Jakob Frímann Magnússon
Icelandic pianist, composer and politician
Jakob Frímann Magnússon (born 4 May 1953) is a Danish-born Icelandic politician, composer, keyboard player, film director and producer. In Iceland he is best known as the keyboardist and one of the founders of the multiartistic band Stuðmenn, with which he has so far produced 16 albums as of 2017. He has also directed, produced and starred in several films, and released several solo albums with a number of famous jazz musicians from the United States. For a period of the 1990s he was the cultural attaché of the Icelandic embassy in London. Since 2002, aside from playing in Stuðmenn and recording new albums, Jakob Frímann is the co-owner and manager of the advertisement agency Bankastræti in Reykjavík.
Jakob studied music in California between 1977 and 1980. During his time in the U.S. he started his own band with Carlos Rios (guitar), Steve Anderson (bass) and David Logeman (drums) and released several albums with jazz-influenced music. On these albums he also involved many talented musicians such as Bill Champlin, Vinnie Colaiuta, Neil Stubenhaus, Abe Laboriel, Ernie Watts, Tom Scott, Peter Banks all of them big names in Jazz and Jazz Fusion. He has also been a studio musician for a number of American and Icelandic artists, and is known for his distinctive and tasteful keyboard solos and brilliant treatment of the Rhodes piano and various synthesizers.
His 1985 film Cool Jazz and Coconuts was entered into the 14th Moscow International Film Festival.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Jakob Frímann Magnússon” as icelandic pianist, composer and politician. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as icelandic pianist, composer and politician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6125262. VIAF identifies the subject as 256405085. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 2017, 2002 and 1977.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Jakob Frímann Magnússon”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Jakob Frímann Magnússon primary sources, Jakob Frímann Magnússon archive and Jakob research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jakob Frímann Magnússon”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Jakob Frímann Magnússon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.