Biography

John-Kåre Hansen was born in 1978 in The City of the Northern Lights, Alta, in Northern-Norway. From an early age he took lessons on both alto saxophone and organ. But it wasn't until he started the guitar at age 12 it all came together.

Music was always a huge part of growing up, with lots of instruments around the house. Becoming a musician in the end was merely the way the cookie crumbled.

Starting out with grunge rock bands he later moved on to study both classical guitar and jazz guitar in high school. The fascination for improvising, strong rhythms and extended harmony made him dig deeper into jazz. Hansen began his studies at the music conservatory and later graduated with a Master's degree in jazz.

Identity

Today John-Kåre Hansen holds a professional career as a touring musician, recording artist, composer, producer, lyricist, arranger and band-leader for several bands. As a proud carrier of his Sami roots he started the band Ánnásuolo in 2016. Since then the band has toured extensively in Norway having made two albums in their new-sami genre.

Hansen has written orchestral pieces for strings and for the Arctic Philharmonic, as well as composing and collaborating with different choirs.

John-Kåre Hansen frequently tours with different bands and projects - stylistically diverse. From his critically acclaimed jazz quartet, Northern Concept, to his collaboration through more than a decade with American jazz-singer England Brooks, Hansen loves taking on different projects like his collaboration with female Swedish-Sami rapper Maxida Märak with whom he arranged hiphop-music for classical strings, DJ and guitar. Hansen also co-wrote and produced a Norwegian-lyrics album with Norwegian artist Sigrid Brennhaug in 2020.

In 2019 Hansen started his own record label, JayKay Records. John-Kåre Hansen has released almost a dusin records with his original music and is planning on more albums for 2022.