Rolf Billberg was born August 22nd.1930, in the southern Swedish city of Lund. He grew up on the west coast, living in Gothenburg with his mother and went to school there. At the age of 17 he began on clarinet with the Uddevalla millitary band and remained for four years. He went over to tenor saxophone and worked in Visby, Borås and Gothenburg before coming to Stockholm in 1954 to join the Simon Brehm orchestra. During 1954-1955 Billberg worked with baritone saxist Lars Gullin and also made recordings together with him.
He worked in Copenhagen at the National Scala first with Lasse Wanderyd's orchestra (1955), and later with the Ib Glindemann orchestra (1956). All this time Billberg was playing tenor saxophone. However, he appeared at American clubs in Germany and France with a quintet led by an Austrian vibraphonist, Vera Auer (1956-1957) and during this period changed to alto saxophone. In september 1957 he joined the Carl-Henrik Norin orchestra at 'Nalen' in Stockholm. He continued to work frequently in Copenhagen with, amongst others, the Jazz Quintet 60 and the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra. In Sweden he appeared with Lars Gullin in a variety of groups and also worked a great deal with trumpeter Jan Allan.
During the spring of 1966, Rolf Billberg was featured soloist and section leader for the saxophones of the Danish Radio Jazz Group, led by Ib Glindemann. That summer he spent, as he had spent others, helping out at his mother's holliday hotel on the island of Käringön in the Gothenburg archipaelago. Billberg became suddenly and seriously ill, and died on the way to hospital on August 17th. 1966 just short of his thirty sixth birthday.
-Keith Knox
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LATEST NEWS:
Rolf Billberg
(represented by his son) received the "Django d'Or - Legend of Jazz", Swedish Jazz Trophy on March 26. 2004, at "Nalen" in Stockholm.
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To friends and fans:
If you have any contributions or suggestions in regards to material or missing facts about my father Rolf Billberg, I would be more than happy to hear from you. I'm still working on a complete discograpy.
Best regards
Mickey Billberg
mickey@billberg.dk |
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