Lava (established 1977 in Årdal,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

) is a Norwegian

jazz-rock Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music Music genre, genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, a ...

band, known from a series of recordings in the 1980s (

Polydor Records 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 ...

Career

The initiators Per Hillestad (drums), Svein Dag Hauge (guitar) were joined by Kjell Hestetun (bass) and Stein Eriksen (keyboards) and released the jazz funk influenced album ''Lava'' (1980), with contributions from Geir Langslet (keyboards) and Olav Stedje (vocals). When Hestetun and Eriksen left the band, the quartet Hauge, Hillestad and Langslet and bassist Rolf Graf continued releasing the album ''Cruisin'' (1981), with contributions by Per Kolstad (piano), Sigurd Køhn (saxophone) and Marius Müller (guitar), and the track «Take Your Time» became Norway and Europe hit. Their third album was ''Prime Time'' (1982) with Egil Eldøen as new

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

accompanied by Sidsel Endresen on one track. In addition to the regular lineup, Per Kolstad and Sigurd Køhn contributed on this album. It was followed by a tour with

Randy Crawford Veronica "Randy" Crawford (born February 18, 1952) is an American retired jazz and R&B singer. She has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 as a solo artist. However, sh ...

(1983), also contributing on the album ''Fire'' (1984). This is Lavas best-selling albums and it was awarded Spellemannsprisen (1984) in the class Pop. Later, the group released ''Prime Cuts'' (1985), ''Rhythm of Love'' (1990) and ''The Very Best of Lava'' (1996). On the next two albums ''Polarity'' (2003) and ''Alibi'' (2005), Geir Langslet was substituted by Stein Austrud (keyboards) Kåre Kolve contributed as saxophonist. The last album ''Symphonic Journey'' (2009) was recorded live with Kringkastingsorkestret at Rockefeller. Lava also collaborated with guest artists like Randy Crawford.

Band members

;Present members * Svein Dag Hauge - guitar (1977-) * Per Hillestad - drums & percussion (1977-) * Rolf Graf - bass (1980-) * Per Kolstad - piano (1982-1989, 2003-) ;Associated members * Stein Austrud - keyboards (2003-) * Kåre Kolve - saxophone (1990-) * Eythor Gunnarsson - keyboards (1990-) ;Past members * Kjell Hestetun - bass (1980-) * Stein Eriksen - keyboards (1980-) * Egil Eldøen - vocals (1982-) * Sigurd Køhn - saksofon (1982-1989, 2003-2004) * Marius Müller - guitar (1980-1981) * Geir Langslet - keyboards (1980-2003) ;Guest vocalists * Sidsel Endresen *

Honors

*1984: Spellemannprisen in the class Pop

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Live albums

References

External links

Lava Biography
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lava (band) Norwegian pop music groups Norwegian jazz ensembles Spellemannprisen winners Norwegian rock music groups Musical groups established in 1977 Musical groups from Oslo Brain Records artists Polydor Records artists Musicians from Årdal