Editing Jonas Hellborg

{{Short description|Swedish bassist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name            = Jonas Hellborg
| image           = Jonas Hellborg.jpg in large format.tif
| caption         = Hellborg in 1990
| birth_name      = 
| alias           = 
| birth_date      = {{Birth date and age|1958|6|7|df=y}}
| death_date      = 
| origin          = Sweden
| instrument      = Bass
| genre           = {{hlist|[[Jazz fusion]]|[[progressive rock]]|[[carnatic music]]|[[world fusion]]}}
| occupation      = {{hlist|Musician|composer}}
| years_active    = 
| associated_acts = [[John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin]], [[Bill Laswell]], [[Shawn Lane]]
| website         = 
}}

'''Jonas Hellborg''' (born 7 June 1958) is a Swedish bass guitarist. He has collaborated with [[John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin]], [[Sultan Khan (musician)|Ustad Sultan Khan]], Fazal Qureshi, [[Bill Laswell]], [[Shawn Lane]], [[Jens Johansson]], [[Anders Johansson (drummer)|Anders Johansson]], [[Ginger Baker]], [[Michael Shrieve]], [[V. Selvaganesh]], [[Jeff Sipe]], [[Mattias IA Eklundh]], [[Public Image Ltd]], and [[Buckethead]].

==Recording career==
Hellborg began his music career in 1976 in Sweden touring with local rock acts. He was spotted by percussionist [[Reebop Kwaku Baah]] in a small club in Stockholm 1979 and he moved to London for a year to work with Reebop on different projects.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fox |first1=Brian |title=Jonas Hellborg: Bass Without Borders |url=https://www.bassplayer.com/artists/jonas-hellborg-bass-without-borders |website=Bassplayer.com |publisher=Future Publishing Limited Quay House |access-date=5 January 2020}}</ref> He played the Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland in 1981 and met [[Michael Brecker]], who introduced him to John McLaughlin, [[Billy Cobham]] and other fusion stars.<ref>{{cite web |last1=von Trath |first1=Fritz |title=Nordic Authors: Jonas Hellborg |url=https://runeberg.org/authors/hellbjon.html |website=Runeberg.org |publisher=Lindköping University Sweden |access-date=5 January 2020 |archive-date=21 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221140729/http://runeberg.org/authors/hellbjon.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He was asked to join McLaughlin's reformed [[Mahavishnu Orchestra]] in 1983. He stayed with McLaughlin until 1988, touring and recording with Mahavishnu Orchestra. He also did several duet tours with McLaughlin during this time.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Prasad |first1=Anil |title=Jonas Hellborg: Grids of Reality |url=https://www.innerviews.org/inner/hellborg.html |website=Innerviews.org |access-date=5 January 2020}}</ref>

In 1986 and 1987 he toured with a project featuring [[Ginger Baker]] on drums and [[Bernie Worrell]] on keyboards, which appears on Hellborg's 1988 album ''Bass''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Astarita |first1=Glenn |title=Jonas Hellborg; Bass |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/bass-mw0000618324 |website=AllMusic |publisher=Rhythm One Group |access-date=4 January 2020 |archive-date=26 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190926031320/https://www.allmusic.com/album/bass-mw0000618324 |url-status=live }}</ref> They continued to perform together in 1989.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Eriksson |first1=Cristoffer |title=Cream drummer Ginger Baker remembered |url=https://stargazed.net/news/cream-drummer-ginger-baker-1939-2019-remembered/ |website=Stargazed Magazine |publisher=COUVERT i SVERIGE AB |access-date=4 January 2020 |date=5 November 2019 |archive-date=7 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807095735/https://stargazed.net/news/cream-drummer-ginger-baker-1939-2019-remembered/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1988 Hellborg moved to New York and started his own band which first included keyboardist [[Aydin Esen]] and drummer [[Kenwood Dennard]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Jonas Hellborg - New Beginnings |url=https://www.abstractlogix.com/jonas-hellborg-new-beginnings/ |website=Abstract Logix |access-date=5 January 2020 |archive-date=3 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203181804/http://www.abstractlogix.com/jonas-hellborg-new-beginnings/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and later the Johansson Brothers, Jens on keyboards and Anders on drums. He started a recording studio together with producer/bassist [[Bill Laswell]] called Greenpoint Studios. They recorded a multitude of records there until early 1993, including ''The Word'' together with [[Tony Williams (drummer)|Tony Williams]], ''[[Octave of the Holy Innocents]]'' with [[Mike Shrieve]] and [[Buckethead]], ''Material's Hallucination Engine'', and ''E'' with the Johansson Brothers.

