Were the 1950s in any way predestined to become a decade of flowering for Norwegian jazz? The enormous jazz optimism of the first post-war years had been thoroughly shattered and the world was in no way eagerly awaiting a solid flowering period for Norwegian jazz. Attempts to establish a federation of Norwegian jazz clubs had all failed. A Norwegian-language jazz magazine was started in 1945 but lasted only a year. In general, society was far more interested in rebuilding the Norwegian economy after five years of German occupation than in granting an import license for jazz records. Jazz life was at an all-time low, whatever happened could only be for the better.

Jazz interest in Norway has always fluctuated. This can most clearly be seen from the statistics regarding active jazz dubs over the years. After 7 lean post-war years came 7 prosperous ones, the period between 1953 and 1960 was to become a real flowering period for jazz in Norway. A permanent Jazz Federation was established in 1953 and at the end of the decade there were about 30 jazz clubs in operation throughout the country. From. 1952 there were a number of visits from foreign jazz musicians, a few recordings were made with Norwegian jazz musicians, and a national jazz championships for amateur musicians was held yearly from 1954. Several Norwegian jazz magazines saw the light of day, and some of our leading performers made a career for themselves in the thriving Swedish jazz society. This is an important point to remember, indicating that it was still not possible to make a living as a jazz musician in Norway. Being a musician chiefly meant playing for dancing or entertainment - jazz was something you played for your own pleasure in clubs or concerts. The first full-time Norwegian jazz performers did not emerge until the 1960s.

Charlie Shavers, Oslo, 1953. From the left: Andreas Skjold, Eilif Holm, Rowland Greenberg, Kjell Johansen, Arne Styhr, Charlie Shavers, J.C. Heard and Barney Kessel. Photo: Tore Fredenlund.

The new jazz

The five years of German occupation had cut Norwegian musicians off from current developments in American jazz and in 1945 the musical idols were still the same as five years earlier. Swing was the thing, and Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson and Roy Eldridge were still the leading names for Norwegian jazz musicians. As time passed, opportunities to read about something new labeled bebop emerged through Swedish and American jazz magazines, but getting to hear it was far more complicated. After five years of war, precious currency was not to be used for the import of modern jazz records, or for the production of records. Consolation for the curious ones came through the Voice of America transmitter in Germany, where bebop records sometimes were played. Saxophonist Mikkel Flagstad, one of the first Norwegian beboppers, has related how he heard Parker/Gillespie's Shaw nuff for the first time on the VOA, whereupon he listened intensely to the station for weeks on end in order to get still another little piece of the theme down on music paper during every transmission. It was not until the very end of the 1940s that a very limited number of bebop-records reached the shelves of Norwegian shops.

Oslo entered the 50s with a couple of small bebop groups where Flagstad and trumpeter Kjell Johansen played either separately or as a front team. Aside from this, the general stylistic influences still came from the swing music of the 30s. On top of this came the fact that before musicians had had a chance to really emulate the bebop language, recordings started to appear under the musical label of cool. A handful of 78 rpm records with people like Stan Getz. Lennie Tristano, George Shearing and the Miles Davis "tuba band" arrived early in the decennium, and young musicians of course felt compelled to investigate this new event. Mikkel Flagstad was given the nickname "Mi-cool" and started a Tristano-influenced quintet together with clarinetist Ragnar Robertsen. Both musicians were also members of an experimental octet based on Miles' tubaband, led by Kjell Johansen. The main arrangers were the aforementioned Robertsen and vibraharpist Eilif Holm. These groups were rather short-lived, but an advanced quartet led by Eilif Holm was active throughout the rest of the decennium, featuring Holm on clarinet and vibes, Robertsen on clarinet, Per Nyhaug on drums and vibes, assisted by a number of different bass players. The instrumental doublings made for a lot of fascinating timbral variations.

Kjell Johansen’s experimental band, 1952. From the left: Kjell Johansen, Ivar Børsum, Ragnar Robertsen, Henrik Klavenes, Karl Otto Hoff and Arne Hermandsen. Photo: Tore Fredenlund.

