1133: Bird Watching and Bass Lines - A Conversation with Jon Henriksson - Contrabass Conversations

Jon Henriksson is a Stockholm-based double bassist and composer who has become one of the leading voices in the contemporary Scandinavian jazz scene. Born in 1996 in Gothenburg, his path to the bass started when a high school big band director gave him just two months to learn the instrument for a Christmas concert.

His 2023 debut album Harmonia placed second in Orkesterjournalen's Golden Album readers' poll, and his new album Shapeshifter drops March 20th, 2026, featuring a quartet with pianist Rasmus Sørensen, drummer Jonas Bäckman, and saxophonist Karl-Martin Almqvist.

In this conversation, Jon talks about discovering bird watching and nature photography during the pandemic as a counterbalance to musical life. He shares his compositional process of improvising at the piano and layering ideas on his phone, the Swedish folk high school system that's created a vibrant jazz pipeline to Stockholm, and the jam sessions he hosts twice weekly at Stompin in Old Town.

Jon explains how he writes music drawing from Brazilian influences, folk, and pop alongside jazz traditions, and why he wanted Shapeshifter to give space for his favorite musicians to express their personalities.

Connect with Jon on Instagram, and listen to his music on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.

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Theme music by Eric Hochberg

1133: Bird Watching and Bass Lines - A Conversation with Jon Henriksson

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