Effective period / Period of releases: 1989

Swedish jazz musician (tenor saxophonist), composer and music teacher, born 5 November 1935 in Örnsköldsvik in Västernorrland county in Ångermanland, died 7 June 2019.

Since Norström moved to Gothenburg in 1956 to be part of Gunnar Johnsons Kvintett, he came to play with several of the big names in jazz. Swedish ones, such as Lars Gullin, Jan Johansson and Sonya Hedenbratt, and Americans, such as Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Pettiford, Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon, the latter on their tours in Sweden.

He played in Radiojazzgruppen in the 1960s, and in Sveriges Radio Big Band in the 1980s.

Norström eventually became a music teacher, and when his interest in jazz persisted, he formed Sävedalen Big Band together with Roland Flood with a mix of professional musicians and amateurs with Partille Musikskola as the base. Erik wrote most of the arrangements and many of his own compositions. Sävedalen Big Band has recorded, among other things: Take-off (LP), Before breakfast (LP/CD) and Blues for Lange (CD) which mainly contains compositions and tracks by Jan Johansson. School concerts and collaboration with Rikskonserter and Regionmusiken later brought him to the Bohuslän Big Band, an orchestra that developed out of Regionmusiken.

Some of Erik Norström's compositions have been recorded with saxophone giants such as Zoot Sims and Stan Getz.

He has been praised by critics for his personal style, characterized by "rhythmic balance and a warm, sensual tone", and seen as equal to the foremost in American jazz music.