Biography

Magnus Dölerud has been an established name on the Swedish jazz scene for fifteen years. He has collaborated with many of Sweden’s leading musicians and big bands and has released two CDs under his own name. In 2018 he released “Echoes & Sounds”, which is a joint project with trumpeter Dan Johansson and includes some of the finest musicians in the country. Another joint project is Trio Circle with Magnus, bassist Hans Backenroth and drummer Oscar Johansson Werre. They released their first self-titeled album in January 2022.

Magnus Dölerud was born in 1982 and was raised outside of Karlstad in the rural province of Värmland. He began playing the saxophone at the age of ten and knew immediately that it was his calling. His education is from the “Folk High Schools” in Bollnäs and Svalöv and at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. At the Royal College, he studied under many of Sweden’s most prominent musicians and saxophonists, including Karl-Martin Almqvist, Johan Hörlén, Robert Nordmark and Alberto Pinton.

Directly after graduation in 2008, he joined the legendary Fredrik Norén Band. For over 30 years, Noren’s band was the training ground for much of the Swedish jazz elite, including musicians like Dan Berglund, Magnus Broo, Fredrik Ljungkvist and Joakim Milder. As a member of the band, Magnus had the opportunity to experience its non-stop concert schedule, performing in Sweden and the U.S.A., and to play on the album, “Inside Up”.
In 2008, he also joined The Quiet Nights Orchestra, and with them he has toured Sweden, England, Italy, Slovakia and Åland and played on the albums, “Chapter One” and “Movin’”.

Magnus has continued to work with some of the most important big bands in the country, such as the Stockholm Concert Hall’s Blue House Jazz Orchestra, under the leadership of Magnus Lindgren and Peter Asplund, the Norrbotten Big Band, Ann-Sofi Söderquist Jazz Orchestra, Håkan Broströms New Places Orchestra and The Glenn Miller Orchestra of Scandinavia. He is currently a member of the Elaria Orchestra, recently started by Erika Hammarberg and Lina Lövstrand.

In the spring of 2007, Magnus founded the Magnus Dölerud Quartet with Lars Ekman (bass), Erik Lindeborg (piano) and Gustav Nahlin (drums). The band’s music, based largely on Magnus’ original compositions, is highly influenced by the jazz of the 1950s and 60s. From that tradition, the quartet has built a clear and direct sound, in which both the individual and collective are given room for expression. Their album, “My Village”, released in 2013, displays both classic, fluid jazz lines and contemporary tonalities. In addition to eight original tracks, it includes, as a loving gesture to the tradition that has inspired them, a version of Billy Strayhorn’s fantastic “Isfahan”.

In 2016 Magnus and trumpeter Dan Johansson formed a quintet that brings together some of Sweden’s most accomplished musicians: Torbjörn Gulz, Palle Danielsson and Fredrik Rundqvist. The results have been truly extra special and are captured on the album, ”Echoes & Sounds”, which was released in 2018. All the original tracks are written by Dan and Magnus, and their mixture grants the album a lovely, overarching melodic flow. Also on this album Billy Strayhorn add his opinion with the composition Strange Feeling.

Magnus works as a freelance musician in the Stockholm area and is a sponsored ambassador for D’Addario Woodwinds and Drake Mouthpieces.