Ole Mathisen (born 13 February 1965) is a Norwegian jazz musician (saxophone and clarinet) and composer. He is a critically acclaimed saxophonist and active performer on the New York and the international jazz scene,[1] and known for more than 80 recordings. He has performed with artists such as Paula Cole, Louie Vega, Omar Hakim, Darryl Jones, Hiram Bullock, Tom Coster, Mark Egan, Steve Smith,Mino Cinelu, Peter Erskine, Eddie Gómez, Badal Roy, Rufus Reid, Ron Carter, Grady Tate, Claudio Roditi, Will Lee, LaVerne Baker,Abraham Laboriel, Randy Brecker, Gil Goldstein, Lew Soloff, Tiger Okoshi, Michael Gibbs, Harvie Swartz, Jon Christensen, Gary Husband,Bill Bruford, Kenny Barron, Bob Moses, Jeff Berlin, Hilton Ruiz, Petter Wettre, Adam Nussbaum, Frankie Valli, and Dream Theater, and has composed music for film and television.[2] He is the brother of jazz musicians Per Mathisen (bass), Hans Mathisen (guitar) and Nils Mathisen(keyboards, guitar and bass).
Mathisen received his Bachelor Degree in Professional Music from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1988. While at Berklee he studied for three years with renowned saxophoneistJoe Viola. He moved to New York in 1993 and received a Masters Degree in Jazz Performance from Manhattan School of Music at the Columbia University 1995, studying saxophone with Bob Mintzer, arranging with Maria Schneider, and film scoring with Ed Green.
Mathisen has been regular with Chris Washburne and his Latin jazz band «SYOTOS Band» (four albums).He was the leader of the orchestra «Anomaly», and with his brothers Per(bass) and Hans Mathisen (guitar) he contributed in Chris Washburne Sextet «NYNDK» (2003–), releasing Jazzheads (2006). Mathisen has also performed with Petter Wettre andAdam Nussbaum/Francois Moutin in the production «Conspiracy».
Otherwise, he has this country contributed to releases by Hans Mathisen and Olga Konkova, and played clarinet on the concert DVD by Dream Theater in 2006.