# Jon Christensen’s more of a director than a drummer in the traditional sense, at least the way he plays now: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/03/20/jon-christensens-more-of-a-director-than-a-drummer-in-the-traditional-sense-at-least-the-way-he-plays-now-video/
- Published: 2018-03-20T00:02:29+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**20.03. – Happy Birthday !!! Jon Christensen over the past thirty years, the Norwegian
drummer has played drums and percussion on fully fifty-five releases from the esteemed
German jazz label.**

Jon elaborates on beats: “You could go to a jazz club Tuesday at 8:00 and play just
one tap on the cymbal, then come back to the club exactly one week later and play
one more cymbal hit. People would think the two events have nothing in common. But
that is a beat.”

Well, that might not wash in Nashville, but it’s certainly worked its magic for 
a host of ECM artists. “If I’m playing with a band in 4/4 in a medium tempo,” Jon
explains, “and I feel like loosening up a bit, I could go out of tempo or stop altogether”
but I always know exactly where I am. I’m just not marking the 1 or setting up the
bridge with a fill. I always try to avoid that. Instead, I try to play in waves.”

Although Christensen can play straight time with the best of ’em – always on a brutally
heavy old Turkish K – he’d rather mix it up a little. You hear Jon’s diverse approaches
on his ECM Rarum release, eloquent testimony to his status as a master of modern
jazz drumming. Other Rarum honorees include Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Pat Metheny,
Dave Holland, Gary Burton, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Frisell.

Christensen turned sixty touring with a guitarist half his age, Jacob Young. Over
the decades, Jon intimates, “I’ve always been hired to play like I play. I’ve been
playing “Jon Christensen” all the way. Journalists began writing that I was this
innovative drummer and that people from Japan and Europe had begun trying to play
like me. Only then did I figure out, Hmmm, maybe I’ve done something different after
all.”

Improvisational understanding in the group levels out the age differences: lyrically
inventive trumpeter Mathias Eick may be 28 and resourceful drummer Jon Christensen
64 but they are clearly attuned to each other. A particular delight of the new album
is the interplay between Young’s prominently-featured acoustic guitar and Christensen’s
drums, in striking interplay on four of the pieces here “Sideways” itself, “Near
South End”, “Out of Night” and “Maybe We Can”.

In an interview with All About Jazz, Young called Christensen the director of the
band: “He’s more of a director than a drummer in the traditional sense, at least
the way he plays now. He can push the tune in any direction he wants.” Christensen
is at liberty to play freely, colour the music or drive it forward, to light fires
under the musicians or detail their solos.

Incorrigibly committed to the idea of jazz as the sound of surprise, Christensen
is in his best unpredictable form on “Sideways”, a disc which is, we believe, his
55th ECM recording. (The first of course was “Africa Pepperbird”, introducing the
Garbarek Quartet with Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen and Jon in 1970). He and Jacob
Young have been playing together in diverse contexts since 1996.

![Image result for Jon Christensen](https://i0.wp.com/i.ytimg.com/vi/Y_qEtl6zUfQ/
hqdefault.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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