My Content
Membership has its privileges! Sign up or sign in to gain full access to both All About Jazz and Jazz Near You. Learn more.
Content by tag "Norway"
Kongsberg Jazz Festival 2017
Kongsberg Jazz Festival/Kongsberg Jazzmeeting
Kongsberg, Norway
July 6-8, 2017
Kongsberg, a former important silver mining town, is situated in the eastern part of Norway 55 miles west of Oslo. The Kongsberg Jazz Festival, founded in 1964 has a long tradition of offering a specific program for international guests (presenters and media people) ...
Vossajazz 2017
Vossajazz 2017
Various Venues
Voss, Norway
April 7-9, 2017
Some places punch above their weight. Voss is one. With just 14,000 inhabitants, this small Norwegian town in the county of Hordaland, can boast a world-renowned sky-diving training centre, the country's foremost folk music academy, one of the best wine cellars in ...
Pappenheim: Bekkenjordet
Pianist Oscar Grönberg and drummer Tor Haugerud are Scandinavian improvisers who have in recent years both been active in the remarkably fertile jazz scene in Trondheim, Norway. There they have collaborated with folks like Paal Nilssen- Love, Kim Myhr, and Eldbjørg Raknes, as well as being active in groups like Friends and Neighbors (Grönberg) and the ...
read more1982: Chromola
Remarkably, given that Chromola is only 1982's fifth album release, it also marks the tenth anniversary of the trio's formation. In 2007, drummer Øyvind Skarbø asked fiddler Nils Økland if the two could form a duo to play a concert series Skarbø ran. Økland agreed if they could be joined by keyboardist Sigbjørn Apeland a collaborator ...
read moreMarius Neset/London Sinfonietta: Snowmelt
That Marius Neset would eventually produce an extended orchestral-inspired work had been on the cards for some time. As early as his debut as leader, Suite for the Seven Mountains (Calibrated, 2008), the Norwegian saxophonist was incorporating strings into a contemporary jazz setting with a very personal stamp of authority. The extraordinary Birds (Edition Records, 2013) ...
read morePeeter Uuskyla / Tellef Øgrim / Anders Berg: Ullr
Thirty years ago, the trio Power Tools made a one-off recording Strange Meeting (Antilles New Directions, 1987). The long out-of-print LP by Bill Frisell, Melvin Gibbs, and Ronald Shannon Jackson is on many a collector's want list. While only a short-lived band, its memory persists. It was for many, a perfect storm of free-metal-jazz music. If ...
read moreOlga Konkova and Jens Thoresen: December Songs
It's a Christmas album even a Grinch can love. The title December Songs already hints that this affair is themed around the general season and mood rather than one particular holiday. The format (sparse piano/guitar duets) smoothly follows suit. The song selection includes a few of the same carols that always get overplayed at the end ...
read moreHaakon Graf/Erik Smith/Per Mathisen: Sunrain
Digging into the staggered groove of “Santa Monica" during an end-of-2014 performance in jny: Oslo's Olsen Bar, Haakon Graf glides along the keys in an easygoing manner to begin building the show's energy. The electric trappings of '70s Jeff Beck come to mind--albeit without the guitar--alongside the sound of classic outfits like Weather Report and Herbie ...
read moreMichael Aadal Group: Pomona
Proof that great Americana music can come from unexpected places--Norway, in this case. Pomona Avenue in Fullerton, California was the original location of the famed Fender factory. Guitarist Michael Aadal used only solid body guitars on this album--a Stratocaster and a Telecaster, the most iconic Fender models. That says something about the sound of Pomona, but ...
read moreHaakon Graf/Erik Smith/ Per Mathisen: Sunrain
"Sunrain" is a common Scandinavian weather phenomenon: after weeks of rain, there are often clouds with showers pouring down as the sun peers through the other side. Keyboardist/composer Haakon Graf considers it “a metaphor for the fabric of life, a place between a smile and a tear, like my music..." His trio with drummer Erik Smith ...
read more