Lars Bjorn Honored
Tears of joy flowed from family and friends on March 1, 2026 as the 
Southeastern Michigan Jazz Association presented its 2025 Ron Brooks Award to Lars Bjorn at Kerrytown Concert House. Applause erupted as Piotr Michalowski, Jim Gallert and Linda Yohn paid tribute to Bjorn’s great intellect, and as a man “so easy to love.”
As president of SEMJA for over two decades Lars has lovingly promoted the southeast Michigan jazz scene by reviewing concerts and new recordings, and writing obits in the monthly SEMJA Update, along with Barton Polot, the webmaster and managing editor. As editor of the SEMJA Update Bjorn included contributions from other board members as well. Also, he and Gallert worked together for years exploring Detroit’s fertile jazz scene by interviewing all the living musicians they could locate who gave their artistry to the great sounds coming out of Motor City in the twentieth century, resulting in the titanic success of Berry Gordy and Motown Records.
The SEMJA tribute was given its groove by a group of well-known local musicians led by Paul Keller on bass, Ralph Tope on guitar, Adam Mosley on piano and Jesse Kramer (son to SEMJA luminary Barbara Kramer) on drums. Keller provided a great personal touch with a song well known in Bjorn’s native Sweden as “Dear Old Sweden,” about a place near the Norway border where Bjorn’s grandfather was from. After playing tunes like “Blue Monk” and “I’ll Remember April,” another highlight was Ron Brooks himself, and Paul Vornhagen joining Keller’s group for a few songs. They were in the group that played at Lars and Susan’s 1984 wedding. Lastly, Bjorn himself took the stage to receive the annual Ron Brooks Award. He recounted playing drums in Trio A Go-Go as a young man, and being inspired by hearing the great trumpeter Benny Bailey in his hometown in Sweden. He also recalled how lucky he felt in working with Jim Gallert on their acclaimed book, Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-1960. He said the interviews with every living Detroit jazz musician they could locate were the essential heart of that beloved project, which took them years to complete. This book, plus the interviews with musicians and jazz scholars in the Talk Tent at Detroit Jazz Festivals put flesh and bones to these stories and gave a great musical gift to Detroit and the world. Keller then brought the room together in celebratory song with “Isn’t it nice we can all get together!”
Yes it was a wonderful afternoon of swinging music, along with glowing tributes by loving friends and family (wife Susan Wineberg, daughter and son Mia and Krister, granddaughter Oona) to honor the lifelong contribution to jazz in southeast Michigan by Lars Bjorn, a guy “so easy to love.”