In 1993 he sold his part in the studio to Laswell and resettled in Paris, France. The following year he teamed up with guitarist [[Shawn Lane]], a cooperation that would last nine years. The first record was ''[[Abstract Logic]]'' with Ginger Baker's son [[Kofi Baker|Kofi]] on drums; this was followed by [[Michael Shrieve]]'s ''Two Doors''. By the third record they were joined by drummer [[Jeff Sipe]] and embarked on a long stretch that produced four records and a lot of touring between 1995 and 1997.

In 1998 Hellborg met percussionist [[V. Selvaganesh]] at a [[Zakir Hussain (musician)|Zakir Hussain]] concert in Paris. The two formed a musical partnership that has been ongoing since then. To start with, Selvaganesh joined Hellborg in duets and in different "classical" settings Hellborg was working on at the time. Later a group was formed, first in trio with Lane, then a quintet including Selvaganesh's two brothers V. Umashankar and V. Umamahesh. Two CDs and a DVD were produced with this group. After Shawn Lane's death in 2003, Hellborg has continued to explore amalgamations of Indian and Western music, working with Indian masters as [[Debashish Bhattacharya]], [[Niladri Kumar]], [[Vikku Vinayakram]], [[Tanmoy Bose]] and [[U. Shrinivas]]. He has also started a new [[Heavy metal music|metal]]-fusion project with guitarist [[Mattias IA Eklundh]] called Art Metal.

Hellborg founded his own record label, Day Eight Music (D.E.M.), in 1979, releasing his first solo bass record, ''The Bassic Thing'' – an early showcase of his pioneering chordal, and for the time very advanced, slapping approaches. It was the first LP ever to feature solely bass guitar. With the move to the US, a new entity was formed, called Bardo Music, that took over the responsibilities of Hellborg's output, now counting around 40 releases.

==Musical equipment==
[[File:Jonas Hellborg 2011.JPG|219px|thumb|Hellborg with his signature Warwick bass model, Innsbruck 2011]]
Hellborg has been involved in instrument design from early in his career. His work includes a signature model for [[Aria (guitar company)|Aria]], the first ever biamped bass amplifier (in cooperation with Italian company FBT), a double neck bass, fretted and fretless, for British company [[Wal (bass)|Wal]] in 1983, and, in 1984, an acoustic bass in collaboration with master luthier [[Abraham Wechter]].

After working with a half dozen other companies with signature models and inventions he, together with the German manufacturer [[Warwick (bass guitar)|Warwick]], created a new bass and a high end line of bass amplification.<ref>{{cite news|author=Friedland, Ed|url=http://jazztimes.com/articles/17989-jonas-hellborg-take-the-reins|title=Jonas Hellborg: Take the Reins|newspaper=[[JazzTimes]]|date=June 2008|access-date=17 April 2015|archive-date=22 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150222223846/http://jazztimes.com/articles/17989-jonas-hellborg-take-the-reins|url-status=live}}</ref>

Hellborg published two books in the early '80s with Music Sales of London, one on [[slap bass]] called ''Thumb Bassics'', and a chord book called ''Chord Bassics''.

==Acting==
As a teenager Hellborg appeared as an actor in the TV series ''[[Hem till byn]]'' (''Home to the Village''), a widely popular dramatic series inspired by everyday life in Sweden, in which Jonas's mother, actress Tove Waltenburg, played one of the main characters. He appeared in the first three seasons, in 1971, 1973 and 1976, as well as in one episode in season four (in 1990), where his character has become a famous bass player. According to [[IMDb]],{{unreliable?|date=January 2020}} playing Anders Persson in ''Hem till Byn'' is his only acting credit.

