Esbjorn Svensson: Pianist whose group e.s.t. attracted new audiences to jazz

The pianist and composer Esbjörn Svensson was one of the most popular and influential figures in contemporary jazz. His group e.s.t. (Esbjörn Svensson Trio), which in 2006 became the first European act to appear on the cover of the prestigious American jazz magazine Down Beat, drew inspiration from Bach and the baroque, ambient music, rock and techno to create a new form of intensely textured instrumental music that proved as attractive to younger fans with no previous interest in jazz as it did to admirers of the classic piano trios that the group's ensemble-based style referenced.

In Sweden, e.s.t.'s records reached the mainstream pop charts and their videos appeared on MTV, while Svensson's handsome features, shaved head, and muscular frame made him – almost uniquely for a jazz musician of any nationality – something of a pin-up. He was voted Swedish Jazz Musician of the Year in both 1995 and 1996, and Songwriter of the Year in 1998. In 2003 the group won the International Artist Award in the BBC Jazz Awards.

By working extremely hard, making 12 albums since 1993, and touring constantly, Svensson, with the bassist Dan Berglund and the drummer Magnus Oström, gradually established e.s.t. as Europe's most successful jazz group, performing at large concert halls in most major cities, and selling albums in the tens of thousands rather than – as is normal for a jazz act – the hundreds. An element of doubt over whether e.s.t. were really jazz or not helped them to gain acceptance at pop festivals where jazz artists were not usually invited. Their pop appeal was also enhanced by the careful integration of stagecraft into their shows, which incorporated innovative film projections, lighting and set design.

Last year, the group released a superb double album, Live in Hamburg (on the German ACT label, like all but their earliest discs) that effectively summarised their progress so far. A further album, to be called Leucocyte, had just been completed and was due to be released later this year. As part of a string of summer festival appearances, e.s.t. were scheduled to appear at the forthcoming Edinburgh and Brecon jazz festivals. Regular visitors to the UK, the trio were planning a further tour to Britain in February 2009.

Esbjörn Svensson was born in 1964 in Västeras, Sweden, to a mother who played classical piano and a father who revered jazz and the music of Duke Ellington. In high school, he played in pop bands while continuing to take lessons in classical piano, followed by four years studying music at the University of Stockholm.

Before coming together as e.s.t., Svensson, Berglund and Oström (whom Svensson had known since childhood) worked as session players in Swedish pop and rock bands. When they eventually formed their own group (which, while named after Svensson, remained an unusually democratic co-op band), the members deliberately sought to use their experience of the pop business to help ensure they communicated clearly to their target audience.

"We just play the music exactly how we want it to be," Svensson told me in an interview in Paris in 2003. "As soon as that's done, we put all of our efforts into promoting it, and to be commercial in that sense. But the thing we're doing is not commercial. For us, it's pure art or pure music."

As a jazz pianist, Svensson had an unusually versatile style, which combined the structural importance of baroque counterpoint that he had learned to appreciate in his classical studies, with lightly twinkling improvisations that recalled Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, the two most influential piano trio leaders of the post-war period.

What made Svensson most unusual within the normally promiscuous world of jazz is that almost all his mature work was with the same group, and the same personnel. He was also very happy to let Berglund and Oström take up solo space themselves, and the great delight of e.s.t. as a group was the strength of the ensemble rather than that of the individuals who comprised it.

As Svensson, Berglund and Oström played together on stage, typically in very close physical proximity to each other, an uncanny sense of intense, intuitive communication became almost palpable."It's like we can look at each other, but actually we're not in the room," Svensson said. "We're in the music, which is another dimension, where you don't need to look at each other to be aware. Actually, you see or hear that room better when you close your eyes, and that's why you do it. Then, after a tour, you open your eyes and you're back."

Phil Johnson

Esbjörn Svensson, pianist: born Västeras, Sweden 16 April 1964; married (two sons); died Stockholm 14 June 2008.