Arild Andersen was born in Norway in 1945. He has been one of Europe’s leading bass players since the early seventies. He started out as a member of Jan Garbarek Quartet (1967–1973), which also included Terje Rypdal and Jon Christensen. During the same period, he played in the local rhythm section in Oslo for visiting American musicians, working and recording with Don Cherry, George Russell and Sam Rivers He has recorded twenty-one albums in his own name for ECM, alongside such great musicians as Bill Frisell, Ralph Towner, Nana Vasconcelos, Paul Motian, Alphonze Mouzon, Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor. From 1982 to 1992, his band Masqualero included Nils Petter Molvaer and Jon Christensen. In the nineties, his band included Bendik Hofseth, Bugge Wesseltoft, Eivind Aarset and Nana Vasconcelos. He has played and toured with John Abercrombie, Stan Getz, Pat Metheny, Paul Bley, John Scofield and Sheila Jordan, among others. In 2005, he was Artist in Residence at the Molde International Jazzfestival. In 2007, ECM released the CD Live at Belleville, where Andersen was joined by Tommy Smith on sax and Paolo Vinaccia on drums. That CD received rave reviews around the world. In 2008, he was named Jazz Musician of the Year by the Académie du Jazz in France. In 2010, critics rated the trio with Smith and Vinaccia a highlight of the Tokyo International Jazz Festival. In 2010, he performed in a concert with Tommy Smith’s Jazz Orchestra organised to celebrate the work of ECM, and a live recording was released in 2012 on a CD entitled Celebration. In 2014, ECM released the new CD MIRA, with new recordings by the Andersen-Vinaccia-Smith trio.