Thorbjørn Risager – guitar, vocals
Monday Night Big Band
There’s a musical treat in store at Solhällan as Denmark’s foremost bluesman Thorbjørn Risager meets Sweden’s Monday Night Big Band.
Danish guitarist Thorbjørn Risager is widely regarded as having one of the best blues voices in the world. From early beginnings singing in Copenhagen bars 20 years ago, he has achieved growing recognition on the international blues scene.
Dan Ackroyd, co-creator of the Blues Brothers, said Thorbjørn Risager “has got a great voice, great delivery and feels the blues.”
With his blues rock band Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, he has toured intensively, nine to ten months a year, clocking up over 1,300 concerts in 24 countries and building up a large fanbase. Their latest album is “Navigation Blues” (2022). Last year the band won two Danish Grammys for best blues album and best live act.
The Malmö-based Monday Night Big Band (MNBB) was formed in 1988 by jazz musician and composer Jörgen Nilsson as a tribute to the American trumpeter and arranger Thad Jones. Jörgen Nilsson was hand-picked to play in the European big band Eclipse that Thad Jones formed in the late 1970s.
MNBB, which feature’s many of southern Sweden’s best jazz musicians, has toured in Denmark, France, Norway, and Germany. In the USA, the band has played at prestigious venues such as Village Vanguard and Carnegie Hall in New York. The band has performed with many national and international artists such as Svante Turesson, Amanda Ginsburg, Sinne Eeg, Ingrid Jensen and Dena DeRose.