Staffan William-Olsson

Staffan William-Olsson (born 13 December 1959) is a Swedish jazz guitarist in the band The Real Thing who has worked with Bob Berg, Lee Konitz, and Palle Mikkelborg.

He played piano, guitar and drums already at the age of 7, and studied classical piano with a jazz-oriented teacher.

Eventually he was oriented towards the guitar, with the blues and rock music as main sources of influence (Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin as main models).

When he discovered jazz-rock, Weather Report, John McLaughlin and Allan Holdsworth among others became the new sources of inspiration.

George Benson's record Bad Benson was a turning point, it opened up his ears for the clean, undistorted guitar sound, and guitarists like Pat Martino was a great influence.

William-Olsson was after classical piano studies at Göteborg Musikhögskola (he is autodidact guitarist), the replacement for Ulf Wakenius in the Swedish fusion band Hawk on Flight, and also collaborated with such as Bob Berg, Lee Konitz and Palle Mikkelborg.

He moved to Oslo in 1986 and worked as a freelance guitarist before becoming a part of the hard rock band Sons of Angels in 1989.

The band signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records, and toured the east coast of US and Europe.

The album sold 100,000 copies, and the band broke up.

The Real Thing was established in 1992.

The solo albums Three Shades of Blue (1995) and Smile! (1998), was bouth nominated for the Spellemannprisen.

Thereafter he has released two more albums, Oak Road Boogaloo (2000) and Pop! (2002).

Within "Sharp 9" he released NO:Network (2004) and Sudoku (2007).

With The Real Thing

With Terje Gewelt

With Sharp 9

William-Olsson started the mini big band "Sharp 9" in 2005, inspired by the likes of Art Pepper and Miles Davis.