Frode Thingnæs -

Frode Thingnæs (May 20, 1940 — Nov. 15, 2012) was a Norwegian trombonist, composer, and arranger who played on numerous jazz and pop albums, starting in the early Sixties. As a bandleader, he made the 1974 Polydor jazz-funk album Feelin’ All Right and led the 1978–80 quintet titles Night Sounds and Direct to Dish on the Talent and Philips labels.

Background

Frode Thingnæs was born on May 20, 1940, in Nore og Uvdal, Buskerud, Norway. He grew up in the Sinsen district of Oslo, where his father, Magnus Thingnæs, worked as a typographer and journalist and published poetry about his native Florø.

Thingnæs attended Sinsen school and played trumpet from age eight till thirteen, when he switched to trombone, his main instrument. He completed examen artium in 1959 and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen through 1963, with regular travel between the Danish capital and Oslo.

Thingnæs joined Bjørn Jacobsen’s septet in 1958 and won his first soloist prize at the Norwegian amateur jazz championship the following year. He also played in Mikkel Flagstad’s quintet and Kjell Karlsen’s big band, which became house orchestra at Oslo’s Penguin Club. Thingnæs took a professional post as kapellmeister at Chat Noir in 1960 under Einar Rose. He led his own small groups from 1961, including a quintet with alto saxophonist Erik Andresen. Thingnæs made his recording debut in 1963 with his composition “Fonebone” on the Metropole Jazz compilation.

Thingnæs joined the NRK Radiostorband organization in 1964 and remained associated with the ensemble through the Seventies. He represented Norway in European Broadcasting Union jazz ensembles at concerts in Stuttgart, London, and Amsterdam. Thingnæs played the inaugural Montreux Jazz Festival in 1967 with Bjørn Johansen’s sextet. Norwegian musicians voted him the country’s leading trombonist in the 1967 Jazznytt poll. Thingnæs returned to Montreux in 1969 as leader of a Norwegian sextet and received the Buddy Prize from Norsk Jazzforbund the following year.

Thingnæs arranged Hege Tunaal’s 1972 Polydor album Olje, brød og vin and co-produced the Rosenborg Studio sessions with Stein Robert Ludvigsen. He composed Norway’s 1974 Eurovision entry “Hvor er du?” with lyricist Philip Kruse and conducted Anne-Karine Strøm and the Bendik Singers at the contest in Brighton. Thingnæs led the 1974 Polydor sessions with tenor saxophonist Bjørn Johansen, pianist Henryk Lysiak, guitarist Jan Erik Kongshaug, bassist Bjørn Jacobsen, drummer Svein-Erik Gaardvik, and percussionist Ole Jacob Hansen. Johnny Sareussen and Egil Eide produced the sessions for Feelin’ All Right, Thingnæs’s first album under his own name.

Discography: