Bohuslän Big Band

A Swedish contemporary jazz orchestra

We are a Swedish contemporary jazz orchestra that both cherishes and challenges the big band genre. Fearless and exploratory, we embark on collaborations with great breadth and variety, for an audience made up of both young and old.

Bohuslän Big Band is a professional big band with 16 full-time musicians. Our home stage is at Vara Concert Hall and our rehearsal facilities are in Mölndal, Gothenburg.

Over the years we have collaborated with international jazz giants such as Vince Mendoza, John Beasley, Christian McBride, Danilo Pérez, Nils Landgren, Luciana Souza and Maria Schneider. We have performed with beloved popular artists like Jill Johnson, Björn Skifs and Tommy Körberg. We have shared the stage with young jazz talents and inspired thousands of children to playfully discover the sweeping sounds of big band music.

With roots in Bohuslän on the Swedish west coast

The landscape where we have our origins has many similarities with our musical power. Sometimes a gentle sea breeze blows, and sometimes it blows with the force of a full hurricane. The coastline, like the music, can be dramatic, fierce, and intense, but also soft, warm, and beautiful. That is our melody.

Our history goes back to the days as a military band in the Bohus Battalion in Uddevalla, Sweden. As big band jazz marched forward, we too swung onto a new path. In 1993 the starting shot was fired for what is today the internationally renowned big band Bohuslän Big Band. The west coast met the countryside in 2004 and we became a part of Vara Concert Hall.

We are passionate about developing big band music

Bohuslän Big Band is funded by the Västra Götaland Region and the big band’s mission is to develop and spread big band music to the region’s inhabitants, as well as nationally and internationally. Bohuslän Big Band’s repertoire includes a range of its own projects and productions in the form of prestigious, innovative jazz collaborations and traditional big band music at the highest level, as well as collaborations with musicians and artists from other genres. We are passionate about getting more people to discover the joy, musical power, and variety that the genre offers to people of all ages.