Morten Kærså

Danish

Summary

Composer, musician, arranger and producer.

Biography

Composer, musician, arranger and producer - Morten Kærså can do just about anything with music. And has done a lot. He has played with innumerable well known Danish musicians: Aske Bentzon, Rugsted/Kreutzfeldt, C.V. Jørgensen, Lis Sørensen and others. For several years he worked with singer/songwriter and musical composer Sebastian - for example on the musical Aladdin. He has written music for films, TV, sport and the Eurovision Song Contest, he produces CDs for himself and others. But above all Morten Kærså has composed a very large body of songs and instrumental numbers, many of which have gone straight into the Danish charts. It is music from Morten Kærså’s time in the bands Sneakers and Moonjam that features most prominently in public awareness of his music. He formed Sneakers in 1979 with among others Sanne Salomonsen, Mikkel Nordsø and Klaus Menzer. The band released five albums at the beginning of the eighties and was a trendsetter for the era’s new funk/rock music with American Toto as the model. Songs like Sui-Sui, Gøglerne kommer and På den grønne gren from the album Sui-Sui (1981) helped to give Sneakers a solid place as one of the big Danish bands of the time. In 1985 Morten Kærså wrote music for the hit musical Sarai, which was performed at the Bellevue Theatre, and Moonjam was established as a regular band in the wake of Sarai. Moonjam’s first maxi-single with the title number Sarai appeared in 1986, and since that starting-point the band has released ten fine albums and toured with great success for several years. In the most recent releases, Songs for Saxophone Vols. I and II, Xax Xonx and X, the saxophone is given free rein in a number of beautiful, captivating instrumentals written by Morten Kærså. You could hardly get closer to Kenny G. quality, but Morten Kærså is able to maintain his very own style in the music he composes, no matter where he finds his inspiration. The very latest thing is Morten Kærså’s Transmission Trio, where he plays his own compositions with the bassist Rasmus Kærså and the drummer Klaus Mentzer. The music is an exclusive mix of instrumental bossa, lounge, jazz and soft salsa. The trio has been on its first tour of the country, and a quite special CD release is in the pipeline.