A Dizzy Atmosphere

Mårten Lundgren and Royal Big Band pay tribute to Dizzy Gillespie.

Trumpet player Mårten Lundgren is one of Sweden’s most renowned arrangers and names in jazz.  He has worked in the Copenhagen-Malmö area for years, but now we finally have the opportunity to hear him in Stockholm. Together with Royal Big Band, he presents a tribute concert to the legendary Dizzy Gillespie.

John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie was one of the leading figures in the evolution of jazz in the 1940s. At this concert, Mårten and Royal Big Band highlight Dizzy’s playful, joyful Afro-Cuban style along with hits from the swing era.  

Mårten Lundgren studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and has played with big bands like Mats Holmqvist’s Stora Stygga, Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, Gugge Hedrenius Big Blues Band, Radiojazzgruppen and Hector Bingert Latin Lover Big Band.  In 1999 he moved to Copenhagen and played with, among others, the Tivoli Big Band and the Danish Radio Big Band, and then moved to Malmö.

Royal Big Band was started in Stockholm in 1992 and has developed into a top-level ensemble. Major sources of inspiration include orchestra leaders like Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones and Gordon Goodwin. The band has previously worked with Monica Dominique and Jonas Kullhammar, among others.