During most of the decade, pianist/arranger Egil Monn-Iversen led his own modern groups, both sextets and big bands, featuring a mixture of established performers and young talents. From the mid-fifties on, younger musicians got together in bands led by saxophonist Gunnar Brostigen and pianists Kjell Karlsen and Tore Sandnæs. In these contexts more contemporary styles were preferred, inspired by musicians like Clifford Brown, Horace Silver and Art Blakey. Prominent performers in these circles were trumpeters Atle Hammer and Nils Gustavsen, and trumpeter/valve trombonist Lars Sandsgaard.

Outside of the capital, activities centered primarily around the cities of Bergen and Trondheim. Both places had a thriving musicians' community,.In addition, Trondheirn had the Norwegian Institute of Technology, where several jazz musicians from other parts of the country studied. Both cities had rich jazz activities all through the decade, with active clubs and frequent concerts. In Bergen, central names included trombonist Andreas Skjold, clarinetist Tore Faye, and, towards the end of the decade, singer Laila Dalseth. In Trondheim, guitarists Harry Waagen and John Kongshaug were the most important names, alongside accordionist/alto saxophonist Asmund Bjørken.

In smaller communities, things were more difficult. Often there were not enough jazz musicians around to form even a trio; interested performers usually had no other alternative but moving to a bigger city. Worst off was Northern Norway, where the long distances between communities made contact or interplay between local talents difficult. In spite of this, however, the towns of Bodø, Harstad, Narvik, Kirkenes and especially Tromsø had active jazz communities for longer periods of time.

Modernism vs. "clover"

The appearance of new musical styles over a relatively short period of time caused heated arguments between young boppers and the slightly older performers of the swing tradition. The front figure of the latter group was one of Norway's most prominent jazz musicians of all time, trumpeter Rowland Greenberg. For this group of people so-called "clover jazz" was the only thing, music based on Teddy Wilson's small band recordings of the late 30s. Discussions about the legitimacy of bop and cool jazz found their way into readers' columns in a variety of magazines, and, judging from what was written there, one could easily be led to believe that there was an open war going on. Most of the pieces were, however, written by fanatical non-musicians abusing each other in rather harsh terms. The musicians themselves undoubtedly had their differences of opinion as well, but there was at the same a mutual respect for each others' qualifications regardless of musical idioms. There were all too few musicians in the top bracket to afford total disruption. Hence, Rowland Greenberg often brought young drummer Egil "Bop" Johansen in for gigs, and Greenberg regularly played with modernist Mikkel Flagstad. The musicians that were active in the early fifties create a sort of "middle of the road modernism" that existed all through the decade. The same developments, albeit somewhat belated in smaller places, could be found all over Norway throughout the 50s.

Rowland Greenberg.

When the term rock 'n roll appeared in Norway around the fall of 1956, jazz musicians did not take it seriously. There was, however, not a single musician with any background in this genre on the local scene. Therefore, many jazz musicians toured the country playing something they called rock for quite ignorant audiences. The few singers/guitarists that eventually emerged were for many years usually accompanied by jazz musicians.

The revival movement

It took some years for the New Orleans/Dixieland revival that had started in the USA in the early forties to reach Norway. In 1949 three revival bands were formed in the Oslo area, all of them by young high school kids, and early in 1952 musicians coming from all three of these bands formed The Big Chief Jazzband. As the decade went along, this orchestra was to become enormously popular among younger people, and the band members sometimes seemed to have reached almost popstar-like positions. The band made several recordings that sold well, played concerts throughout the country for full houses, and started their own jazz club. Its success led to the formation of additional bands within the genre, and Dixieland became extremely popular.

In Oslo, bands included Hot Saints featuring trumpeter Tore Jensen, The Sixpence Jazzband with trumpeter Truls Helweg, The Riverboat Jazzband with clarinetist Bjørn Stokstad and Dixie Strutters Jazzband with trumpeter Per Borthen. Many of the musicians appeared in more than one band, and the majority of the players are today elderly gentlemen still keeping the Oslo trad- and swingcircuit alive.

Outside the capital, bands playing traditional jazz styles also appeared. Usually, these were rather short-lived units formed by young enthusiasts biten by the Dixieland bug, but sometimes the performers were more modern-oriented musicians jumping on the popularity bandwagon. Among the longest-living bands were The Royal Garden Jazzband formed in Drammen in 1955, and Vannebos Dixielandband in Tromsø from 1959.

The flight to Sweden

Around 1950 Sweden was a dreamland for Norwegian jazz enthusiasts, performers and listeners alike. The Swedes had escaped war and occupation, they had chewing gum, hip clothing and jazz! With envious eyes, Norwegians read reports in the two Swedish jazz magazines Estrad and Orkesterjournalen about American visits by people like Chubby Jackson, James Moody and Dizzy Gillespie towards the end of the forties. Big advertisements for unattainable records on obscure American labels like Dial, Savoy, Blue Note and Keynote were in the same magazines. The fans scraped the bottom of the till, took a bus to the nearest Swedish hamlet, and bought themselves to ruin in the local record store. The performers dreamt about a career in Sweden.

Bjarne Nerem (left) and Mikkel Flagstad in Sweden in the early 1950s. Photo: Stig Gabrielsson.

Several Norwegian musicians had already worked in Sweden in the 40s. Rowland Greenberg had been there several times, and Bjarne Nerem resided there permanently from 1947 to 49. The larger-scale export of musicians to Sweden did not happen until the fifties, however. This meant a weakening of the jazz community at home, but at same time the far richer Swedish jazz community indisputably offered greater opportunities for a musical career.

An important element in this development was Swedish bassist Simon Brehm. His quintet held a concert in Oslo in the fall of 1951, and at the final jam session he got to hear tenorist Mikkel Flagstad. Brehm on the spot wrote a long article in Estrad where he raved about the young saxophone player, also passing the word that Flagstad would very much like to work in Sweden. No callers appeared, however, before Brelhm himself hired him a half year later when he was left without a tenorist. Flagstad made the move, and started a two year long Swedish sojourn. In October 1952 trombonist Åke Persson left Brehm, and new telephone calls to Oslo were made. This time the call was for Bjarne Nerem, which meant that Brehm's quintet now had two Norwegian tenorists. Nerem was to become a central musician in Swedish jazz life for more than 20 years, among other things as a member of Harry Arnold's big band. But Brehm wanted even more Norwegians. He needed a drummer, and by 1954 the great new Norwegian discovery on this instrument, Egil "Bop" Johansen, had found his place in Sweden as well. He soon moved over to Arne Domnerus' orchestra, and established a career within the Swedish jazz elite that is still running today.

But Norwegian jazz musicians did not solely go to Stockholm. Pianist Ivar Wefring had established himself in Gothenburg as early as in 1949, and from 1953 on he was a member of that city's leading big band, led by Malte Johnson. When there was a vacant chair in the band, Wefring often thought of his Norwegian colleagues. In 1954 trombonist Andreas Skjold arrived from Bergen via Oslo, and tenorist Kristian Bergheim joined the band for shorter spells as well. Bergheim had also played in Gothenburg with Kenneth Fagerlund 1954-55. Skjold moved to Stockholm in the fall of 1955, and was active in Swedish jazz life until 1975 when he moved back to his native Bergen.

Visits from the States

The scarcity of jazz records at the beginning of the decade could only be matched by the lack of foreign jazz visits. The problem was twosided. American musicians wanted payment in dollars, something the foreign currency situation did not allow for. An additional problem was finding large enough concert venues. In the fall of 1952 things started to loosen up, however, but with very few exceptions the big stars appeared in Oslo only. Jazz enthusiasts from the rest of the country had to organize joint tours by train or bus to go to jazz concerts in the capital.

Welcome orchestra for Louis Armstrong in Oslo, 1952. From the left: Arne Klette, Egil "Bop" Johansen, Pete Brown, Ivar Børsum, Rowland Greenberg and Kristian Bergheim. Photo: Tore Fredenlund.

From October 1952 came the opportunity to arrange concerts in the largest cinema theatres in Oslo, and the first visit of course created a major stir. The King of jazz himself, Louis Armstrong, visited Norway - what more could an eager audience wish for. The event reached the front pages of Oslo's newspapers, with exciting reports from the ticket line in pouring rain, reaching out of the Klingenberg cinema and all around the block. The result was six sold out concerts over a period of three days, and the total attendance must have been around nine or ten thousand. Armstrong returned both in 1955 and 1959.

Jazz enthusiasts evidently presented a threat to the Oslo cinema theatres, and a general ban came very close after Lionel Hampton's rhythmic orgies in the Colosseum theatre in the fall of 1953. The concerts ended with Hampton marching down the aisles, eagerly drumming on whatever came into reach, with all the horn players in tow playing "Flying Home". The audience in the upper gallery, "the shelf", saw very little of the proceedings, and hordes jumped down into the stalls to participate in the action, endangering life and wellbeing for everybody present.

One of the Hampton musicians, alto saxophonist Anthony Ortega, returned to Oslo in the spring of 1954 and stayed for a half year, functioning as a source of great inspiration for modern Norwegian musicians.

For the rest of the decade, the capital's jazz enthusiasts were blessed with a string of concerts. Among others, the Jazz at The Philharmonic appeared five times between 1953 and 58, Jazz Club USA with Billie Holiday in 54, Woody Herman in 54, Count Basie in 54 and 56, Stan Kenton, Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton in 56, Jack Teagarden in 57, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington the year after. As the list shows, however, only the most established names were featured; no concert arrangers dared running the risk of hiring more experimental lineups. The cinema hall period ended in 1956, - a newly built indoor sports arena seated more people, but the acoustics were far inferior.

Rowland Greenberg (left) and Dizzy Gillespie in Per Asplin’s home, Oslo, 1956. Photo: Tore Fredenlund.

1959 was the first year when several clubs outside of Oslo were given an opportunity to present an American jazz star. Stan Getz completed two quite extensive tours including venues in Trondheim, Kristiansund, Ålesund, Bergen, Haugesund, Tønsberg, Drammen, Oslo, Moss, Sarpsborg and Fredrikstad.

Federations and clubs

In late 1953 yet another attempt was made to establish a national federation of jazz clubs. Hosting the event was the Trondheim jazz club Jazz Society, and representatives from eight clubs were present. The Norwegian Jazz Federation was founded, had its ups and downs , but has grown into an organization that until today has been a central factor in the nation's jazz activities. During the fifties the total membership reached about 30 clubs, but almost all of these had declined by the mid-sixties.

What does a jazz club mean in Norwegian terms? In many places around.the country the local jazz club was a kind of youth club with weekly or more infrequent meetings, a sort of social community where talks about jazz were sometimes held, but where the central element was dancing to jazz music. This sort of club also arranged jazz concerts where local musicians performed. Some also had smaller affiliates, appreciation societies, where the more specifically interested fans held their discussions and listened to jazz records. In the fifties many towns and smaller places had jazz clubs, but they were often short-lived. Their existence was based upon the work of a handful of idealistic souls. When these people left town for military service or university studies, the club often vanished with them.

Things were easier in the larger cities. In Trondheim, the club that later became Jazz Society was established in 1950, and kept a high profile throughout the decade. It established close contact with the city's student society, where there was a steady and constant input of young jazz musicians arriving to start their studies at the Norwegian institute of Technology. The sheer number of musicians resulted in a plethora of bands, - as many as ten different bands would sometimes perform in a single jazz evening. Sweden was not far away either, and several Swedish orchestras visited the city and its vicinities.

In smaller places like Molde things were more difficult. Musicians and key persons disappeared to do military service or university studies for periods of time, but Storyville Jazz Club managed to stay alive with quite regular meetings from 1953 on. It was able to come up with a couple of local club bands, and towards the end of the decade it started the planning of what would eventually become one of Europe's biggest and longest-running Jazz festivals, The Molde International Jazz Festival, which started in 1961 and is still very much alive today.

In Bergen, the big enthusiast and key figure was Jørg Fr. Eilertsen, who later became a very successful manager and promoter in Norwegian show business. The Golden Club was started on his initiative in 1953, and was active all through the decade. Dances, jam sessions and lectures were held weekly. Eilertsen had already, in the fall of 1951, established himself as a concert arranger with his agency Swing, and a jazz magazine appeared bearing the same name. He was unstoppable in his activities, and arranged large nighttime concerts monthly. These were not exclusively devoted to jazz, performers also included dancers, comedians and magicians. The main bulk of the program was always jazz oriented, however, with three or four bands appearing each night. This offered local jazz musicians many opportunities to play in different combinations, and also made for frequent visits from the capital's leading jazz musicians.

