Norwegian Cool

[mjzee]

Its population might be tiny, just half that of London, but Norway makes a big noise in the jazz world. Ever since saxophonist Jan Garbarek gave a distinctive Nordic slant to European jazz in the 1970s, the country’s musicians have moved increasingly to the fore. If further evidence of their momentum were needed, next month’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival – curated this year by Jamie Cullum – will showcase a contingent of Norway’s main players, including pianist Tord Gustavsen who will premiere a festival commission, and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, in a beats-and-electronica collaboration with drummer Martin France.

It is the long winters, vast, solitary spaces and sparse population that provide the superficial explanations for the “Norwegianness” of Norwegian jazz. But the music’s melodic purity and textural ambience has a more organic origin – as the product of open-minded musicians working in a richly diverse and thriving national musical culture; one supported by an oil-rich government.

I meet both Gustavsen and Molvaer in Oslo – the former is in town for a gig with the organmaster of the city’s cathedral and the latter is producing his next album. The background similarities between the two turn out to be as striking as the different career paths they have taken.

More here:

Financial Times

[kh1958]

I rather like two recent Molvaer recordings, Re-Vision and Hamada.