# Meditative tenor, sober piano, hip soul and driving tough jazz players: Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2026/07/24/meditative-tenor-sober-piano-hip-soul-and-driving-tough-jazz-players-photos/
- Published: 2026-07-24T05:00:57+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**This year’s Friday at Moldejazz has calmed down a bit. Not in the sense that you
can calm down and enjoy subdued music, preferably with a glass in your hand and 
with good friends. But more that there is actually a limited number of concerts 
that you feel it is right to frequent on this day.**

And for us, who primarily go for the jazz concerts, there was actually quite a bit
of downtime on this day. But maybe it was good for both body and soul, like at the
end of the week.

The city is seething and boiling with life, and after I have waited back in my room
in the “collective” at Hotel Molde well after midnight, I really wonder how many
bad versions it is possible to make of the local band De Derres’ “Jenter som kommer”.
Because here from the top of the hotel, versions that I am convinced Jo Nesbø and
the others in the band would never have accepted are regularly heard.

But let’s take the day from the beginning. I started, as usual, at the Festival 
Academy, where Audun Vinger, in his usual way, eased us safely, and with just the
right amount of humorous flair, through a nice conversation with the new festival
director, Linda Melsom, who at the end revealed that saxophonist Marius Neset will
be Artist in Residence in 2027.

This was a choice that seems to have been well received in Storgata in the city,
plus at the many meeting places around the tables at Alexandra, at Die Tankstelle,
at Café Kurt, in the backyard at Fuzzy, at Klagen and at Rød. And one thing is for
sure: Marius Neset will be on considerably more stages than Esperanza Spalding has
been this year.

After this, there was a warm and nice conversation with vocalist and saxophonist
Sissel Vera Pettersen, who told us about her musical life from Trøndelag via Copenhagen
and back.

**Meditative and repetitive Shabaka**

The first concert of the day for the undersigned was with the British saxophonist
and flutist Shabaka Hutchings. He is known from bands such as Sons of Kemet, The
Comet Is Coming and Shabaka and the Ancestors, and has taken up the legacy of both
John Coltrane and his descendants, but perhaps most of all the spiritual saxophone
playing of Pharoah Sanders. I have heard him before in a quartet, and then I really
liked his spiritual approach to the music and his “dark” and rich tone on the saxophone.

He came to Molde with electronics, tenor saxophone and flutes, and we had a relatively
meditative and repetitive session, where there was really no particular development
in the playing during the time I was present. I love the tone he has on the tenor
saxophone, and his spiritual approach. And since my relationship with both Coltrane
and Sanders is relatively good, I should have loved this concert. But unfortunately:
It was terribly stagnant. And if there is one thing jazz should not be, it is stagnant.
So, unfortunately Shabaka – bring a great band with you next time, who can challenge
you and “whip” you to perform more than we got at this concert at Storyville.

**Soul a la Sofie O**

Sofie O, or Sofie Tollefsbø, as she is called in “real life” is known as the frontwoman
of the band Fieh, and for those of us with the diagnosis “jazz” in our GP’s records,
she has, if possible, been even more noticed as the vocalist in the brilliant Andreas
Roysum Ensemble, who, among other things, ended their concert at Storyville last
year by taking the overjoyed audience out onto the roof and ending it there. She
has long been a prominent voice in Norwegian popular music, and her soulful voice
may suggest that her innermost genes, in fact, stem considerably more from the American
South than from Eina on “gærne sia ta Mjøsa”.

In her solo project, where she is both a vocalist and bassist, she collaborates 
with, as far as I could see and read afterwards, drummer Ola Øverby, keyboardist
Kai von der Lippe and guitarist Johannes Nøkling Aagaard. These are musicians who
have been part of her band for a long time, and contribute greatly to the band having
gained a whole and a cohesive sound, where the main character herself can “soar”
at the top in full confidence that “the competition is going” as it should.

Tollefsbø (or Sofie O) created an almost ecstatic and electric atmosphere inside
Die Tankstelle, which is exactly the right venue for this music. She gets the relatively
young audience jumping and dancing, and even one of jazznytt’s editors moved, somewhat
rhythmically, in the back rows of the audience, as if he were about to enter class
seven at Svaes Dance School. A solid soul evening for the youth, who probably had
to go through a few rounds to choose and prioritize between Datarock and Magnus 
Berg in Alexandraparken, and Sofie O inside the cramped Die Tankstelle. And, without
disparagement to either Datarock or Magnus Berg, I think those who prioritized the
old gas station made the right choice.

