Lars Gullin

Lars Gullin
Lars Gullin in 1964
Background information
Birth name	Lars Gunnar Victor Gullin
Born	(1928-05-04)May 4, 1928 Sanda, Gotland, Sweden
Died	May 17, 1976(1976-05-17) (aged 48) Vissefjärda, Sweden
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Baritone saxophone, clarinet, piano
Years active	1953–1976

Lars Gunnar Victor Gullin (4 May 1928 – 17 May 1976) was a Swedish jazz saxophonist.

Lars Gullin was a child prodigy on the accordion. At age thirteen, he played clarinet in a military band and later learned the alto saxophone, but after moving to in 1947 became a professional musician as a pianist. He planned on a classical career, studying privately with classical pianist Sven Brandel. Although he actually filled the baritone chair in Seymour Österwall’s band in 1949 by chance, it was enough for him to decide that it was an instrument with possibilities, influenced too by hearing the United States baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan for the first time on the Birth of the Cool recordings. He worked as a member of Arne Domnérus’s septet (initially co-led by the trumpeter Rolf Ericson) for two years from 1951; the group mainly performed at Nalen, a leading dance spot in .

At the same time he began to work with visiting American musicians, recording with James Moody, Zoot Sims and Clifford Brown. Most importantly, he first performed with Lee Konitz in 1951, an association which was to be repeated several times in future years.

He formed his own group in 1953, probably the only regular group he was to lead. It was short-lived, breaking up that November, after Gullin was responsible for causing the group to be involved in an automobile accident, although no one was seriously hurt. The next year, 1954, he won the best newcomer award in the United States Down Beat magazine, after two March 1953 Swedish sessions were leased and issued by Contemporary Records as a 10” LP. Later Gullin albums were leased to Atlantic Records in the United States. Gullin toured several European countries with Chet Baker in October 1955, in a group which was marred by tragedy; it was Gullin who found the body of the group's pianist Dick Twardzik, victim of a heroin overdose, on October 21, in a Paris hotel room.