The Capital

Enter the 50s, Oslo Jazz Circle was the capital's only jazz club of any importance. Primarily a record appreciation society for die-hard enthusiasts, with very demanding membership criteria, it also initiated several jazz evenings for the general public up to 1952. Gradually, a number of other small clubs appeared, out the main driving forces in Oslo throughout this decade were to be The Big Chief Jazz Club and ThePenguin Club. These two venues were located close to each other, and both had weekly meetings on Sunday evenings, but their musical profiles were different enough for the two to function as supplementary rather than competing factors.

The man behind Penguin was pianist and vibraharpist Terje Kjær and the first meeting of the club took place on September 13th 1952. His successful recipe was very simple, From 6 to 8 p.m. there was a jam session, and piano, bass and drums were always there. After this, the dancing started, most often to the music of Kjær's own orchestra, which was usually a sextet playing in an elegant, swinging style inspired by Danish violinist Svend Asmussen. The regular jam session soon became the weekly highlight for many of the city's jazz fans. This was where the established musicians met every Sunday to shake off the dust after a week of dance gigs, and where visiting American musicians would drop by when they were in town. Particularly fondly remembered are some glorious jam sessions with musicians from Jazz at the Philharmonic. Stylistically the club was profiled towards swing and more modern jazz forms, and the jam sessions became a major testing ground for young modern musicians. You were not totally accepted until you had dared to get up on stage with the more experienced guys. In late 1955 a young female singer, Karin Krog gathered the necessary guts to enter the stage, and the following morning she found herself described in the newspapers as an overnight sensation. The Penguin Club had in its heyday a large membership, but eventually had to give up when the new pop music entered the scene a couple of years into the 60s.

The Big Chief Jazz Club was formed in early 1953. Over the following ten years, this club became the driving factor for a string of jazz activities that were to play an essential part in Norwegian jazz life. Audiences were somewhat younger than at the Penguin, being for the most part composed of high-school kids from the west part - traditionally regarded as the upper class - section of town. Each meeting opened with a jazz lecture or related activities, and after that there was dancing to a jazz band. The house band was of course The Big Chief Jazzband, but most of the other Oslo-based tradbands also appeared there occasionally. Almost every club meeting ended in a jam session. But this was not enough for the enterprising youngsters running the club. All hrough the decade a string of concerts were staged. Each concert had three-four bands participating, and far from all in traditional styles. On the bills were Norwegian swing musicians
and modernists, plus a number of foreign soloists and bands, such as Albert Nicholas, Dutch Swing College Band and Lasse Gullin.

The club was involved in the arranging of the yearly Norwegian championships for amateur jazz musicians. In 1959 they started the Metropol Jazzcenter, which would soon feature jazz 6 days a week.

The Championships for Amateurs

An important element in Norwegian jazz of the 50s were the yearly Norwegian championships in jazz for amateurs. The first year 11 bands participated in the finals, after preliminary qualifying rounds in Bergen and Trondheim. The following years 12 to 17 bands participated, from 1956 on in separate stylistic categories. There were continuous discussions regarding the term "amateur", as several quite experienced musician, also participated from time to time. The concerts were enormously popular and each band often brought their own supporter groups along for the concert. The quality of the music covered the whole scope from professionalism to pure dilettantism.

Eckhoff/Stang Lund’s quintet, 1958. From the left: Lars Hustad, Ditlef Eckhoff, Bjørn Jacobsen, Oddvar Lund and Eilert Stang Lund. Photo: Tore Fredenlund.

Among those who stood out at these concerts were trumpeters Ditlef Eckhoff and Truls Helweg, trombonist Frode Thingnæs, clarinetist Tore Faye, Rolv Wesenlund and Helge (later Simon) Flem Devold, saxophonists Arild Bjørk and Asmund Bjørken, pianists Kåre Grøttum, Victor Molvik, Ludvig Mathiesen and Tore Sandnæs, guitarists Knut Greger Eriksen and John Kongshaug, and drummers Svein Erik Gaardvik and Ole Jacob Hansen.

