The Four Roosters
The Four Roosters
Genres: bluesrock, blues, guitar blues
Magic Frankie & The Blues Disease
About The Four Roosters
The Four Roosters was the legendary blues group from the early 80's where guitar phenomenon Reiersrud broke through for full. The debut recording ROOSTER BLUES he showed that he was already an exceptional talent, and the disc quickly gained cult status amongst blues enthusiasts. The energetic interaction between Reiersrud and Swedish blue champion Sven Zetterberg is historic. The album was also the debut of saxophonist Sigurd Kohn. KNUT REIERSRUD Knut Reiersrud (born 12 February 1961 in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian blues guitarist. His work also incorporates elements of Norwegian traditional music and African music. He lives in Oslo. He has collaborated extensively with the Norwegian organist Iver Kleive. Lead guitarist and one of the original members of «Cloudberry Cream». Reiersrud also plays the harmonica, mandolin, langeleik, oud, and Turkish saz, he has composed music for four Norwegian movies, and together with Iver Kleive, took part in the opening ceremony of the '94 Olympic Winter Games. In 2008 Reiersrud established his own festival «Trestock» at Nesodden, where a superteam of Norwegian musicians controbuted. Among the artists can be mentioned Odd Nordstoga, Valkyrien Allstars and Reiersrud with his own K. R. Band, and in collaboration with organist Iver Kleive. Upcoming artists which is exciting for the younger audience like Jarle Bernhoft (ex «Span») with his new project, and the band «Lester», which is Nikolai Eilertsen (ex BigBang) and David Wallumrød, and the indie band «Maika». Names like The Grand, Amund Maarud's rock band, Spellemannprisen nominated Hemisfair, the girls who play lively frantic noise in Katzenjammer, Rockabilly girls in Lucky Lips, the country artist Ivar Thomas, the Nesodden heroes «Foggy Boys» and «Midnight Special», the traditional music trio «Vrang» and «Drøbak Bluesband». Reiersrud has for many years been host of the NRK radio program Bluesasylet together with Knut Borge. The program is meant to be a playground and a respite for blues and blues-friends of all shades. SVEN ZETTERBURG Talking about blues players outside America it´s hard to leave out Sven Zetterberg, Sweden´s most versatile artist in this field. Being both an excellent singer, guitarist,songwriter and harmonica player extraordinary,he has become a house-hold name all over Scandinavia. Born in Skärblacka on the 28th of March in 1952, Sven took music seriously enough to perform in school at the age of seven.”I didn´t know any real english words and couldn´t actually play any instrument but my grand-mother had bought me an acoustic guitar that I fooled around with trying to mimic Elvis Presley. “The first black performer I heard was Little Richard and he almost drove me crazy with his wild,frantic singing. “In 1964 he first heard Mick Jagger play harmonica and later that year heard Sonny Boy Williamson(Rice Miller) and that got him started. “The Blues activated something in me and it still moves me”. “Harmonica was my main instrument to begin with. I didn´t start playing guitar seriously until I was 24.” The first bluesband, Telge Blues,was formed in 1972 and lasted long enough to make the Phillips record company interested enough to release an album in 1975. Today,many albums later, Sven hasn´t lost interest in performing or recording and two of his albums, “Blues from within” and “Let me get over it” were both nominated for a Grammy in Sweden. Today, unfortunately, the rules been changed so that no blues cd whatsoever can compete with other types of music in Sweden. Sven has never regretted that he left his job as a delivery van driver for the swedish postal service back in 1985 to become a full time musician and is constantly performing and recording. His singing and playing through the years have resulted in an unmistakably original style that is his own.”I do a lot of blues “live” but also include deep soul material,originals as well as classic soul gems.” SIGURD EYSTEIN KOHN Sigurd Eystein Køhn (6 August 1959 – 26 December 2004) was a Norwegian jazz saxophonist and composer. He and his 16 year old son were killed in Khao Lak, Thailand by the tsunami following the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on December 26, 2004. Køhn was born in Kristiansand, Norway, and started playing the violin and the clarinet at the age of 9, and begun playing the alto saxophone when he was 14. He moved to Oslo when he was 19 years old, and became quickly a part of the city's jazz life. In the 1980s he played the saxophone with different fusion- and soul bands («Lava», «Son of Sam», «The heavy gentlemen» and more), to return to the jazz in the 1990s. He played with the jazz quartet The Real Thing from 1992 until his death, in addition to his own «Sigurd Køhn Quartet» from 1994 and «Køhn/Johansen Sextet» from 1999. In 1996 Køhn's first record under his own name was released, More pepper, please. Here Køhn performed the music of Art Pepper, in cooperation with, among others, Dag