Alf Carlsson (born 1991) is a Swedish-based session and jazz guitarist.

His solo debut album “Lights” (Prophone Naxos) released in 2023, has received extensive international recognition, with articles in the world’s biggest jazz guitar magazine “Jazz Guitar Today” (link to article here) among others. The album has been broadcasted both on swedish national radio and on international jazz radio stations.

“We all have beacons of light in our lives, things we cannot be without.” For Swedish guitarist Alf Carlsson, he has made the choice to dedicate his solo debut record under his own name to the most luminous of his personal lights, music. A modern amalgamation of jazz, rock, and Swedish folk music

In 2013, he received the Albin Hagström award for young promising guitarists on the popular music scene. A year later, he composed music for the Nobel Peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai exhibition in Stockholm. He has been freelancing non stop on the Swedish jazz and pop scene since his graduation at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 2016 and has been working as both a band leader and is a known “hired gun”.

With a wide palette of musical styles in his arsenal, he has no fear mixing styles and has come up with a very original take on the jazz guitar by incorporating swedish folk music, pop, rock and jazz in his compositions.

He has toured extensively with the international collaboration “Alf Carlsson/Jiří Kotača Quartet”, a jazz group that has played over 120 concerts in Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands since 2017. Their debut album “Journeys” (2019, Amplion Records) was critically aclaimed as one of best Czech jazz releases of the year.

As a session guitarist, Alf has been featured on k-pop acts like “Cravity” in collaboration with swedish K-pop producer Cage and Jimmy Claesson which has sold over 350 000 physical copies in 2023.