Tollak Ollestad is an American

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

player, singer,

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

. He is best known for his harmonica feature performance on the

Northern Exposure ''Northern Exposure'' is an American comedy-drama television series about the eccentric residents in the fictitious town of Cicely, Alaska, that originally aired on CBS from July 12, 1990, to July 26, 1995, with a total of 110 episodes. It rec ...

tv series theme and on recordings by artists including

Christopher Cross Christopher Cross (born Christopher Charles Geppert; May 3, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He won five Grammy Awards for his eponymous debut album released in 1979. The singles "Sailing" (1979), and " Arthur's Theme (Best ...

Al Jarreau Alwin Lopez Jarreau (March 12, 1940 – February 12, 2017) was an American singer and songwriter. His 1981 album '' Breakin' Away'' spent two years on the ''Billboard'' 200 and is considered one of the finest examples of the Los Angeles pop and ...

, Earth Wind and Fire,

Natalie Cole Natalie Maria Cole (February 6, 1950 – December 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to prominence in the mid-1970s, with the release of her debut ...

Gino Vannelli Gino Vannelli (born June 16, 1952) is a Canadian rock singer and songwriter who had several hit songs in the 1970s and 1980s. His best-known singles include " People Gotta Move" (1974), " I Just Wanna Stop" (1978), " Living Inside Myself" (1981) ...

Dave Grusin Robert David Grusin (born June 26, 1934) is an American composer, arranger, producer, jazz pianist, and band leader. He has composed many scores for feature films and television and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, incl ...

, and

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...

among others and his live performance with major touring artists. T-Leek3A

Early life

Tollak Ollestad was born in

Seward, Alaska Seward (Alutiiq language, Alutiiq: ; Denaʼina language, Dena'ina: ''Tl'ubugh'') is an incorporated home rule city in Alaska, United States. Located on Resurrection Bay, a fjord of the Gulf of Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula, Seward is situated ...

and grew up in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

. After starting out in the club scene in Seattle in his early twenties he moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 1984.

Career

He first became known as keyboardist/singer touring with artists

Ambrosia In the ancient Greek mythology, Greek myths, ambrosia (, ) is the food or drink of the Greek gods, and is often depicted as conferring longevity or immortality upon whoever consumed it. It was brought to the gods in Mount Olympus, Olympus by do ...

and

Bobby Caldwell Robert Hunter Caldwell (August 15, 1951 – March 14, 2023) was an American singer and songwriter. He released several albums spanning R&B, soul, jazz, and adult contemporary. He is known for his soulful and versatile vocals. Caldwell release ...

. Around the same time he started gaining notoriety as a session harmonica player, starting with being featured in the theme for the television series

, and then a series of live credits with artists such as

Don Henley Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947) is an American musician who is a founding member of the rock band the Eagles, for whom he is the drummer and co-lead vocalist, as well as its sole continuous member. Henley sang the lead vocals on Eagles ...

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and

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as well as features on several artist's albums including

, Earth Wind and Fire,

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, M83 and

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. As a keyboardist/vocalist he has additionally toured or performed live with other artists including Michael McDonald,

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, Jewel,

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, and

Seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

. Ollestad performed "Canzoni Stonate" live with Andrea Bocelli at his "Amore Under the Desert Sky" Concert. The concert was recorded at the Lake Las Vegas Resort in December 2005. Ollestad has also released three albums of original music independently, respectively "Walk the Earth" 2004, "Across the Rubicon" 2009 and "Tollak live" 2016. Ollestad's harmonica is featured on Jacky Cheung's Zhǎo Duì Nǐ ( Which Way, Robert Frost?)" from his "

Private Corner Private Corner is a studio album by Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung, known as God of Songs and one of the Four Heavenly Kings. It is the first jazz album of Cantopop, a concept album recorded in the style of " Canto-jazz", coined by Cheung to de ...

" canto-jazz album. Ollestad was chosen from a selection of harmonica players presented to Cheng's producer by Roxanne Seeman and recorded his harmonica part for the project in The Netherlands. He moved to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in 2004 where he currently resides and continues to perform, record and teach, as well as elsewhere in Europe, America and other venues worldwide. Ollestad's research and work at the Academy for pop culture in the Netherlands led to his appearance at the TEDx conference in Groningen, the Netherlands in 2016. The talk is titled "Discovering the musical subconscious" and is a discourse, along with musical demonstration, on the need for increased awareness and focus on the "intuitive-subconscious" connection to learning, making and performing music. A connection he argues is as deeply interwoven into the human psyche as language. In 2021, he joined the fourth season of The Voice Senior. He picked

Gerard Joling Gerard Jan Joling (born 29 April 1960) is a Dutch singer and television presenter. Known for his high tenor voice, he rose to fame in the late 1980s and released a string of singles including "Ticket to the Tropics" and "Love Is in Your Eyes". H ...

as his coach, and eventually made it into the finals.

References

External links

Official site
* https://www.facebook.com/events/145265399156971 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnxfhJ3dD_E * https://www.facebook.com/tollakmusic/ * http://mastersofharmonica.com/masters-of-the-chromatic-harmonica/4841-2/ * https://twitter.com/hashtag/tollakollestad *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CilXrSYMA8U (Tollak Ollestad , TEDxGroningen) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ollestad, Tollak Living people American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters American male composers 21st-century American composers American keyboardists American harmonica players American male singer-songwriters American multi-instrumentalists American soul singers American people of Norwegian descent Singers from Seattle Ambrosia (band) members 21st-century American male musicians Year of birth missing (living people) Singer-songwriters from Washington (state)