artist biography

Guitarist Bryan Olson caught the critics’ attention early in his career. He was mentioned in Downbeat magazine while still a music student at DePaul University and garnered rave reviews in Chicago as a founding member of the jazz and Latin group Mo’ Quartet. In the mid 90’s Olson returned to his musical and geographical roots in Minneapolis with the gospel-inflected R&B of the Sensational Joint Chiefs. As the group’s musical director and lead guitarist, Olson proved that his talent could win not only critical acclaim (1998 Minnesota Music Award “best R & B group”) but also a venue-packing popular following. Jazz, though, remains the idiom to demand the most from Olson’s incendiary technique, ample harmonic palette, and innate rhythmic sense. Not to mention his stylistic restlessness: in the last half decade Olson has infused his own brand of jazz guitar into collaborations ranging from ambient post-rock to electronic and hip-hop, all the while anchoring his repertoire as leader of the Sirjord trio.