This evening also started in the large and relatively cool Hallen. Since summer is a long way off here between the seven mountains, it will be cold for the many who had chosen to open the concert evening, standing on the brick floor, with KORK (Kringkastingsorkesteret) conducted by Japanese Miho Hazama, who currently leads the Danish DR Big Band, in this project reinforced by trumpeters Nils Petter Molvær, Eivind Lønning and Kristina Fransson, keyboardist Anja Lauvdal, bassist Ellen Andrea Wang and drummer Veslemøy Narvesen.
There is hardly a single jazz organizer in Norway who will not pay tribute to the 100-year-old Miles Davis this year. The legendary trumpeter was born on May 26, 1926, and left this world on September 28, 1991. Two relatively extensive deep dives into his life and music can be read in the essay section here at salt peanuts*. This year, saxophonist John Coltrane also turns 100, but even though he was also a significant voice in jazz history, the organizers have more or less ignored him as an important jazz personality this year, which I personally think is a shame!
In addition, one can easily discuss whether such tribute concerts are actually good for the development of jazz, or whether it is based on the opportunity for organizers to “fill” the coffers, because they know that the audience would like to experience such events.
In the Hallen ute på Verftet, we met KORK together with some of the country’s leading jazz musicians. I have never had the greatest enthusiasm for Miles’ collaborations with large orchestras, even though they were led and arranged by the master Gil Evans and that he could really arrange for large ensembles. Often this is music that is made on the premises of classical music, which is used to playing according to notes and strict arrangements, while the jazz musicians deliver fine solos on top of the classical. In addition, there is the danger of being pulled back too many years in time, and I often miss the innovative.
So I was excited when I arrived at the Hall, which was already very well filled up early on. And if my skepticism was strongly present before the concert, it was blown away when they started, powerfully starting with the opening “Masqualero”. The three trumpeters in front, with the almost fanfare-like team, and with the rest of the “jazz department” ready to deliver, to the right in front of the large KORK.
It was a good move to open with Wayne Shorter’s “Masqualero”, which was also the name of the Norwegian superband that Molvær was a part of, which was started in 1982 with bassist Arild Andersen, drummer Jon Christensen, pianist Jon Balke, saxophonist Tore Brunborg and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær. And this evening we got a “fat” version of the song, where in addition to the three trumpeters, I immediately noticed Veslemøy Narvesen’s ongoing and tough drumming.
And from here and an hour and a half onwards, this was a victory march where jazz and classical expression went hand in hand.
The arrangements for KORK were, to a large extent, made by Helge Sunde, but we also had several arrangements by guest conductor Miho Hazama, who, among other things, re-orchestrated the songs we got from Porgy and Bess, and is a preparation for a larger concert with material from both Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain at the BBC Proms in August. In addition, Veslemøy Narvesen was also in charge of one of the arrangements here.
The arrangements really put the large orchestra into new contexts, and I don’t think I’ve heard it closer and finer than here. Conductor Hazama shone in front of a very well-playing and energetic ensemble, and together with the “jazzers” in front, who must have felt very well “taken care of”, this became, admittedly with a few orchestral “rests”, a brilliant concert.
It was the three trumpeters in front who led the way in the solo roles. And none of the three came too close to Miles’ interpretations. The closest I felt they came to the original arrangements was perhaps in Gershwin’s “Summertime” where Molvær delivered a solo where you could recognize Miles, but which Molvær led into the typically “Molvær” and lyrical.
Lønning is a trumpeter I think you can put to anything, and he always finds his original place with a more experimental playing, but where he, like yesterday, fired a few “shots” at the audience who were “sat” solidly against the walls.
But the one who surprised me the most was the trumpeter Kristina Fransson. I must say, with shame, that I did not know her before. But then again, there are not many jazz musicians from Førde who have stood out in recent years.
She has received the Jazz Talent Award at the Oslo Jazz Festival, played at the Øya Festival and Vossa Jazz and is in the band LEAH, has appeared as a soloist with Thomas Strønen’s percussion ensemble Extended Ground, and played new music at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival and Edinburgh International Jazz Festival.
She has been a soloist with Sinfonietta Riga, and has studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music on the Free Master’s degree, and she also explores elements of improvisation and electronics in the face of classical music.
With trumpet and electronics, she has, through the duo Jeppsson & Fransson, delved into big sounds, playful beats and electronic soundscapes. In duos, bands and larger ensembles, she has emerged as an energetic musician who colors, stretches and adds the unpredictable to the music.
And this concert should be her real breakthrough on the Norwegian jazz scene. Dancing around her more experienced trumpet colleagues, she delivered a string of solos that shocked not only us “uninformed” in the hall, but also her more experienced fellow trumpeters, and became one of the highlights of the concert.
In recent years, drummer Veslemøy Narvesen has distinguished herself as a strong voice. I have heard her in several, smaller ensembles, but in meeting KORK, she showed that she is also an excellent big band drummer. She pushed and pressed the entire ensemble and became exactly the hub of the project that is often missing in such collaborative projects.
