Karin Krog.
Photo: CF Wesenberg.
Photo: CF Wesenberg.
During the 1960s more experimental trends in jazz were also introduced on the scene, sometimes as joint projects between the Norwegian Jazz Federation and Ny Musikk - the local branch of the Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM). In 1965 these two co-produced a concert which among others featured the George Russell sextet. In the autumn of 1962 modern classical composer Finn Mortensen had commented favourably on Cecil Taylor’s concert at the Metropol Jazz House in Oslo, and likewise half a year later when Don Ellis visited the same venue. A few years later pianist Egil Kapstad took lessons with composer Bjørn Fongaard, and in a 1967 newspaper interview Kapstad declared that "The jazz pianist in me is most likely on his way out of the picture". The same year also found pianist Svein Finnerud’s new trio leading the way into another type of avant garde jazz, clearly inspired by Canadian Paul Bley. Through Kapstad and Finnerud the cooperation between the two different musical camps continued for several years, and in 1969 modern composers joined forces with Karin Krog and the Jan Garbarek quartet on an album named "Popofoni", issued as a critical musical pamphlet in the first large debate surrounding the European Song Contest.
Jazz was quite regularly covered in the leading daily newspapers, particularly in connection with concerts and new album releases. There were also quite a few statements on jazz as a "youthful folly". Outside of Oslo coverage was often surprisingly good, particularly so in Bergens Tidende (Bergen), Sunnmørsposten (Ålesund) and Adresseavisen (Trondheim). Otherwise, coverage in the local papers was usually restricted to concerts, particularly so if there was a visiting soloist involved. Through the 1950s the periodical Verden Rundt (renamed Verdensrevyen from 1957) presented extensive reports from both national and international jazz events, covered the annual amateur musicians’ competitions, and presented its own readers’ poll. Both Filmjournalen (Film Journal) and Norsk Musikerblad (membership magazine for the Norwegian Musicians’ Union) also had regular jazz coverage.
Some controversial themes also came up. In 1960 journalist Rolv Wesenlund in the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet raised the issue on whether jazz musicians should discard their prejudices, referring to what he saw as freemasonry and half-secret clubs. In another article, however, the same paper reported that in England, the question posed was rather whether jazz people were too eager in their efforts to act respectable. In 1962 Wesenlund’s criticism was aimed at a concert scene based on "safe" commercial acts, plus the fact that Norwegian audiences were less protest-oriented than what was the case for coloured musicians in the USA. Racial problems in USA involving jazz musicians was one issue that was regularly given reasonably broad coverage. The newspaper had achieved a position as the country’s leading jazz newspaper, covering all styles in extremely updated articles on recordings and concerts, as well as portraits of leading jazz musicians including the avant-garde.
The first visits of John Coltrane (1963) and Charles Mingus (1964) were extensively covered by the local press, and Mingus’ concert was reviewed in Dagbladet by modern composer Arne Nordheim. Both of these concerts also made a deep and lasting impression on many younger jazz fans.
The national public radio station NRK (until the late 1980s the only radio channel operating in Norway) covered parts of the jazz scene through talks and record presentations, and in 1959 a regular programme "Jazzklubben" (Jazz Club) " was introduced, led by veteran trumpeter Thorleif Østereng. Some of the major concerts with foreign musicians and orchestras were also recorded, and NRK soon became a central source of information for jazz fans all across the country. In the early 1960 the issue of forming a NRK jazz orchestra was raised, and pianist Kjell Karlsen’s big band became the predecessor to what would eventually become Thorleif Østereng’s radio big band. Through the participation of NRK in the European Brodcasting Union, Norwegian musicians participated in yearly European big band projects. 1966 the first European Jazz Quiz was broadcast, with two Norwegians, Knut Borge and Øystein Norvoll, as winners in the 1970s.
1965 has for a long time been considered the year of the "breakdown" in Norwegian jazz. What illustrates this best of all is the marked fall in the number of jazz clubs. Only a handful of clubs were still in existence and even the popular club at the Neptun Hotel in Bergen was in trouble. The flagship of them all, Oslo’s Metropol Jazz House, was closed down before summer after years of impressive activity, presenting live jazz six days a week with an exceptional variety of styles. This sudden fall in interest has often been linked the growing interest in rock music among younger audiences " since these were the early heydays of groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. There is of course some truth in this, but another factor is clearly the musical developments in jazz itself, which led to a reduced interest amongst audiences primarily interested in dance music.
By this time the new faces on the scene were 3rd or even 4th generation musicians jazzwise, and this was of course reflected in their music, with ideals and impulses picked up from current developments in American jazz. Jan Garbarek had already made an impression on many listeners. The Metropol often featured surprisingly "radical" music, which probably did not boost interest within a main audience whose limits of tolerance for modern jazz was reached at Coleman Hawkins.