==Discography==
;As band leader
*''The Bassic Thing'' (solo bass) (1979), Day Eight Music
*''Dreamland'' (1983), Day Eight Music
*''Elegant Punk'' (solo bass) (1984), Day Eight Music
*''Axis'' (1986), Day Eight Music
*''Bass'' (1988), Day Eight Music
*''Adfa'' (1989), Day Eight Music
*''The Silent Life'' (acoustic solo bass) (1991), Day Eight Music
*''Jonas Hellborg Group'' (1990), Day Eight Music
*''Jonas Hellborg Group E'' (1991), Day Eight Music
*''The Word'' (1991), Axiom
*''[[Ars Moriende]]'' (1994), Day Eight Music (with [[Glen Velez]])
*''[[Abstract Logic (album)|Abstract Logic]]'' (1995), Bardo
*''[[Octave of the Holy Innocents]]'' (1993), Day Eight Music (re-released 2003, Bardo)
*''[[Temporal Analogues of Paradise]]'' (1996), Bardo
*''[[Time Is the Enemy]]'' (1997), Bardo
*''[[Aram of the Two Rivers]]'' (1999), Bardo
*''[[Zenhouse]]'' (1999), Bardo
*''[[Good People in Times of Evil]]'' (2000), Bardo
*''[[Personae (album)|Personae]]'' (2002), Bardo
*''[[Icon: A Transcontinental Gathering]]'' (2003), Bardo
*''Paris'' (2004) (DVD), Bardo
*''Kali's Son'' (2006), Bardo
*''[[Art Metal (album)|Art Metal]]'' (2007), Bardo
*''[[The Jazz Raj]]'' (2014), Bardo

;With [[The Mahavishnu Orchestra]]
*''[[Mahavishnu (album)|Mahavishnu]]'' (1984), Warner Bros.
*''[[Adventures in Radioland]]'' (1986), Relativity

;With Deadline
*''Dissident'' (1991), Day Eight Music
*''Down by Law'', Cell

;With [[Michael Joseph Smith]]
*''Faces'', Day Eight Music
*''All our steps'', Day Eight Music

;With [[Michael Shrieve]]
*''Two Doors'' (1995), CMP, with [[Shawn Lane]]
*''THE LEAVING TIME'', NOVUS/BMG

;With [[Public Image Ltd]]
*''[[Album (Public Image Ltd album)|Album]]'', Virgin

;With [[Trilok Gurtu]]
*''Usfret'', CMP

;With [[Sultan Khan (musician)|Sultan Khan]] and [[Fazal Qureshi]]
*''Friends Across Boundaries'', Ninaad Music

;With [[Ginger Baker]]
*''Unseen Rain'', Day Eight Music
*''Middle Passage'', Axiom

;With [[Kollektiv]]
*feat. Jonas Hellborg, ITM

;With [[Jens Johansson]]
*''Fjäderlösa tvåfotingar'', Day Eight Music

;With [[Anders Johansson (drummer)|Anders Johansson]]
*''Shutka'', Day Eight Music
*''Red Shift'', Heptagon

;With RAF (feat. Peter Brötzmann, Bill Laswell, Jamal Evans)
*''Ode to a Tractor'' (1992), Day Eight Music

;With [[Reebop]]
*''Melodies in a Jungle Man's Head'', Day Eight Music

;With Shining Path
*''No Other World'' (1992)

;With Busch-Werk
*''Busch-Werk & the Masters of Groove'' (DVD) (2009), Zauberhaus-Records (feat. Nippy Noya, and Famoudou Konaté)
*''Trance'' (2011), Zauberhaus-Records (feat. Nippy Noya, Famoudou Konaté, and Baba Sissoko)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.hellborg.com Hellborg's personal site]
* [http://www.bardorecords.com Bardo Records website]
* [https://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2010/02/bass-musician-magazine-febmar-2010-featuring-jonas-hellborg/ Jonas Hellborg Cover Story in Bass Musician Magazine]
* [https://www.bassplayer.com/artists/jonas-hellborg-bass-without-borders Jonas Hellborg Cover Story in Bass Player Magazine]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190428181456/https://www.bassplayer.com/artists/the-100-greatest-bass-players-of-all-time The 100 Greatest Bass Players of All Time]

{{Jonas Hellborg}}
{{Mahavishnu Orchestra}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hellborg, Jonas}}
[[Category:1958 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Swedish jazz musicians]]
[[Category:Mahavishnu Orchestra members]]
[[Category:Jazz fusion bass guitarists]]
[[Category:Swedish bass guitarists]]
[[Category:Art Metal (band) members]]
[[Category:Deadline (band) members]]