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Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

ALBUM REVIEW July 2, 2020

Nils Okland Band: Kjølvatn

Read "Kjølvatn" reviewed by David Bruggink

A seasoned solo performer, sideman and leader, Nils Økland is a frequent ECM Records contributor capable of playing expressively across multiple styles. His hardanger fiddle and violin can range from poised and elegant—see Lysøen -Hommage à Ole Bull (2011), his collaboration with pianist Sigbjørn Apeland—to raucous, as on the Dirty Three-esque Lumen Drones (2014). For Kjølvatn, he assembles a quintet capable of evocative textures as well as hushed austerity. ECM mainstay Mats Eilertsen plays double bass; Sigbjørn Apeland ...

LIVE REVIEW October 16, 2019

Galway Jazz Festival 2019

By Ian Patterson

Galway Jazz Festival 2019 Various venues Galway, Ireland October 2-6, 2019 Bat song may be a first at a jazz festival, but then they do things differently here in Galway. Bats were in and plastic was out. No plastic laminates or cable ties, no plastic on outdoor advertising, no plastic wrapping on backstage food, and no plastic bottles were permitted by the organizers of GJF19. With carbon footprint awareness the name of the ...

ALBUM REVIEW April 25, 2016

Nils Økland Band: Kjølvatn

By Mark Sullivan

Norwegian Hardanger fiddle specialist Nils Økland has a broad range of musical interests, as illustrated by his eclectic discography. His solo album Monograph (ECM, 2011) spotlighted his lyrical, folkloric side; Lysøen--Hommage à Ole Bull (ECM, 2011) with keyboardist Sigbjørn Apeland payed tribute to the Norwegian classical tradition; Lumen Drones (ECM, 2014) found him making trance music with two rock musicians; and the recent Felt Like Old Folk (Smeraldina-Rima, 2016) collaboration with the Belgian duo Linus was almost completely improvised. He ...

LIVE REVIEW April 1, 2016

Vossa Jazz 2016

By Ian Patterson

Vossa Jazz Various venues jny:Voss, Norway March 18-20, 2016 Perched high on the mountain side, the weather-beaten wooden farm houses of the Voss folk museum command a truly impressive view of the town below, ringed by snow-capped mountains, interlocking valleys and ice-covered fjords that stretch to the four points of the compass. Founded in 1917--the same year the Original Dixieland Jass Band recorded the first jazz record--the museum's bric-a-brac of bygone days and ...

ALBUM REVIEW March 29, 2016

Nils Økland: Kjølvatn

By Karl Ackermann

The significance of the Hardanger Fiddle--a homespun Norwegian variation of the violin--is that while it is played on four strings, as a similar string instrument would be, it has four or five additional strings under the fingerboard which vibrate during playing. Though its use has been limited in modern music, Nils Økland has not only mastered it, but has expanded its scope across non- traditional folk styles from rock, trance and classical to jazz. On Kjølvatn he plays an assortment ...

ALBUM REVIEW August 14, 2011

Nils Okland / Sigbjorn Apeland: Lysoen: Hommage a Ole Bull

By John Kelman

The problem with being tagged as traditional is an inherent and immediate perception as being somehow retro or backwards-looking when, in truth, traditions ought to be living, breathing things whose definable frames of reference aren't necessarily confined by them. Norwegian violinist Nils Økland and pianist/harmonium player Sigbjørn Apeland know this better than most; in their 1982 trio, with drummer Øyvind Skarbo, they mine a most contemporary kind of free improvisation that can't help but be informed by the traditional Norwegian ...

ALBUM REVIEW June 29, 2010

Sigbjorn Apeland / Oyvind Skarbo / Nils Okland: 1982

By John Kelman

On a per capita basis, creativity and innovation coming out of Norway is thoroughly disproportionate to a population straining to reach five million. With a particularly strong reputation for its intrepid exploration of modern technology and instrumental orthodoxy, there's also plenty going on without the benefit of laptops, turntables and effects processors. When harmonium player Sigbjørn Apeland, drummer Øyvind Skarbø and violinist Nils Økland--billed as 1982 Trio--performed at the top of Mount Ulriken as part of JazzNorway in a Nutshell ...