b. 27 October 1945, Lilleström, Norway. Andersen’s career as a jazz bass player began under the tutelage of Karel Netolicka and the influential American jazz composer and theorist George Russell, who was then resident in Sweden. From 1966-73 Andersen toured throughout Scandinavia, working with Russell’s orchestra and sextet, Jan Garbarek’s trio and quartet, Karin Krog, Edward Vesala and others. In West Germany he worked with Don Cherry and in France with Stan Getz. Visits to New York brought recordings with Sam Rivers, Paul Bley and Barry Altschul. In 1974 he led his own quartet, which recorded the acclaimed bop-influenced Clouds In My Head a year later. Shimri and Green Shading Into Blue followed a more romantic course and divided the critics. The early 80s saw the introduction of non-Norwegian musicians in Andersen-led projects, such as Americans Alphonse Mouzon and Bill Frisell, Canadian Kenny Wheeler and Briton John Taylor. From 1983 he toured and recorded with the Norwegian quintet Masqualero. Sagn, a series of compositions based on folk songs from the south of Norway, received its premiere at the Vossajazz festival in Norway in 1990, while his collaboration with folk singer Kirsten Bråten Berg has resulted in two CDs. Andersen has received a number of awards for his bass playing, including the Buddy Award from the Norwegian Jazz Federation in 1969.