I thought it would be appropriate for me to finally give props to my uncle and guitar mentor, Björn Thoroddsen, who turned 50 earlier this year. Yes, I might be a bit biased but to start things off, here are some quotes about his guitar playing from newspaper reviews from around the world:

Icelandic guitarist, Bjorn Thoroddsen, travels to Manitoba to play killer solos on Gershwin tunes. Thoroddsen is an unassuming man, but put a guitar in his hand and give him a solo spot and he takes the music to another level.
Winnipeg free press - Billie Stewart / Canada

“I've been a fan of Björn Thoroddsen for a long time. He has in a short time become one of our greatest guitarists and even one of Europes best jazz musicians”Ólafur Stephensen / Dagblaðið Iceland

The best performers made the most out of the this opportunity. One such musican is Icelandic guitarist Björn Thoroddsen. His performance at NASA with guitarist Leni Stern was a marked contrast to the gently fleet lines he contributes to clarinetist Jorgen Svar´s Jazz airs ( Zonet). In what became a reenactment of John Henry tale, Stern´s electric lead had a hard time keeping pace with Thoroddsen´s powerful acoustic tone and expansive array of ideas.Aaron Cohen- Downbeat-USA

But enough of the quotes. Who is Björn Thoroddsen?
He graduated from the Guitar Institute of Technology (Hollywood, CA) in 1982. The same year he released his first solo album, which is a personal favorite of mine. That album is unfortunately not available on CD but the LP sounds great, as it is mastered by the famous engineer Bernie Grundman (He mastered Michael Jackson's Thriller and all the big Prince albums on vinyl in the 80s). This album is a jazz-fusion type record which is a sound, while featured alot on his early stuff, he has since abandoned for more acoustic jazz sounds.
He has since recorded about seven solo albums and many albums with several groups he has participated in. Like I said, his early solo stuff is for the most part not available on CD but there are some of his albums available for download (with sound samples available there) here.

But I DID find some video clips from 3 of his groups. First off is the song "Americana" from his album "Jazz in Reykjavik" which he recorded with a double-bass player and a violinist.



The next video is a live performance of the song "Ice West" by his group Cold Front, which features US bass player Steve Kirby and Canadian trumpet player Richard Gillis.



The final video is the song "Cyber Flight" by his Icelandic group Guitar Islancio, which is the only jazz group that has a gold selling record in Iceland..... this video really shows off his chops.... he throws in a few "samples" in the song for fun.




His website: http://bjornthoroddsen.is/




P.S. Many of the groups that are mentioned on his homepage have full albums (or individual tracks) for download here: http://www.icelandicmusic.com