Bjarni Sveinbjörnsson

Bjarni Sveinbjörnsson is an Icelandic bassist, composer, and music teacher whose professional life has combined performing with sustained educational work. He moved to the Reykjavík district of Breiðholt with his parents at about the age of seven and has remained closely associated with the area apart from his years of study in Los Angeles. A 2009 profile identified him as both a bassist and teacher, working with his wife, Edda Borg, in operating a music school while also composing and performing. That combination of practical musicianship, composition, and teaching has remained central to his documented career. ([rafhladan.is](https://rafhladan.is/bitstream/handle/10802/86/8.%20tbl..pdf?sequence=8))

Sveinbjörnsson began learning guitar and bass at Tónskóli Sigursveins, then continued bass studies at Tónlistarskóli FÍH. He graduated as a bassist from Musicians Institute in Los Angeles in 1985. In comments published around his first solo release, he said that he began playing bass at sixteen, and that some of the oldest pieces on the record dated back to his student period in Los Angeles. His training therefore connects Icelandic music-school study with an American professional-music education, a background reflected in his later work across jazz, fusion, studio production, and ensemble performance. ([teb.is](https://teb.is/um-skolann/kennarar-og-starfsfolk/))

After completing his studies, Sveinbjörnsson developed a broad career as a professional bassist. Gammar’s biographical material describes work in jazz clubs, theatre, radio, television, and recording studios, and credits him with performances or studio recordings involving Björk, Edda Borg, Geir Ólafsson, Don Randi, Brandon Fields, Bernie Dresel, and Dave Weckl. Icelandic reporting also places him in Guðmundur Ingólfsson’s Trio, Gunnar Þórðarson’s large Broadway orchestra, and the fusion group Gammar. Taken together, these sources document a career shaped substantially by collaborative playing, recording work, and changing ensemble contexts rather than by a single fixed project. ([gammarband.com](https://gammarband.com/gammar-the-band))

One well-documented strand of that collaborative work was with drummer Guðmundur Steingrímsson. In 1992, Sveinbjörnsson played in the Guðmundur Steingrímsson Jazz Ensemble alongside Carl Möller, Bjorn Thoroddsen, Stefán S. Stefánsson, and Andrea Gylfadóttir, among others; the ensemble performed at a cultural festival in London that autumn. He also played on the 1997 album Hafnarfjörður í tónum with a Guðmundur Steingrímsson quintet, and joined Steingrímsson’s group for Múlinn jazz evenings in 2000. These engagements place him within a network of Icelandic jazz musicians assembled for distinct line-ups, recordings, and live events. ([glatkistan.com](https://glatkistan.com/2025/01/08/hljomsveit-gudmundar-steingrimssonar/))

In 2009 Sveinbjörnsson released his first solo album, ...About Time!. He described it as material accumulated over many years, combining compositions written during his Los Angeles studies with newer pieces. The release contains nine tracks: “405 North,” “…To Old Friends,” “Actively Serene,” “Conversations,” “Lets Go!,” “Lullaby for a Small Electric Base,” “Bass In Tune,” “About Time,” and “The Last Five Minutes.” Amazon Music lists a 2009 copyright year, while the Iceland Jazz database catalogues About time as a 2008 release; it is most conservatively described as an album issued across the 2008–2009 period, with press coverage of its first-solo-album status appearing in November 2009. ([visir.is](https://www.visir.is/g/2009984220935/longu-timabaer-soloplata))

Sveinbjörnsson joined Gammar in the late 1980s and is the bassist in its later documented line-up with guitarist Bjorn Thoroddsen, saxophonist Stefán S. Stefánsson, keyboard player Þórir Baldursson, and drummer Sigfús Óttarsson. Gammar is described as an Icelandic jazz-rock or jazz-fusion group that has presented original music in Iceland and elsewhere in Europe. Sveinbjörnsson plays bass on As Time Goes By, released on 7 November 2023 and credited to Jóhann Helgason and Gammar. In 2024, the group marked the release of its fifth album with a concert. His solo work and long involvement with Gammar establish jazz, fusion, and jazz-rock as the clearest documented musical settings of his work. ([gammarband.com](https://gammarband.com/gammar-the-band))

Teaching is an enduring part of Sveinbjörnsson’s professional contribution. Tónskóli Eddu Borg lists earlier teaching posts at Tónlistarskóli FÍH, the Hafnarfjörður Music School, and the Mosfellsbær Arts School. He now teaches bass, guitar, and ensemble playing at Tónskóli Eddu Borg, the school he co-founded with Edda Borg in 1989. The school’s account and contemporary reporting therefore show an artist who has maintained music education alongside performance and recording, passing on experience in instrumental technique and group playing while continuing to work as a bassist and composer. ([teb.is](https://teb.is/um-skolann/kennarar-og-starfsfolk/))