Bo Hansson
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Bo Hansson (10 April 1943 – 23 April 2010) was a
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...
best known for his four instrumental
progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
studio albums released throughout the 1970s.


Early life and musical career

Hansson spent his early life in a remote village in the pine forests of northern Sweden, but a change in his parents' fortunes forced a move to Stockholm and they were forced to leave the young Hansson behind, in the care of family friends. As a teenager he joined his parents in Stockholm, where he soon became interested in the burgeoning
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
scene and taught himself to play the guitar, before joining the band
Rock-Olga Birgit Magnusson (née Jacobsson, 16 March 1940 – 10 June 2010), known by the stage name Rock-Olga, was a Swedish singer. She was one of Sweden's first rock musicians during the 1950s. She won her stage name via a bet with anothe ...
. After the rock and roll craze gave way to
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
and
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
in the late fifties, he joined 'Slim Notini's Blues Gang' as a guitarist. Hansson was able to move on and form his own blues group The Merrymen, who supported
The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...
on an early Scandinavian tour. In 1966, Hansson saw American jazz organist
Jack McDuff Eugene McDuffy (September 17, 1926 – January 23, 2001), known professionally as "Brother" Jack McDuff or "Captain" Jack McDuff, was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader. He was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz ...
perform at Stockholm's Gyllene Cirkeln Club, and was so captivated by the performance that he decided to leave The Merrymen to expand his musical horizons. Encouraged by fellow Merryman Bill Öhrström, he eventually acquired his own
Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...
. Öhrström became an A&R man and producer at
Polydor Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...
Sweden, and introduced Hansson to other musicians, one of whom was drummer Janne Carlsson. Hansson and Carlsson immediately hit it off and were signed by Polydor under the band name
Hansson & Karlsson Hansson & Karlsson was a Swedish duo consisting of Bo Hansson (organ) and Janne Carlsson (drums). The name ''Carlsson'' being written with a K instead of a C in the name of the band was initially just a mis-print in an early poster (both spelling ...
, playing up-tempo Hammond organ based music and releasing three albums between 1967 and 1969. They became immensely popular in their home country and some parts of Europe, and even reached the ear of
Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
, who took time out from his tour to jam with the duo, along with George Clemons on drums and
Georg Wadenius Georg "Jojje" Wadenius (born 4 May 1945) is a Swedish multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer who was particularly active during the 1970s and 1980s as a studio and session guitarist and bassist, as well as for a series of albums of childre ...
on guitar, at the Klub Filips in Stockholm in late 1967. Hendrix went on to record a Hansson song, "Tax Free". "Tax Free" appears on ''War Heroes'', ''South Saturn Delta'', and various live bootleg recordings.


Solo debut

By 1969, Janne Carlsson had become a successful comedian and TV host, and Hansson decided to break up the partnership. Entranced by a copy of
J.R.R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...
's ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...
'', which he had purloined from his girlfriend, he moved into a friend's vacant apartment and started writing. When the unfortunate friend returned, he found that he had been evicted from his apartment after numerous complaints about the noise Hansson was creating. Hansson retreated to a remote cottage on an island off Stockholm where he, drummer Rune Carlsson and engineer Anders Lind, who had worked previously with Hansson & Karlsson, spent the winter of 1969 recording what was to become Hansson's debut solo album on a borrowed four track recorder. The resourceful Lind was even able to gain use of the only eight track recorder in Sweden at that time at the
Swedish National Radio Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
station, on the pretext that he was interested in buying one himself and wanted to test it. Once there, he persuaded
session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...
s Gunnar Bergsten and Sten Bergman to flesh out the recordings. ''Sagan Om Ringen'' was released on
Silence Records Silence (Silence Records AB), is a Swedish record company located outside Koppom, Värmland in Sweden. Silence was started in 1970 in Stockholm and released records by, amongst others: Bo Hansson, Philemon Arthur and the Dung, Samla Mammas Manna ...
(Sweden's first independent record label which was set up by Anders Lind) in autumn 1970 and became a huge hit. Copies of the album began to filter across to Britain where it came to the attention of
Tony Stratton Smith Tony Stratton Smith (born Anthony Mills Smith; 11 August 1933 – 19 March 1987) was an English rock music manager, and entrepreneur. He founded the London-based record label Charisma Records in 1969 and managed rock groups such as the Nice, V ...
, who was so impressed that he released the album as '' Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings'' on his own
Charisma Records Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van d ...
label in September 1972. The album peaked at #34 on the
UK Album Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Offici ...
and became Hansson's only UK Top 40 album.


