Urban Connection

Urban Connection
260px Urban Connection at Moldejazz 2003. From left: Nymo, Raknes and Johansen.
Background information
Origin	Trondheim, Norway
Genres	Jazz
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Bergland Productions
Associated acts	Eldbjørg Raknes Siri Gjære Ola Kvernberg Trio Kjetil Møster
Website	www.urbanconnection.no
Members	Steinar Raknes Håkon Mjåset Johansen Frode Nymo

Urban Connection is a Norwegian Jazz trio, awarded the title of “Young Jazz Musicians of the Year” in 1998, at Norway’s prestigious Molde International Jazz Festival, forerunner of today's Jazz Intro Award, and has since appeared at numerous clubs and festivals, both at home and abroad.

Biography

Urban Connection have been touring under the auspices of the Moldejazz, where they visited several of the major festivals in Europe, like the Montreaux Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, and the Istanbul Jazz Festival amongst others, as well as being Norway's contribution EBU Festival in the Czech and Norwegian jazz forums envoys to the jazz festival in the Faroe Islands.

They released their first album Urban Connection (April 15, 2001), awarded Spellemannprisen 2001 as best Jazz record of the year. For their next album French Only (March 23, 2002), they had a release concert at the Ole Bull Academy in Voss, during the Vossajazz Festival 2002. A third album UC 3 (December 13, 2005) was released in 2005, combined with extensive international tours including in England, Canada, Japan, China, Nepal, South Africa and the Baltic countries.

Tomas Lauvland Pettersen of the Norwegian Jazz magazine «Ballade» states:

... Their take on modern Konitzesque jazz is highly integral and utterly convincing on their third full-length outing ‘UC 3’. Bassist Raknes is not only able to swing and solo, he writes strong tunes with challenging harmonic and rhythmic twists that keep the listener on his toes throughout the recording...

Urban connection received rave reviews for their latest concerts, on Vossajazz and at Victoria - Nasjonal jazzscene in 2012.

Personnel

Steinar Raknes (Double Bass)
Håkon Mjåset Johansen (Drums)
Frode Nymo (Saxophone).

Honors

• “Young Jazz Musicians of the Year” 1998 at Moldejazz
• Spellemannprisen 2001 in the class Jazz, for the album Urban Connection (2001)

Discography

• 2001: Urban Connection (Bergland Productions)
• 2002: French Only (Bergland Productions)
• 2004: UC 3 (Bergland Productions)

External links

• Bergland Productions site
• MIC Profile (Norwegian)

Awards
Preceded by Petter Wettre & Per Oddvar Johansen	Recipient of the Jazz Spellemannprisen 2001	Succeeded by Come Shine