Marius Neset

BIO

Marius Neset made an astonishingly powerful impression when he first emerged onto the European jazz scene as a young saxophonist of protean gifts more than a decade ago.

Django Bates, who was a teacher and a significant mentor at the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen, had Neset in several of his band, and also appeared on Neset’s breakthrough album, Golden Xplosion (Edition, 2011).

The intervening years have seen him bring his huge creative energy to so many roles in different contexts, as either an instigator or as a catalyst. An aspect of his work which does not often receive the attention it deserves is the substantial catalogue of works which Neset now has to his name as a composer, a list which continues to grow. He has received and fulfilled a flow of major commissions for substantial pieces for large ensembles and orchestras, starting in 2012 with “Lion” written for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, first performed at the Molde Jazz Festival, and released as a CD in 2014. The album marked his debut with one of the leading jazz labels in Europe, ACT, with whom he has gone on to make a total of ten albums in his own name.

Since “Lion” Neset has written three major works with the London Sinfonietta: “Arches of Nature” / “Snowmelt” (2016), described as “majestic” by Downbeat, “Viaduct (2018) commissioned by the Kongsberg Jazz Festival, and most recently a commission, “Geyser” from the BBC Proms which was premiered in the Royal Albert Hall in September 2022.

Marius Neset has now received well over twenty awards and award nominations including the prestigious Edvard prize and Spellemanprisen in Norway, and the ECHO Awards and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik in Germany. He was also the only European to be listed as one of “25 for the Future” by Downbeat in 2016.

Neset’s main release in 2025 is with his quintet. “Cabaret”, on the ACT label features Neset’s closest musical associate, Swedish drummer Anton Eger, and other leading lights of European jazz of his generation: Magnus Hjorth on piano, Elliot Galvin on keyboards and Conor Chaplin on electric bass.

The common thread running through Neset’s career is that both his compositions and playing have consistently attracted other world class musicians, not only the jazz-scene, but from from many different genres in the musical world to want to work. The result is that the sheer breadth of Marius Neset’s activity at the top level in all kinds of musical contexts is astonishing, and is still broadening.