolf “Kometen” Kronkvist, is a jazz musician who played with Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Kenny Dorham and several other American musicians when they visited Sweden.
When Fredrik was 10, his father introduced him to Red Rodney, who played trumpet with Charlie Parker’s group in the 50s. The meeting was very inspiring for the little kid and from that day, with Charlie Parker as musical idol, Fredrik choose the alto saxophone as his instrument.
Fredrik began to practice, and started to follow his father to concerts with for example Art Blakey, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson and also to jam sessions where he started to pick up the language of jazz.
After finishing high school where he studied technology, he attended the Skurup Music School at the age of 19 and studied there for two years. At the school he met pianist Joey Calderazo, alto saxophonist Vincent Herring, Dave Liebman and others who were guest teachers there. And of course, all the other talented students who were there woodshedding. Fredrik is now the saxophone teacher at the school since 2001.
After Skurup Music School in 1996, Fredrik played a lot of Latin Jazz with some Cubans who had settled down in Sweden. One was trumpeter Luis Barona whose father had been Arturo Sandoval’s teacher. Another was Calixto Oviedo, a great drummer who was one of the first to translate the traditional cuban rhythms to the drum set. Playing every week with these Cubans was great inspiration and a great experience in terms of swing, time, technique and stamina. At this time Fredrik also started to play the flute.
1997 at the age of 22 he attends the Malmö College of Music. After hanging out on jamsessions in Malmö and Copenhagen he met trumpeter of world fame, Anders Bergcrantz who plays in the Woody Shaw/Freddie Hubbard-tradition and became a member of his quintet. With this group Fredrik has played at the Berlin jazz festival, Copenhagen jazz festival, and Stockholm jazz festival etc.
After graduating college Fredrik also joins Tolvan Big Band in 2000. A band with an international reputation of the most up-to-date and ambitious big bands anywhere in the world, collaborating with stars as Michael Brecker and Dave Liebman. Or as Dizzy Gillespie said. “This is the best Big Band that I have played with since 1947!”
Fredrik has played with Tolvan Big Band at the
Santiago Jazz festival in Chile and appeared on TV both in Chile and in Sweden. In this band Fredrik doubles on soprano saxophone, flute and alto flute
Fredrik Kronkvist and singer Miriam Aïda made their record debut together with the Jan Lundgren Trio in 2002. The album “Jan Lundgren Trio presents Miriam Aïda & Fredrik Kronkvist” was a huge success in Sweden and they appeared together on Swedish National Television from Stockholm Jazz festival 2002.
Fredrik and Miriam also fronts the Brazilian influenced, dance floor music based group, A Bossa Eletrica whose first full length album “Eletrificacao”, has sold well in Japan and Europe. The band is very well acclaimed by DJs all over the world whom have had A Bossa Eletrica’s hit “tombo in 7/4” in their play lists in the magazines Jazzwise, Straghit no Chaser and others. A Bossa Eletrica has played several times at the famous Jazz Café in London.
Fredrik and Miriam run a jazz club in their hometown Malmö/Sweden called “Jazzclub MONK”. MONK concentrates on contemporary hard swinging jazz, and is known for its warm and open atmosphere from its listeners.
Since the Fredrik Kronkvist Quartet’s debut album “Altitude” in 2003, Fredrik has studied with drummer legend Jimmy Cobb (the drummer from the Kind of Blue session by Miles Davis) and contemporary american jazz stars Kenny Garrett and Jason Moran.
New ideas and projects always pops up in Fredrik’s head and he’s always trying to fit in at least 28 hours per day.
To be continued…