Then bassist Ellen Andrea Wang and keyboardist Anja Lauvdal must excuse me for not being highlighted as much. But these are two musicians we know who always come up with solid playing. And yes, I noticed Lauvdal’s twists that immediately sent thoughts of Joe Zawinul, and the whole way the two delivered solid playing as a kind of link between KORK and the jazz musicians.
In such contexts, there must almost be some sequences with “long straws”. We got that here too. But those sequences were no longer than we could, happily, let it happen. They had more of a “comp” role in the context, and they solved that with great conviction.
The concert lasted 90 minutes, which was perhaps a bit long for the standing audience that stands like “herrings in a barrel” inside the Hall. But as a whole this was a great success. And for those who couldn’t squeeze into the Hall this evening, parts of the concert will be broadcast on NRK during the autumn.
The Danish boys ride again
In recent years, there haven’t been too many Danish musicians appearing in Norway. There are some, while the rest, almost never, set foot on Norwegian soil. One of those who is here relatively often is drummer Stefan Pasborg, especially as an energetic member of the trio Ibrahim Electric. And yesterday he was able to celebrate that it was 20 years since the first time he stood on stage at Nattjazz – back then with Ibrahim Electric.
On Wednesday he reportedly played a fantastic duo concert with organist Ståle Storløkken here at Nattjazz, which your correspondent unfortunately did not get to see, but when he was supposed to play with his trio this Thursday, it was a good reason to make the trip.
The other member of the trio, who appears in Norway from time to time, is pianist Carsten Dahl who recently went on a short tour of North-West Norway together with Norwegian vocalist Torhild Ostad and bassist Arild Andersen. He is a self-taught pianist who started out as a drummer, and has released a bunch of records in several different formats, and occasionally in relatively fresh collaboration with Pasborg.
The third member of the trio is not often heard in Norway. Saxophonist Fredrik Lundin played at Vossa Jazz a “thousand” years ago with his excellent “Leadbelly” project, but back home in Denmark he is often heard, including together with pianist Makiko Hirabayashi, or with his “better half”, vocalist Trinelise Væring.
This trio was also heard at Vossa Jazz in 2025, and the music we heard in Sardinen this evening had much of the same energy and joy of playing as at Voss, only even better. They did some of Passbord’s compositions, I think they did one by Dahl, plus they paid tribute to percussionist and drummer Marilyn Mazur with one of her compositions.
In addition, they did two songs from the excellent band Old And New Dreams Band (Dewey Redman – saxophone, Charlie Haden – bass, Don Cherry – trumpet and Ed Blackwell – drums), including the fine “Togo” by Blackwell.
Starting off a little “floating” with sticks on cymbals and inside the piano, they took us on a wonderful, musical journey, which grew and decreased in intensity, but all the way with Pasborg’s energetic drumming in good “competition” with Dahl’s “fresh” piano playing, above, below and next to Lundin’s excellent tenor saxophone playing.
And when they rounded off with one of Albert Ayler’s “hit songs”, “Bells”, we had a display of creative, energetic and exciting trio playing that really “struck”.
Popular music for like-minded people
is the name of Norway’s new synthesizer phenomenon, Anna Ueland’s project, which she had brought with her to Bergen.
As a recipient of the USBL Jazztalent Prize in 2024, she has assembled a stellar team of musicians for this project. The newly composed music had its premiere during the Oslo Jazz Festival in August 2025 and was very well received. “In the project, she – together with her favorite musicians – lets gut feeling, nostalgia and inspiration lead the way, based on memories that have left their mark – from books, Björk and The Beatles to Twin Peaks, spaghetti westerns and snowboard movies – in something that ends in a kind of experimental gangster pop”, as the project is referred to in the program.
With her on stage were violinist Selma French Bolstad, cellist Selma Edwards Granly, Håkon Brunborg on viola and steel guitar, Peder Overvik Stuberg on guitar, bassist Nicolas Leirtrø, who we can find in countless band constellations in Trondheim today, and the equally ubiquitous drummer Hans Hulbækmo. Ueland herself played synthesizer, organ and mellotron, in addition to being a vocalist, along with several of the other musicians.
I can really appreciate that a musician as young as Ueland (she is 29 years old) remembers her upbringing from a time when we ourselves felt that we were starting to get old. But we are not yet so old (and senile) that we do not remember the time that Ueland and her musicians are trying to describe. Ueland is a musician you can find almost everywhere in the “newer” jazz these days. She is an excellent synth player, creates fine compositions, and in this band she has gathered like-minded friends who are all on their way up and forward.
I only got about half an hour of the concert before I had to rush through the city and find the train home, but it was enough to convince me that she and the band have a lot to offer. Excellent musicians, nice songs and somewhat naive lyrics, as it should be in such a relatively young project.
