Lars-Gunnar ”Nubben” Nordström (1924–2014) was a Finnish pioneer of non-representational art and a passionate friend of jazz music. His interest in jazz began in 1941 when he heard Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo on the radio. In the late 1950s, he started collecting vinyl albums which eventually numbered more than 11 000 copies. In all, Nordström purchased 16 000 records. This collection comprises mostly jazz music produced in the USA. His favourite artists were Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and other great names of the 1930s and 1940s. He was also interested in bebop, 1950s mainstream jazz and experimenters such as Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. He often talked about how jazz music had links with his art. In 2015, the Foundation for Constructive Art donated Lars-Gunnar Nordström’s music collection to the National Library of Finland.
