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Ola Kvernberg & The Trondheim Soloists: The Mechanical Fair Live
by Chris May
Ola Kvernberg's Steamdown (Grappa) was perhaps the most sensationally visceral album to come our way during 2018. Part future-jazz, part EDM, part avant-rock, part contemporary-classical and 100% wrap-around shamanistic. It was Kvernberg's follow-up to The Mechanical Fair (Jazzland, 2014), which is here in an extensively recalibrated version recorded live at the Molde International Jazz Festival in 2016. There are similarities between Steamdown and The Mechanical Fair Live, as you would expect of works coming from the same ...
read moreOla Kvernberg: Steamdome II The Hypogean
by Chris May
Violinist and multi-instrumentalist Ola Kvernberg was born into a line of Norwegian folk musicians which includes the distinguished fiddler and composer Peter Larrson Rypdal. Kvernberg cut his teeth playing in traditional bands led by his parents and began studying classical violin when he was nine. In his early twenties, after discovering jazz, he spent a few years with Gypsy jazz specialists Hot Club de Norvège. Next, he broadened his horizons with a series of modernistic own-name releases which began with ...
read moreDr Bekken Trio: In Fonk We Trust
by Jim Worsley
With some fresh boogie-woogie powder, just the right amount of handpicked blues, a bit of jazz seasoning, and honky-tonk leaves, all rolled together in the same Zig-Zag, the Dr. Bekken Trio smoked the joint. The crowd at the Lillehammer Mikrobyggeri, in the Olympic city of Lillehammer, Norway, were abuzz the minute the band took the stage. A strong hit of boogie-woogie laced the room with an energized romp on the Tor E Bekken original composition “St. Pete." Bassist Mattis Kleppen ...
read moreDr Bekken: Blues
by Jim Worsley
Tor E Bekken is also known in the music world as Dr Bekken. As well, he is known as a distinctive pianist who unearths the blues like a bloodhound on a case. Over the past several years, he has unrooted blues from their deep origins and, consequently, replanted them in fertile ground with even more room to grow and blossom. Studio albums, live recordings, original compositions, and fresh looks at vintage harvests have all grown to maturity in Bekken's fruitful ...
read moreOla Kvernberg: Steamdome
by Chris May
Steamdome is one of those albums that defies categorisation. It is part future-jazz, part avant-rock, part deep-house, part electronica, part contemporary-classical. It is the follow-up to Norwegian violinist and film composer Ola Kvernberg's whirlwind The Mechanical Fair (Olsen, 2016). That album was memorably pitched as heralding a “mutton western" genre, and the description also fits Steamdome, which winningly references some of Ennio Morricone's compositional tropes. There are a couple of substantial differences between the two albums. The first is that ...
read moreBekken and Gjems: Spell
by Jim Worsley
Dr. Bekken's last record, Live At Bar Moskus (Blue Mood, 2017), was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy (the Spellemannprisen). That was a hard-driving solo, boogie-woogie upright piano performance. For Spell, the good doctor writes a new prescription for traditional Norwegian folk infused with New Orleans style jazz. Harmonicist Richard Gjems is co-featured. Bekken and Gjems have been collaborating for over ten years now. Gjems has also been nominated for a Spellemannprisen in the past. On this outing he ...
read moreDr Bekken: Upright Piano - Live At Bar Moskus
by Jim Worsley
There is a monster on the loose! Don't be alarmed though. It is the monster left hand of Norwegian pianist Dr. Bekken. Tor E Bekken has several jazz and blues recordings to his name and has taken the show on the road. Live at Bar Moskus is a solo upright piano performance that demonstrates power, finesse, stylistic interpretations, and a grand knowledge of the instrument. A musical descendant of Jelly Roll Morton, Bekken continues his exploration ...
read moreMusic for a While: Graces That Refrain
by Eyal Hareuveni
Five years have passed since Norwegian quintet Music for a While released its debut, Weill Variations (Grappa, 2007), a collection of fresh, outspoken versions of Kurt Weill songs. Now this dream team band--headed by cabaret diva Tora Augestad, with accordionist Stian Carstensen (leader of Farmers Market), trumpeter Mathias Eick (from Jaga Jazzist and a leader in his own right), tubaist Martin Taxt (from the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and Koboku Senju) and drummer Pål Hausken (from In the Country)--delivers a magnificent ...
read moreJan Gunnar Hoff: Magma
by John Kelman
Keyboardist Jan Gunnar Hoff may not have the international visibility of fellow keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft, but with a growing discography dating back to the mid-1990s and including, most recently, the powerfully fusion-esque Jungle City (Alessa, 2009), with fellow countryman/bassist Per Mathisen and ex-Weather Report percussionist/drummer Alex Acuna, that deserves to change. At the core of the eminently accessible yet equally deep Magma is a Norwegian posse that includes drummer Audun Kleive and bassist Bjørn Kjellemyr--two-thirds of guitarist Terje Rypdal's internationally ...
read moreMusic for a While: Weill Variations
by Eyal Hareuveni
Any ensemble with a female vocalist performing a program based on the songs of composer Kurt Weill calls for immediate comparisons to such iconic interpreters of the composer's repertoire by actress/vocalist Lotte Lenya (who was married to Weill) and actress/vocalist Uta Lemper. But Music for a While is not afraid of such obvious references. The Norwegian quintet features some of the most open-minded musicians on the fertile Norwegian scene--actress/vocalist Tora Augestad, multi-instrumentalist and leader of the Balkan-tinged Farmers Market Stian ...
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