Oddbjørn Sverre Blindheim (born 24 February 1944 in

Ålesund Ålesund () sometimes spelled Aalesund in English, is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrative ...

, Norway) is a jazz pianist and dentist from

Vigra Vigra is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county on the west coast of Norway. The municipality existed from 1890 until its dissolution in 1964 when it was merged into the present-day Giske Municipality. The former municipality was mad ...

, the older brother of jazz bassist

Svein Olav Blindheim Svein Olav Blindheim (born 25 July 1954) is a Norwegian jazz double bassist, composer and writer, and the brother of jazz pianist Oddbjørn Blindheim. Biography Blindheim was born in Ålesund, Norway and raised in Vigra, Sunnmøre, and has pla ...

, and a veteran on the Norwegian jazz scene.

Biography

Blindheim started playing the piano as a teenager, when he rudely awakened to Bud Powell and Horace Silver. He finished dental studies in Oslo, and actively participated in the capital jazz scene during his studies. Over the years, he kept in touch with the jazz community and playing at times with touring musicians as well as with his own trio. As pianist, arranger and interpreter of beads from the jazz history, he is loud voice at the Norwegian jazz scene. With his trio he released the album ''Horace Hello'' (1999) is a tribute to Horace Silver with his brother Svein Olav on

upright bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

and drummer

Håkon Mjåset Johansen Håkon Mjåset Johansen (born 1 August 1975 in Trondheim, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz drummer and composer, known from playing with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra featuring Chick Corea at Moldejazz 2000, cooperations with Bugge Wesseltoft's New Co ...

. It received rave reviews in the international press, presenting compositions of some key jazz pianists from 1950–1960. Blindheim is influenced by some of the key jazz pianists from 1950–1960 like

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "B ...

Bud Powell Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 27, 1924 – July 31, 1966) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Along with Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke and Dizzy Gillespie, Powell was a leading figure in the development of modern ...

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...

Bobby Timmons Robert Henry Timmons (December 19, 1935 – March 1, 1974) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He was a sideman in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for two periods (July 1958 to September 1959; February 1960 to June 1961), between which he w ...

Randy Weston Randolph Edward "Randy" Weston (April 6, 1926 – September 1, 2018) was an American jazz pianist and composer whose creativity was inspired by his ancestral African connection. Weston's piano style owed much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious M ...

Ray Bryant Raphael Homer "Ray" Bryant (December 24, 1931 – June 2, 2011) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Early life Bryant was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 24, 1931. His mother was an ordained minister who had tau ...

, Vic Feldman,

Sonny Clark Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark (July 21, 1931 – January 13, 1963) was an American jazz pianist and composer who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom. Early life Clark was born and raised in Herminie, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town east of Pit ...

and Jan Johansson. Blindheim's latest album ''Piano Pals'' (2014) with bassist

Bjørn Alterhaug Bjørn Alterhaug (born 3 June 1945) is a Norwegian jazz bassist, arranger, composer and professor of music. Store Norske Leksikon (in Norwegian) Career Alterhaug was born in Mo i Rana, Norway. He is one of the grand masters among European basspl ...

and drummer Eyvind Olsen Wahlen, where he finds inspiration in The Golden Age of Modern Jazz, the 1950s and the 1960s.

Discography

*1999: ''Horace Hello'' (

Gemini Records Gemini Records (initiated 1984 in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian record label founded and run by Bjørn Petersen (b. 1939). Background The primary goal of Gemini Records was to release albums by saxophonist Bjarne Nerem. Gradually this aim broade ...

) *2014: ''Piano Pals'' (

Ponca Jazz Records Ponca Jazz Records is a jazz record label founded by Hilde Hefte in Kristiansand, Norway in 2004 Background Hefte had an idea of releasing the Rolf Søder recording ''Jargong Vålereng' '' with Egil Kapstad as composer, arranger and band leade ...

)

References

External links

Smålåten sunnmøring trygt plantet mellom pasient og piano
at Tannlegetidende.no {{DEFAULTSORT:Blindheim, Oddbjorn 20th-century Norwegian pianists 21st-century Norwegian pianists Norwegian jazz pianists Norwegian jazz composers Gemini Records artists Ponca Jazz Records artists Musicians from Ålesund 1944 births Living people