Palle Danielsson

Palle Danielsson grew up in a musical Stockholm household, started on harmonica at two, switched to violin at eight, and had moved to double bass and was playing professionally by fifteen. He studied at Sweden's Royal Academy of Music and developed his craft at the Gyllene Cirkeln club, accompanying visiting American players through the mid-1960s, including Bill Evans in 1965. His appearance on the Jan Garbarek and Bobo Stenson Quartet's "Witchi-Tai-To" (ECM, 1974), alongside drummer Jon Christensen, brought him to the attention of Manfred Eicher, who in turn introduced him to Keith Jarrett. Danielsson, Garbarek, and Christensen then spent five years as Jarrett's European quartet, recording "Belonging" (1974), "My Song" (1977), and a run of further ECM albums that placed the group at the centre of the label's most celebrated period. Danielsson was constitutionally a sideman rather than a leader, and the quality of his presence across the ECM catalogue reflects that: warmly toned, melodically inventive, rhythmically unshakeable, and consistently more interested in the group sound than in drawing attention to his own playing. His name also appears on records by Charles Lloyd, Michel Petrucciani, Enrico Rava, Tomasz Stanko, Collin Walcott with Don Cherry, and Anouar Brahem. He died in Stockholm on 18 May 2024, aged 77.

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