Further musical career

Encouraged by the success of his first album, Hansson was booked into Stockholm's Studio Decibel where he began work on the follow-up. Using the same team, along with guitarist Kenny Håkansson, the new recordings benefitted from the superior equipment and ''Ur Trollkarlens Hatt'' was released on Silence Records in late 1972, and on
Charisma () is a personal quality of magnetic charm, persuasion, or appeal. In the fields of sociology and political science, psychology, and management, the term ''charismatic'' describes a type of leadership. In Christian theology, the term ''chari ...
in the UK as ''Magician's Hat'' in October 1973. Although critically acclaimed, it failed to reach the popularity of the earlier work, and did not chart in the UK. Popularity in Sweden, however, put pressure on Hansson to tour, and a touring band was hastily assembled. The tour was cancelled by the reclusive keyboard player, however, citing a lack of motivation. Instead, he returned to Studio Decibel and started work on his third album. Using the tried and trusted backing musicians the recordings continued the progression of the previous album, and ''Mellanväsen'' was issued on Silence Records in October 1975, and as ''Attic Thoughts'' on Charisma in the UK in February 1976. Despite being the most accomplished record to date it was disappointingly received, although it did feature the song "Rabbit Music" which would point the way to Hansson's next album. In 1976 Hansson and Silence Records parted company, and he was able to negotiate a worldwide deal with Charisma. He returned once again to Studio Decibel and began work on recordings that were inspired by another book;
Richard Adams Richard George Adams (10 May 1920 – 24 December 2016) was an English novelist. He is best known for his debut novel ''Watership Down'' which achieved international acclaim. His other works included ''Maia'', '' Shardik'' and '' The Plague Do ...
' ''
Watership Down ''Watership Down'' is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Hampshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natur ...
''. Using the same session musicians but with a new producer, Pontus Olssen, the recordings were issued in September 1977 as ''El 'Ahrairah'' (after the novel's rabbit god) and ''Music Inspired by Watership Down'' on Charisma in the UK and Canada, and on
Sire Records Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records. History Beginnings The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gotteh ...
in the US. Another disappointing chart performance led to Hansson's withdrawal from the popular music scene, and though he worked on a number of projects with friends, little was heard from him until 1985 when he released, in Sweden only, the album ''Mitt I Livet'' (In the Middle of Life) on Silence Records (SRS 4700). He then fell into obscurity.


Later years

Hansson found a new following amongst Swedish DJs in recent years, who sampled his music – something which apparently pleased him enormously. Although the better known ''Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings'' made it onto CD in 1988, in a remixed version accompanied by selected tracks from ''Magician's Hat'' and ''Attic Thoughts'', his other 1970s albums remained unavailable in full until 2005 when Silence Records (through
EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...
) re-issued them on CD, digitally re-mastered and with previously unreleased extra material. In 1998 Hansson & Karlsson reunited for some live concerts and a compilation album. Due to his pioneering work and the mysteries surrounding Hansson & Karlsson's rise and fall, Hansson received the status of a living legend among the independent musical community in Sweden. He occasionally performed live sets with fellow organist Eric Malmberg who has been greatly inspired by Hansson's work. Bo Hansson died in Stockholm on 23 April 2010.


Discography


As Bo Hansson


Studio albums

* 1972 '' Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings'', Charisma (originally released in Sweden as ''Sagan om ringen'' in 1970) * 1973 '' Magician's Hat'', Charisma (originally released in Sweden as ''Ur trollkarlens hatt'' in 1972) * 1975 '' Attic Thoughts'', Charisma (released in Sweden as ''Mellanväsen'') * 1977 ''
Music Inspired by Watership Down ''Music Inspired by Watership Down'' is a 1977 progressive rock album by Swedish musician Bo Hansson. The album is Hansson's fourth solo album and is, as its name suggests, built around musical ideas inspired by Richard Adams' heroic fantasy novel ...
'', Charisma (released in Sweden as ''El-Ahrairah'') * 1985 '' Mitt i livet'', Silence Records (released only in Sweden)


Compilation

* 1983 '' Reflection: Best of Bo Hansson'',
Fontana Records Fontana Records is a record label that started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records. Fontana Distribution, an independent label distributor, takes its name from the label. History Fontana began in the 1950s as a subsidi ...
(
compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...
covering Bo's first three solo albums) The CD reissues of the first three solo records are distributed internationally by the original company, Silence Records.


As Hansson and Karlsson

* 1967 ''Monument'' * 1968 ''Rex'' * 1969 ''Man at the Moon'' * 1998 ''Hansson & Karlsson'' (compilation) * 2010 ''For People in Love 67–68'' (studio & live recordings)


See also

*
List of Swedes in music This is a list of Swedish musicians and musical groups: Composers A–M * Johan Agrell (1701–1765), full name: Johan Joachim Agrell * Hugo Alfvén (1872–1960), full name: Hugo Emil Alfvén * Kurt Atterberg (1887–1974), full name ...


References


External links


Official website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hansson, Bo 1943 births 2010 deaths Swedish keyboardists Progressive rock musicians Swedish organists Male organists