Jonas Hellborg

Jonas Hellborg
Background information
Birth name	Jonas Hellborg
Born	June 7, 1958 (1958-06-07) (age 51)
Origin	Sweden
Genres	Jazz
Occupations	Bass guitarist
Instruments	Bass guitar, composer
Associated acts	John McLaughlin, Bill Laswell, Shawn Lane

Jonas Hellborg (born June 7, 1958) is a Swedish bass guitarist. He has collaborated with John McLaughlin, Ustad Sultan Khan, Fazal Qureshi, Bill Laswell, Shawn Lane, Jens Johansson, Michael Shrieve, V. Selvaganesh, Mattias IA Eklundh and Buckethead.

Career

Hellborg began his music career in 1976 in Sweden touring with local rock acts. He was spotted by percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah in a small club in Stockholm 1979 and he moved to London for a year to work with Reebop on different projects. He played the Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland in 1981 and met Mike Brecker who introduced him to John Mc Laughlin, Billy Cobham and other fusion stars. He was asked to join John Mc Laughlin’s reformed Mahavishnu in 1983 and he stayed with Mc Laughlin until 1988 touring and recording with Mahavishnu and also doing several duet tours with McLaughlin during this time. In 1986 and 1987 he toured with a project featuring Ginger Baker on drums and Bernie Worrell on keyboards

In 1988 Hellborg moved to New York and started his own band which first included keyboardist Aydin Esen and drummer Kenwood Dennard, later the Johansson Brothers Jens on Keys and Anders on drums. At the same time he started a recording studio together with producer/Bassist Bill Laswell called Greenpoint Studios. Recorded a multitude of records there until early 1993, including The Word together with Tony Williams, Octave of the Holy Innocents with Mike Shrieve and Buckethead, Materials Hallucination Engine, E with the Johansson Brothers.

In 1993 he sold his part in the studio to Laswell and resettled in Paris, France. The following year he teamed up with guitarist Shawn Lane, a cooperation that would last 9 years. The first record was “Abstract Logic” with Ginger Baker's son Kofi on drums; this was followed by Michael Shrieve’s “Two Doors”. By the third record they were joined by drummer Jeff Sipe and embarked on long stretch that produced 4 records and a lot of touring between 1995 and 1997.

In 1998 Hellborg met percussionist V. Selvaganesh at a Zakir Hussain concert in Paris. The two formed another long lasting musical partnership that has been ongoing since then. To start with Selvaganesh joined Hellborg in duets and in different “classical” settings Hellborg was working on at the time. Later a group was formed first in Trio with Lane then grew into a quintet including Selvaganesh’s 2 brothers V Umashankar and V. Umamahesh. 2 CD’s and a DVD were produced with this group. After Shawn Lane's death in 2003, Hellborg has continued to explore amalgamations of Indian and Western music, working with Indian masters as Debashish Bhattacharya, Niladri Kumar, Vikku Vinayakram, Tanmoy Bose and U Shrinivas. He has also started a new Metal-Fusion project with guitarist Mattias IA Eklundh called Art Metal.

Hellborg founded his own record label Day Eight Music in 1979 releasing his first solo bass record The Bassic Thing – an early showcase of his pioneering chordal, and for the time very advanced, slapping approaches. It is also noteworthy that it was the first LP ever to feature solely bass guitar. With the move to the US a new entity was formed called Bardo Music that took over the responsibilities of Hellborgs output now counting around 40 odd releases.

Instrumentation

Hellborg has been involved in instrument design from early on in his career. His work includes a signature model for Aria, the first ever biamped bass amplifier (in cooperation with Italian company FBT), a double neck bass, fretted and fretless, for British company Wal in 1983 and, in 1984, an acoustic bass in collaboration with master luthier Abraham Wechter.

After working with a further half dozen of other companies with signature models and inventions he now, together with Warwick Basses, created a new bass and a high end line of bass amplification.

Hellborg has published 2 books in the early 80’s with Music Sales of London, one on slap bass called Thumb Bassics, and a chord book called Chord Bassics.

Discography

As band leader

• The Bassic Thing (solo bass)(1979), Day Eight Music
• Elegant Punk (solo bass)(1984), Day Eight Music
• Axis (1988), Day Eight Music
• Adfa (1989), Day Eight Music
• Bass, Day Eight Music
• The Silent Life (acoustic solo bass) (1991), Day Eight Music
• Jonas Hellborg Group (1990), Day Eight Music
• Jonas Hellborg Group E (1991), Day Eight Music
• The Word (1991), Axiom
• Abstract Logic, Bardo
• Octave of the Holy Innocents (1993), Day Eight Music (re-released 2003, Bardo)
• Temporal Analogues of Paradise, Bardo
• Time Is the Enemy, Bardo
• Aram of the 2 Rivers (1999), Bardo
• Zenhouse (1999), Bardo
• Personae, Bardo
• Good People in Times of Evil, Bardo
• Icon, Bardo
• Paris (DVD) Bardo
• Kali's Son (2006), Bardo
• Art Metal (2007), Bardo

With The Mahavishnu Orchestra

• Mahavishnu, (1984) Warner Bros.
• Adventures in Radioland, (1986) Relativity

With Deadline

• Dissident (1991), Day Eight Music
• Down by Law, Cell

With Michael J. Smith

• Faces, Day Eight Music
• All our steps, Day Eight Music

With Michael Shrieve

• Two Doors, CMP
• THE LEAVING TIME,NOVUS/BMG

With Public Image Ltd

• Album, Virgin

With Trilok Gurtu

• Usfret, CMP

With Sultan Khan and Fazal Qureshi

• Friends Across Boundaries, Ninnad Music

With Ginger Baker

• Unseen Rain, Day Eight Music
• Middle Passage, Axiom

With Kollektiv

• feat. Jonas Hellborg, ITM

With Jens Johansson

• Fjäderlösa tvåfotingar, Day Eight Music

With Anders Johansson

• Shutka, Day Eight Music
• Red Shift, Heptagon

With RAF (feat. Peter Brötzmann, Bill Laswell, Jamal Evans)

Ode to a Tractor (1992), Day Eight Music

With Reebop

Melodies in a Jungle Man's Head, Day Eight Music

With Shining Path

• No Other World (1992)

External links

• Hellborgs personal site: [1]
• Hellborgs group site: [2]
• Jonas Helborg fansite: [3]
• Bardo Records (Jonas' label) website: [4]
• Warwicks Hellborg site: [5]
• Warwicks regular site: [6]