BIOGRAPHY
Jerry Johansson started out his musical journey some distant years ago in the Swedish city of Varberg, then as a guitar player and composer in various rock- and jazz-groups. After having had a minor revelation when experiencing a George Harrison-composition on a Beatles-album; an overwhelmed Jerry realised that the point of no return had finally arrived.
He immediately began studying the classical Indian raga and the world of the sitar on an advanced level,
with a most serious approach.
This newly found universe of his does not only need highly concentrated and daily practise,
but also requires an ascetical way of living and a humble approach to the world at large.
Sitar master Roop Verma appears, himself a former student of master Ravi Shankar; and he takes Jerry
under his wings, so to speak, and Jerry becomes his pupil.
Jerry practises various Indian modal scales and ways of thinking and plays and plays,
and in time reaches the innermost soul and spirit of the classical Indian raga.
The open mind of Jerry assimilates impressions and ideas, and the sitar player Jerry Johansson
moves on from there to here; from a student to finally becoming a sitar master performer himself.
As such, Jerry moves freely as an adventurous musical earth-traveller in the best of senses; combining Indian ways of looking at the world with bare Swedish feet in the glowing grass of the sparkling world known as the ever-present NOW!
Selected recordings:
"Raga på svenska" (Prova Productions PPS1004) is the first cd-recording in where Jerry allows the world of
Indian raga melt together with the Swedish folk music heritage in a totally natural blend.
The word "raga" translates to "song", so with his bare feet deeply rooted in folk music,
Jerry travels on to new horizons in his totally original mixture of Swedish
and Indian ways of musical innovation and thinking.
In "Dan Fröberg and Jerry Johansson" (Håll Tjäften TJÄFT 004), Jerry collaborates with artist and composer Dan Fröberg in a series of dual compositions with Dan´s soundworks and Jerry´s sitar and guitar playing blending together in uniqe and startling ways. Folk music has never sounded like this before or after...
In 2005, Jerry was commisioned to write a piece for sitar and a string quartet from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.
10 months later, the world premiere took place in Hagakyrkan in Göteborg, and shortly thereafter released on cd by
Kning Disk (KD008).
A highly impressive recording which has been greeted with critical acclaim all over the planet.
Jerry Johansson´s latest composition for sitar, tambura and string quartet is called Next Door Conversation.
This time, a santour is also added to the musical texture.
Next Door Conversation is a new extended work, in where ancient Indian traditions of the classical
raga music assimilates together with the Swedish heritage of folk music; but also incorporates the knowledge and
understanding of contemporary classical music.
Musical textures extends, re-shapes and changes places; in Jerry Johansson´s exquisite ways of thinking and blending
our ancient musical heritage from both East and West, a totally new and unique music emerges.
A music in where traces remembrances from then and now, Scandinavia and Asia assimilates together to a totally
natural music that is all Jerry Johansson´s.
Next Door Conversation is also released on cd by Kning Disk (KD038). The performance is a live recording,
recorded on the world premiere performance in Konserthuset, Göteborg in December 2006.
Jerry Johansson; sitar, a String Quartet from Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Camilla Wahlberg; tambura
and Farivar Khosravi; santour.
In the world of Jerry Johansson, Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan lives neighbourly close with fellow souls John Cage and Morton Feldman, and now you are all invited to join in for the ride; so check out these cd´s and find yourself in an altogether new, but very wonderful place and state of mind.
