Erling Kroner

b. 16 April 1943, Copenhagen, Denmark. Composer and trombonist who began playing dixieland music in the early 60s, but soon also participated in ‘free’ jazz groups with John Tchicai and others. Kroner participated in George Russell’s ‘Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature’ performed by Russell with the Danish Radio Big Band in 1969. At the end of that year a DownBeat stipend enabled him to study at the Berklee College Of Music. In the 80s Kroner co-led with drummer Leif Johansson a band, which, with similar music and orchestration, extended complex compositions for quasi-operatic or dramatic stagings. Kroner’s long-standing fascination with Argentinian culture and music, in particular the tango, is reflected in several compositions dedicated to Astor Piazzolla and Dino Saluzzi. Kroner has also visited and worked with musicians in Argentina. A gifted composer and arranger Kroner has successfully adopted Charles Mingus’ improvisational method of writing and arranging in changing moods, metres and tempos for soloists in a 10-piece band that employs unusual textures and voicings, e.g. a tuba in the brass section.