Amongst the new names appearing towards the end of the decade without the help of amateur contests, special notice must be made of bassist Erik Amundsen and baritone saxist Bjørn Johansen. Both were very early bloomers, at 13 Amundsen (b. 1937) already played with Norwegian top musicians, and he was soon to become the most central bass player of the decade. Johansen (b. 1940) was only 17 when he won the yearly poll as best baritone player, and he would eventually make the change to tenor and become one or the great soloists of Norwegian jazz.

Records and media

Even if this book includes a quite voluminous discography of recorded Norwegian jazz in the fifties, this in no way reflects any general benevolence towards the music from the established record companies. During the whole decade, a total of about 125 titles were issued, mainly on 78 rpm or 45rpm EPs. With today's technology, this entire production representing 10 years of jazz activity would easily fit into 5 CDs. Quite a lot of jazz was played on the radio, though, disguised as modern dance music, and in many homes these transmissions were taped on the newly-acquired tape recorder - and luckily in many cases archived. A special position in this respect was held by clarinetist Svein Sundby, who possessed good equipment and his own cutting machinery, producing masses of "one of a kind" recordings featuring young jazz musicians in his own cellar studios or in concert. This material is of inestimable importance for historic research regarding Norwegian jazz.

Jazz music had, and still has, a need for exposure through the different media. In the Norway of the 1950s, this meant newspapers and radio (TV did not exist in Norway on a public scale until the early 60s). As mentioned earlier, Norwegian State Radio broadcasted a lot of jazz lightly camouflaged as modern dance music. Some of the foreign concert visits were also transmitted. As for more informative programming for the particularly interested, the first half of the decade had little to offer. From 1956 on a more specialist weekly halfhour program appeared on Friday evenings, and the still existing program Jazzklubben (Jazz Club) was first broadcast on September 18th 1959.

The major Oslo papers featured quite extensive jazz coverage in the 50s, and several of them had their own jazz columnist. Aftenposten in particular had good jazz coverage throughout the decade, while Dagbladet became an important factor towards the end of the period, when gradually all their music material was presented on a special music page. This page was to become an important source of information on jazz for many years.

Outside of Oslo things were pretty lean the first few years, but three papers eventually started presenting quite broad and well-written coverage on jazz matters. These were Bergens Tidende, Sunnmørsposten (Ålesund), and Sarpen (Sarpsborg). Quite a few other papers brought sporadic jazz coverage but quite naturally the main focus was on local events.

For the jazz interested Norwegian of the 50s, Swedish magazines Estrad and Orkesterjournalen were important sources of information, as well as American Down Beat and Metronome. There had not been any Norwegian jazz publication on the streets since 1945-46, but in this respect as well, the 50s were to become a golden period. The weekly paper Verden Rundt (later Verdensrevyen) appeared from the fall of 1952 with an excellent, informative jazz page written by drummer Karl Otto Hoff that lasted all through the period. The magazine conducted yearly readers' polls for best jazz performer on each instrument from 1954 on, resulting in subsequent recordings and concerts.

In Bergen, the ever enterprising Jørg Fr. Eilertsen started the magazine Norsk Jazz ("Norwegian Jazz") in the spring of 1954. Originally a biweekly publication, issues after a while started to appear more irregularly, until it all dwindled away in the fall of 1957. During the first years of its publication, however, this was a well-written and informative organ both on Norwegian and international jazz matters.

That same fall, the magazine Jazz Society appeared, a monthly magazine issued by The Big Chief Jazz Club. By the spring of 1959 that dream had come to an end. Other rather short-lived jazz publications included Jazz Forum (1958-59) and, towards the very end of the decade, the Danish/Norwegian Joint venture Jazzbladet. None of these publications managed to survive over a longer period of time, but from 1952 on there were at all times one or two Norwegian jazz publications in operation.

The Danish dictionary Jazzens Hvem, Hva, Hvor ("The who, what, where of jazz") was issued in Norwegian translation in 1954, with some information on Norwegian jazz added. Outside of this, the only jazz books appearing in Norwegian in this decade were translations of Louis Armstrong's My Life in New Orleans and Billie Holiday's Lady Sings the Blues.

Bjørn Stendahl.
Translated by Per Husby