Home » Jazz Articles » Torben Westergaard
Jazz Articles about Torben Westergaard
Three Short Trips with Torben Westergaard
by Geno Thackara
Insert cliche here about how good things can come in small packages. While the world continues insistently churning with digital chatter and ADHD, Torben Westergaard has been leaning toward the simple and concise with a string of snack-sized (yet wildly eclectic) EPs. If you know the bassist's history or personality, though, you can guess that this is not a concession to short attention spans. Sometimes the music simply comes in tidy portions, and each one is a colorfully crafted work ...
Continue ReadingTorben Westergaard: The Gori Project II
by Geno Thackara
Sometimes an experience is too special and rewarding to simply leave as a one-off. If it requires traveling 8,300 kilometers across the hemisphere, then maybe you cannot continue making it a habit as regular as popping off to the pub on weekends, but the right repeat can still be worth the effort, even if it takes a few years. Or such has been the experience of Torben Westergaard with the lingering euphoria from 2019's The Gori Project (self produced), which ...
Continue ReadingTorben Westergaard: Jazz Brazil
by Geno Thackara
For Torben Westergaard, sooner or later all roads lead back to Brazil. The special flavor of South American jazz shaped his life from an early age, and has stayed a recurring staple in his music from his debut Brazilian Heart (Self Produced, 1996) through the Tangofied (Gateway) series of 2013-17. If it's taken him a while to circle back to this favorite milieu again, that's because he has been roaming a long way in the meantime, from home base Denmark ...
Continue ReadingTorben Westergaard: Then/Now
by Geno Thackara
While Torben Westergaard has had a grand time bouncing from one surprising idea to another to another in previous years--crossing oceans with his Tangofied series, crossing continents with the Euro-Korean Gori Project (self produced, 2020), plus a few more niche-focused detours in between--it turns out it is just as pleasant to hear him settled on comfortably familiar ground. Rather than searching for a particular theme, Westergaard found himself in a more introspective mood as a result of pandemic-mandated time at ...
Continue ReadingTorben Westergaard: Kirsebærsne
by Geno Thackara
Torben Westergaard is nothing if not restless. Latin music has been the most defining element of his career to date, though explorations such as his Tangofied series have also happily bridged music and musicians of South America with those of his native Europe. This album's immediate predecessor, Heart Tunes (self-produced, 2018), made an unexpected detour into straightforward sunny dub-ambient territory instead. Where does a curious bassist go after that, one might ask? If you guessed “the world of ...
Continue ReadingTorben Westergaard: Heart Tunes
by Geno Thackara
Though Denmark may serve as a home base, Torben Westergaard's musical home can be anywhere new songs and ideas take him. The bassist was figuratively reaching halfway around the world as far back as Brazilian Heart (Self Produced, 1996). Argentina became an unexpectedly prominent touchstone, as the exploratory Tangofied (Point of Departure, 2013) grew into a three-album series joining players from South America and Europe. Fascinating as that endeavor turned out to be, Westergaard clearly felt it was time again ...
Continue ReadingTorben Westergaard: Tangofied III
by Geno Thackara
For the finale of his globe-spanning triptych (an unplanned endeavor that unexpectedly grew from the first installment's success), bassist Torben Westergaard considers himself to be making very much a return home. After the expanded cross-national lineup and largely Argentinian focus of Tangofied II (Gateway Music, 2014), he returned to his native Denmark to record only with the Tangofied Ensemble for the close of the cycle. This entry is a smooth blend with roots in both places that weaves songs around ...
Continue Reading
