Torolf Mølgaard
Biography Torolf Mølgaard
Torolf Mølgaard
was born in Copenhagen in 1939 and started out playing tuba in a local brass band before buying his first trombone at 15. After a brief spell playing in military bands he joined the Saratoga Jazz Band based in Aarhus, Denmark’s second city.
In 1961 Mølgaard played with tenor / alto saxophonist and clarinetist Jesper Thilo and released his debut album, ‘Trombone!’ in 1964 on the Sonet label before joining the Danish Radio Big Band that same year. He maintained a position in the band until 1973 and can be heard on such classic and collectible recordings as ‘Sahib Shihab And The Danish Radio Jazz Group’ (Oktav, 1965) and Palle Mikkelborg & Radiojazzgruppen ‘The Mysterious Corona’ (Debut, 1967).
As well as playing with local Scandinavian groups, Mølgaard also performed frequently with George Russell and Don Cherry, two American artist/composers who, like Sahib Shihab, based themselves in Scandinavia for many years in the 1960s and 1970s. Like many of the leading European and Scandinavian jazz musicians of the era, Mølgaard was a sometime member of the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band and can be heard on the 1967 album ‘Out of the Bag Folk Bag’ (Columbia). Other musical associations include work with Peter Herbolzheimer, Sender Freies Berlin, Knut Kiesewetter, Marianne Rosenberg and led the ensemble, Trombones United. The album ‘Lone Rider’ was originally recorded and released in a gatefold sleeve on the Danish Artist/ Edition Wilhelm Hansen label in 1972. The recording covers a lot of musical ground including cool jazz, bebop and bossa nova and has long been a collector’s trophy piece due to its limited original pressing. Among the stand out tracks are ‘Safari’ and a great cover of Dizzy Gillespie’s classic ‘A Night in Tunisia’.
