Career
Anderson started his professional career at the age of 16 as a clarinetist in a military band, and at the same time played saxophone in dance bands. He was originally trained in classical music as a clarinet soloist at Kungliga Musikhögskolan (Royal College of Music) in Stockholm. During the early part of the 1970"es he starred as clarinet soloist in the famous Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, led by the conductor Leonard Bernstein and he was already at that time classified as musical prodigy.
Later, he was influenced by Bernt Rosengren, John Coltrane and Joe Henderson, and he turned to jazz, and early in his jazz career he participated on two live album releases with the Norwegian guitarist Thorgeir Stubø.
Andersson has twice been awarded the jazz magazine Orkesterjournalen"s golden disc for best jazz recording. Despite his success as clarinetist,it was as saxophonist he made himself known, in the late 1970"es, when he was active in Umeå and played tenor saxophone with Umeå Big Band.
Andersson is involved in a large number of jazz records in the Nordic countries and in Tanglewood, Massachusetts. He leads his Krister Andersson Quartet and often collaborates as guest soloist in other constellations.
He is regarded as a brilliant improvizer and plays with a modern neo-bop style and is still a sought after classic soloist.
