Background
Johannessen grew up at Lambertseter and is educated at the Jazz program Trondheim Musikkonservatorium and the University of Oslo.
Johannessen grew up at Lambertseter and is educated at the Jazz program Trondheim Musikkonservatorium and the University of Oslo.
He mainly plays jazz and popular music and works with music in many context. He has also toured extensively around moust of Europe and the rest of the world with Jaga Jazzist and Ensemble Denada, in all over Poland with Loud Jazz Band and Norway with various other bands. He has played with Joshua Redman and Trondheim Jazzorkester, Eirik Hegdal, Terje Rypdal, Jon Balke, Erlend Skomsvoll, Maria Kannegaard, and his own band, Magic Pocket.
He has also released albums eith Lord Kelvin and Magic Pocket.
He got the "Sparebank1 Midtnorges JazZtipendiat" 2009/10 with Magic Pocket and was awarded. He has Conducted, arranged and Composed for various big bands like Kjellerbandet, "Midtnorsk Ungdomstorband", "Follo Big Band", "Orkdal Storband", "Kristiansund Storband", "Vollen Big Band", "Travelin' Storband" and "Sintefstorbandet", and has also contributed with his trombone to Dum Dum Boys, Maria Mena, Martin Hagfors, Jens Carelius and other projects.
Johannessen"s first solo album is a beautiful set of short compositions, with noisy sounds, hard swing, free improvissations. He is accompanied by the tight rhythm section of bassist Jon Rune Power, from the Frode Gjerstad Trio, and young Magic Pocket drummer Erik Nylander.