Jazz Articles about Roy Powell

About Roy Powell

Album Review

Frode Kjekstad Qrt: Stars Aligned

Read "Stars Aligned" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 11, 2026

Talented Norwegian guitarist Frode Kjekstad discovered jazz in his early teens through the bebop genius of Charlie Parker and the refined touch of Joe Pass. He started formal jazz guitar studies at fifteen and moved to Oslo in 1994, where he immersed himself in the local scene and performed with legends like Johnny Griffin, Frank Foster, and Diane Schuur as part of the acclaimed Sandvika Big Band. Today, he balances freelancing, composing, and teaching, releasing albums that fuse hard bop ...

Album Review

Roy Powell - Lorenzo Feliciati - Lucrezio de Seta: Aria

by Glenn Astarita
December 17, 2025

Roy Powell has been the quiet man in the engine room for years. British by birth and Norwegian by choice, he once spent serious time as Anthony Braxton's pianist on those wild European tours where the music looked like geometry homework, and the applause was optional. He later slipped into the electric Norwegian wave, trading greasy Fender Rhodes licks with Bugge Wesseltoft and Nils Petter Molvær when Oslo was busy inventing what magazines called nu-jazz. Powell can venture as far ...

Album Review

This Celestial Engine: This Celestial Engine

Read "This Celestial Engine" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 26, 2024

This self-titled debut album is a masterful concoction of genres, melding psychedelic nuances with avant jazz and progressive rock elements. It showcases the talents of Ted Parsons on drums, Dave Sturt on bass, and Roy Powell on keyboards. These musicians are celebrated for their extensive contributions across jazz, metal, rock, and experimental music genres. Operating out of Oslo, Norway, the band draws on their varied musical backgrounds to create immersive soundscapes that transport listeners across cosmic distances.The album ...

Album Review

InterStatic: Arise

by Glenn Astarita
December 18, 2014

UK-reared keyboardist Roy Powell (Mumpbeak, Naked Truth)has called Norway home for several years while serving as a prime motivator for this futuristic UK-based, record label via sideman duties, and co-leading groups such as Interstatic. The band pushes the envelope yet again on this psycho, acid-rock slant on the jazz organ trio format. Nonetheless, the trio ups the ante a bit on its third album, featuring ECM Records recording artist Jacob Young and notable session drummer Jarle Vespestad. A little genre-busting ...

Album Review

InterStatic: Arise

Read "Arise" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
October 10, 2014

Interstatic è una sorta di power trio formato da virtuosi strumentisti quali il tastierista Roy Powell (Anthony Braxton, Art Farmer, Terje Rypdal), il batterista Jarle Vespestad (Supersilent, Tord Gustavsen) e il chitarrista Jacob Young (Karin Krog, Nils Petter Molvaer, Christian Wallumrod). Trio che ha trovato ragioni comuni solide e importanti visto che è alla terza incisione in tre anni. E prosegue a battere le strade di quella miscela stilistica di jazz, rock, ambient, noise che ha contraddistinto fino ad ora ...

Album Review

InterStatic: Arise

by John Kelman
August 15, 2014

Its beginnings may have been a little closer to the jazz side of the jazz-rock equation with Anthem (PVY Records, 2011), but British expat keyboardist Roy Powell's and trio with Norwegian guitarist Jacob Young and drummer Jarle Vespestad has, since changing its moniker to InterStatic with the release of its first album on UK's RareNoiseRecords label, InterStatic (2012), ratcheted up the energy, the volume and the rock quotient. If InterStatic was the trio's first shot across the bow, then Arise ...

Album Review

Interstatic: Interstatic

by AAJ Italy Staff
February 25, 2013

Di fronte ad un trio chitarra elettrica, organo Hammond e batteria non si può non pensare al Tony Williams Lifetime che, tra il 1969 e 1970, cambiò la faccia del jazz-rock. Eppure, in questo caso i punti di contatto con quella torrenziale ed imprescindibile esperienza non sono così accentuati. Semmai gli Interstatic ricordano piuttosto il trio di John Abercrombie con l'organista Dan Wall e il batterista Adam Nussbaum. Questo gruppo di musicisti nordici (Powell è inglese ma risiede in Norvegia) ...