Career
Larsen started out as a painter and guitar player, inspired by Salvador Dalí, Django Reinhardt and Frank Zappa. Later he changed to composition, and created numerous crossover projects with jazz/classical ensembles - gypsy jazz groups together with classical string quartets, chamber orchestras and full symphony orchestras. He had his first concerts at the Moldejazz and meet with the Norwegian pioner jazz guitarist Robert Normann, for whom he start the work on reissuing his collected recordings, completed 1988.
He has produced more than 350 jazz records for Hot Club Records, including CDs with Chet Baker, Stephane Grappelli, Warne Marsh, Nappy Brown, Philip Catherine, and most of the prominent Gypsy jazz musicians, like Biréli Lagrène, Jimmy Rosenberg, Andreas Öberg, Angelo Debarre, Florin Nicolescu, Babik Reinhardt, Stochelo Rosenberg, and Adrien Moignard.
In recent years he has been leading the Strange News From Mars project, featuring various Frank Zappa alumni: Tommy Mars, Bruce Fowler, Arthur Barrow, Don Preston, Bunk Gardner, Jimmy Carl Black, etc. He is also working as a producer for the label Zonic Entertainment, exclusively dedicated to music inspired by Zappa.
Documentation on Jon Larsen is to be found on many CDs, DVDs, in books, and films. Symphonic Django was presented (also on DVD) 2008 by Storm Film, who also produced a film documentary about Jon Larsen and the guitar virtuoso Jimmy Rosenberg, Jon & Jimmy (2010, winner of the Dutch Edison Award).
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