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Live Reviews
12 Points! Jazz Festival, Stavanger, Norway: Europe's New Jazz
Ray Comiskey
From seconds after the Big Bang Ray Comiskey has written on jazz of all kinds for The Irish Times, for which he was also movie critic in a previous existence, leaving the jury open on whether his reincarnation as a jazz writer is punishment or reward.There were other things to take away from this year's festival. France's Donkey Monkey—pianist Eve Risser and drummer Yuko Oshima—mixed rock, stride, boogie, free jazz and song with a quirkily subversive wit. And though Finland's Quartester produced an "oh dear" moment when leader Kasperi Sarikoski essayed a sub-Chet Baker vocal, his virtuoso command of the trombone was astonishing. Bassist Vesa Ojaniemi's mature conception, though, was a crucial factor in the group.
Mark McKnight
Ireland's Mark McKnight, runner up in 2008's Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition, headed a fine trio with Scotland's Euan Burton on bass and England's brilliant young drummer, James Maddren. And Belgium's Eve Beuvens Trio made a good impression with a set that reflected not only the contemporary impact of Brad Mehldau, but also the unmistakable taste of Lennie Tristano.
Trumpeter Lorenz Raab's XY-Band from Vienna was notable, among other things, for its use of two bass players and for his virtuoso command of the instrument. The group's overall style was effectively a musical amalgam which, to a degree, reflected Raab's collaborations with electronic artists, jazz players like the Muthspiel brothers (guitarist Wolfgang and trombonist/pianist Christian) and his own background in the Viennese Volksoper. If the extra bass didn't seem to add much to the color, texture or internal dialogue, the music that emerged was polished, kaleidoscopic in its mood shifts and very controlled.
Sadly, the festival's weakest concert came from Jazzanitsa, a Bulgarian-led sextet with a trumpet-tenor-alto front line and personnel drawn from Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Poland. The style was something like Art Blakey's Jazz messengers with a Balkan accent; alas, the execution wasn't.
Significantly, the audiences in Stavanger's well equipped and central Folken venue included a large quota of agents, festival programmers, club owners and label managers, as well as journalists. But if the festival is a good place to find new European talent, it's also a public event. It could have done with more non-professionals in to savor the music.
As the success of the Dublin experience has shown, it takes time to build a local audience for an event with no jazz celebrities. Yet, overall, the stunning quality and diversity of most of the talent on display in Stavanger underlines the uniqueness of a festival like this. It takes a lot of putting together—including 14 separate organizations in Norway, Ireland and other European countries, as well as the help of a number of embassies and cultural institutes—but the payoff in musical and cultural terms is incalculable.
Photo Credit
All Photos: Jan Granlie