Arnesen and Jarle Vespestad. The album was well received. He performed with the band a-ha on their tours between 1991–1994, and also recorded a jazz cover of their song October. He had just finished his last record This Place before the tsunami disaster, due to be released in January 2005 along with a release concert planned January 17. Because of the tragic events the release of his record was delayed but the concert became a tribute concert to Køhn's music, where many of his friends participated. The record was released by his widow Heidi Køhn on October 26, 2005. TORBJORN SUNDE Torbjørn Sunde (born 16 February 1954 in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz musician (trombone), known from several recordings with such as Terje Rypdal, Edward Vesala, Jon Balke, Knut Værnes, Rickie Lee Jones, Randy Crawford, Dr. John, Jan Eggum, Jan Garbarek, and Mezzoforte. After growing up at Gjøvik he got a bachler in fotball from Norges Idrettshøgskole, and a master in musicology at University of Oslo. He participated on a number of recordings with Terje Rypdal (Odyssey, 1975), Edward Vesala (1977), Oslo 13 (awarded Spellemannprisen in 1988, for the album Off Balance), Oslo Rhythm & Blues Ensemble, Four Roosters, Etno Funk, Chipahua, Horns for Hire, Jazzpunkensemblet, og Mezzoforte. He has participated on releases by Jon Eberson (Stash, 1988), Jon Balke (Nonsentration, 1990) and Knut Værnes (1993). He cooperated with Rickie Lee Jones, Randy Crawford, Dr. John, Jan Eggum (Deilig, 1999) and Jan Garbarek. He led his own orchestra "Meridians of Music" (with such musical profiles as Terje Rypdal, Bugge Wesseltoft, Eivind Aarset and Jon Balke), and the "Torbjørn Sunde Octet" (with Jon Eberson, Rob Waring, Morten Halle, Håvard Lund, Trude Eick, Aslak Hartberg and Jens Petter Antonsen) with album releases. He also had his own Quartet with Tom Olstad, Roy Powell and Per Mathisen (The Blue Note sessions). JORUN BOGERG I was born late fifties, 58, in Trondheim, Norway. My first 3 years alive I lived in Buvika in Sør-Trøndelag. At the age of 3 me and my 15 months elder brother Dag moved to where my mother had come from, Reinsvoll in Vestre Toten, for the reason that our father was ill and soon passed away. In Toten we lived with my Grandmother`s sister for nine years while our Mum was working in Oslo. In this little red house by the road there was a lot of love and careing and music going on, my Great Auntie played the pumporgan, sang christian songs and many a preacher-man stopped by so neighbours and friends and family gathered and listen to the word and sing. In 67 we got our first recordplayer and the house became befriended with the sounds from The Monkees, Stones, Beatles, Herman`s Hermits, Buck Owens, The Hollis, Sven Ingvars, Creedence Clearwater Revival among many others. At 12 of age, in 1970, we moved to Oslo. Our Mum had bought a flat in the Stovner suburb. An electric Yamaha organ entered the house and we learned to play some tunes with melodi, harmony and stomping bass with the left foot and a rhythmbox attached. On my record player I heard a lot of different music, with my heart deeply into the heavyer and progressive side of music with skilled fellas like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep among coutless others. In a while my brother Dag started to play the guitar in a band with some common football-friends. I asked if I could bring my bongo-drum and join for a rehersal. On that first rehersal I picked up the guitar too, and Dag`n`me did great progress in short time. After another year or so, the man on the bass, Hansa, wanted to play leadguitar instead, so then I thought, hey…. maybe the bass is a cool thing to check out. It really was, on this axe I found both rhythm and melody at the same time. I thought it was very close to playing the guitar in many ways. I always played the guitar a lot, as well as the bass, but I considered myself quite soon as a bassplayer as the main habit in life. In the years to come I was playing here and there with friends of same interest. I was quite early in searching outside my local area to find other musicians that was more skilled than me. I joined up with different bands around and even worked with the local gospel-group (played mostly lead-guitar here). Playing music with people that was a level beyond me skillswise became my school in music, at least I thought they were better, and I learned a lot by just playing different kind of music, in the range from Stones and Deep Purple to Pink Floyd and “progressiv” originals. My bands never got out of the basement area for more than only a few times now and then. Maybe I`ll make a file about this 70s period one time ..... From the year 1977 I studied classical guitar at the Foss Videregående skole for three years (“studying” electric bass was no issue, and double bass I found too impossible to drag around), and since I always had found both bass and guitar close related to each other and liked to do both, it was a natural thing for me to play classical as well.
Taken from Last.fm
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