Anja Gottberg
Music
debut album
“Contrast bassist Anja Gottberg assembles a young, international quartet for her debut album. Tenor saxophonist Coleman Rose and pianist Abe Gold are from the United States, while drummer Magnus Austad is a northerner and is part of the Ployart / Lannér / Austad trio, which will debut this fall. Stockholm-based Gottberg started playing at the age of 22 and this record is proof that it’s never too late. (Not that 22 is really any age to begin with whatever. ) Gottberg’s debut album shows that she owns her musical voice, both compositionally and artistically. It is an expressive jazz, with features from her old idol Wayne Shorter, but by extension also the Swedish folk music she grew up with. That the album’s name Teenage Years clearly reflects her proximity to the source and the very foundation to the birth of the music. All the contradictions of adolescence, with shyness and triviality intertwined with hormone cascades and rebellion, record into the existence of the music. As mentioned musical impulses. Teengae Years shows an expressive and already distinctive musician and composer, with a strong analog mark, at least on this album. No turntablism, no fucked up electronic elements – this is four people playing in the same room, simultaneously. Without falling home to something nostalgic travel. This is music that lives. The teenagers are done and dusted. On a ten-degree rating scale, Anja Gottberg can probably come up in twenty-something next time. – Timo Kangas”
About
Anja is a Stockholm-based bassist originally from a small town in Sweden. Raised in a musical family, she began playing the cello at the age of seven, exploring the traditional folk music of her region. During high school, she pursued classical cello studies with Per Helders.
After high school, Anja moved to Malmö to study at the conservatory. In her second year, she discovered a double bass in a practice room and quickly fell in love with the instrument. This encounter marked a turning point in her musical journey, leading her to leave her cello studies behind and devote herself to the bass. Her path took her to Amsterdam, where she studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and later to New York, where she studied with Buster Williams at the Manhattan School of Music.
Since then, Anja has established herself as a bassist on the Stockholm jazz scene. She performs with Ernst Glerum’s Omnibus Trio and has toured across Europe with her own project, which won first prize at the 2024 Getxo Jazz Competition. She has performed at numerous festivals and venues, including Fasching, Umbria Jazz Festival, Getxo Jazz Festival, Ibiza Jazz Festival, Jazzfest Amsterdam, Ferrara Jazz Club, and Bimhuis.
In 2025, Anja was selected as Young Creator at Jazzfest Amsterdam, a residency that gave her the opportunity to perform alongside Reinier Baas and Mark Schilders.
