Staffan William-Olsson

Staffan William-Olsson
William-Olsson at Oslo Jazzfestival 2016
Background information
Born	(1959-12-13) 13 December 1959 (age 57) Gothenburg, Sweden
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instruments	Guitar
Labels	Real Music Records
Associated acts	The Real Thing Sharp 9 Staffan William-Olsson Trio Staffan William Olsson Quartet Staffan William-Olsson Sekstett

Staffan William-Olsson (born 13 December 1959 in Gothenburg, Sweden) is a Swedish Jazz musician (guitar) and composer, known guitarist of The Real Thing, and the collaborations with the likes of Bob Berg, Lee Konitz and Palle Mikkelborg.

He played piano, guitar and drums already at the age of 7, and studied classical piano with a jazz-oriented teacher. Eventually he was oriented towards the guitar, with the blues and rock music as main sources of influence (Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin as main models).

When he discovered jazz-rock, Weather Report, John McLaughlin and Allan Holdsworth among others became the new sources of inspiration. George Benson's record Bad Benson was a turning point, it opened up his ears for the clean, undistorted guitar sound, and guitarists like Pat Martino was a great influence.

William-Olsson was after classical piano studies at Göteborg Musikhögskola (he is autodidact guitarist), the replacement for Ulf Wakenius in the Swedish fusion band Hawk on Flight, and also collaborated with such as Bob Berg, Lee Konitz and Palle Mikkelborg.

He moved to Oslo in 1986 and worked as a freelance guitarist before becoming a part of the hard rock band Sons of Angels in 1989. The band signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records, and toured the east coast of US and Europe. The album sold 100,000 copies, and the band broke up.