**Strøken Piano Trio**

Pianist Espen Berg is originally from Hamar, but has spent much of his adult life
in Trondheim, where he received his jazz education and where he started a family.
Over the years, he has released a number of fine piano albums, both solo and in 
trio, and he has collaborated with a number of other musicians, such as a duo with
vocalist Silje Nergaard, with Hildegunn Øiseth, Daniel Herskedal, Seamus Blake, 
Herborg Kråkevik, Marius Neset and the Trondheim jazz orchestra.

In Espen Berg Trio he collaborates with Faroese bassist Bárður Reinert Poulsen and
drummer Simon Albertsen, who, after studying in Copenhagen, has settled across the
bridge, in Malmö. These three recently released the album Entropies on the newly
started Svale Records. And it was from this album that most of the music was taken.

![](https://i0.wp.com/salt-peanuts.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredag-jaga.jpg?
w=640&ssl=1)

The release has received good reviews, including on salt peanuts*, where Berg’s 
personal playing, Poulsen’s steady and fine bass playing, and, not least, Albertsen’s
distinct, but at the same time “loose” drumming create an hour of excellent piano
trio jazz where we can recognize inspirations from, among others, Brad Mehldau.

Judging by the response from an (almost) full Teatret Vårt, there were many at the
festival who had missed exactly this type of music at this year’s festival. This
is jazz as one used to encounter at Moldejazz in the past. A sober, delicious, beautiful
and technically excellent concert, where one can just sit back and enjoy.

**Resurrected jazzists without Grete Stitz**

It’s been a while since we heard anything new from the collective Jaga Jazzist (
main picture), this group of friends from the Vestfold region who took musical Norway
and the world by storm a few years ago. It is still the sibling trio Horntvedt, 
with Martin on drums, percussion and programming, Lars on guitars, pedal steel, 
clarinets, saxophones, keyboards, synthesizer, vibraphone, piano and programming,
and Line on tuba, alto horn, euphonium, flute and vocals who front this many-headed“
troll”. In addition, the jazz players were, as before, occupied with Marcus Forsgren
on guitar and vocals, Even Ormestad on bass, Erik Johannessen on trombone and vocals,
Øystein Moen on synthesizer, clavinet and Hammond organ, and Andreas Mjøs on vibraphone.
And it was clear that there were more than me who had missed the band on stage, 
because here there was a long queue at the entrance to Teatret Vårt, and, of course,
a standing audience, which we in GGG (Gretne Gamle Gubber) do not particularly appreciate.

Martin Horntvedt said early in the concert that all that was to be played was newly
written material, how much will be on a new album in 2027. But if that was the case,
it was impossible for the undersigned to determine. For the music of this collective,
is, and always has been, a driving symbiosis of rock energy, collective and tight
playing and music that makes the dance foot move relatively freely.

In addition to the driving and tough music, the productions of the jazzists are 
always set up as if they were playing on one of the largest stages. We got excellent
lighting and sound production and it seems like an important thing in the band’s
concerts is that the audience should move and sweat. Something I felt the band achieved
this late evening.

I once heard a story about this band. It was in the beginning, and a sound engineer
had been hired to run the sound at one of the concerts. He didn’t know the band 
before, and when he came back from work and someone asked about the music, he replied
that it was “a band with a turntable.” It’s been many years. Now Jaga Jazzist is
so much more. This is proft at your fingertips, while at the same time it is loose
and improvised and with an energy that could save half the country from the development
of wind farms in the years to come. Tough, driving and extremely captivating!

Then it was night, the fifth day. The collective at Hotel Molde is about to fill
up, and salt peanuts* is ready for the sixth and decisive set at Moldejazz, version
2026.

![](https://i0.wp.com/salt-peanuts.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredag-espen-berg-
500x371.jpg?resize=640%2C475&ssl=1)

Espen Berg

![](https://i0.wp.com/salt-peanuts.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredag-bardur-500x374.
jpg?resize=640%2C479&ssl=1)

Bárður Reinert Poulsen

![](https://i0.wp.com/salt-peanuts.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredag-simen-500x374.
jpg?resize=640%2C479&ssl=1)

Simon Albertsen

![](https://i0.wp.com/salt-peanuts.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredag-sofie-O-
02-500x374.jpg?resize=640%2C479&ssl=1)

Sofie O ( Sofie Tollefsbø)

![](https://i0.wp.com/salt-peanuts.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredag-martin-horntvedt-
500x374.jpg?resize=640%2C479&ssl=1)

Martin Horntvedt in Jaga Jazzist

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