Clubs around the country were often extremely dependent on one or two central enthusiasts for their operation, and it might well be that part of the sudden decline could be purely coincidental because a number of these key figures happened to pull out at the same time. If 1965 should be considered a watershed in Norwegian jazz, it would mostly be as the start of a transitional period.
The first jazz festivals were already established " Molde in 1961 and Kongsberg in 1964. In some High School circles there was a growing interest for modern jazz, and in Oslo the Club 7 opened in 1963. Even if jazz did not become a central feature in their programming until the early 70s, the club gradually started presenting several important jazz acts. An important part of Club 7 was blues and rhythm ‘n blues, which was a new feature on Oslo’s music scene. Club 7 attracted audiences with quite varied musical interests, which also influenced the general interests of younger club audiences elsewhere.
The recently formed and musician-led organization Norsk Jazz Forum (Norwegian Jazz Forum) started presenting concerts in May of 1965, and the follow-up to the Metropol, the Down Town Key Club, opened in Oslo in 1965. Some have pointed to the fact that as the numbers of high school graduates steadily grew (a result of the post-war baby boom), there was a corresponding increase in the numbers of university and college students " and that a new generation of jazz fans grew out of these university-based environments. In Oslo, the Student Jazz Club for many years constituted an important arena for jazz, as did the Students’ Unions in Bergen and Trondheim.
|
Karin Krog. Photo: CF Wesenberg. |
Ten years after its last readers’ poll, Jazznytt (The magazine of the Norwegian Jazz Federation) presented their readers’ favourites in 1967. A number of the more traditional instrumental categories were won by younger, modern players: Einar Iversen, piano, Jan Erik Kongshaug, guitar, Arild Andersen, bass, Jon Christensen, drums, Ditlef Ekhoff, trumpet, Frode Thingnæs, trombone, Calle Neumann, alto sax, Jan Garbarek tenor sax, Karin Krog female vocalist, Arild Wickstrøm, male vocalist.
Most musicians were still around, but the opportunities to play for an audience had grown more scarce. Karin Krog was increasingly more in demand on the international scene. Her first LP ("By Myself", 1964) was favourably received both in the Swedish jazz magazine Orkesterjournalen and in American Down Beat, and she was invited by Don Ellis to come over to Los Angeles, where she recorded with his big band. Another musician whose playing caught international interest was the young Jan Garbarek. He had made several acclaimed jam session appearances at the Molde festival; his quartet was regularly featured at the Club 7, and together with Karin Krog he was invited to appear at the 1966 Warsaw festival.
Drummer Jon Christensen was also much sought after, among others by George Russell, who was living in Stockholm. From there Russell toured with his sextet and some times also with an international big band. Both Garbarek and Christensen were regular members of these ensembles, and eventually Arild Andersen and Terje Rypdal were also included in the line-ups. For shorter periods in the late 60s Russell lived in Oslo, giving several concerts as well as teaching his own improvisational method. Russell was one of the very few well known international jazz musicians who in this way became a direct influence on the younger generation of Oslo musicians " most other expatriate Americans living in Scandinavia choosing to live in Copenhagen or Stockholm. Through Russel connections to the Society Of Contemporary Music were also renewed.
Jazz clubs in the festival towns of Molde and Kongsberg had survived, as had the clubs in Ålesund and Stavanger, and in the following years several new clubs were to appear.
On the jazz scene, the younger generation played a central part " highs school kids and musicians who made their first appearances at 17 or 18. Among these young people the use of various drugs was probably very limited " the traditional Big Chief Jazz Club was alcohol-free. Among musicians the primary stimulant was undoubtedly alcohol " a fact confirmed through numerous jazz anecdotes of the era. But stories about their American idols also referred to the use of drugs like heroin, cocaine, hashish, probably inspired by stories like these, a local journalist before the 1965 Molde festival warned that "just now large quanta of drugs are being smuggled into the City of Roses (Molde’s tourist industry nickname)". Local police checked all the musicians, but found nothing. There were court hearings " and relations between festival and journalist were not at their best.
Five years later another rather special incident stirred the jazz scene: In the spring of 1970 Stan Getz played in Oslo accompanied by English musicians. After this, Getz was going to play a five weeks’ engagement in Johannesburg, South Africa, but the English trio were both unable and unwilling to go, among other things because of the international boycott of South Africa. Several American jazz musicians had already been put on the international boycott list for having played there. Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen agreed to join Getz for the engagement, a decision that caused a great deal of surprise and consternation. The leader of the Norwegian Artists’ Guild criticized their decision, referring to the boycott decision, which, admittedly, the Norwegian Musicians’ Union had not signed. Talking to Dagbladet after the engagement, Andersen reported that they had also played for coloured audiences and had been very well received. After this the case was not mentioned again, a case sharing certain common features with the debate around Paul Simon’s 1986 "Graceland" recording, where some tracks had been recorded in South Africa with local musicians and singers.
 |
From the left: Jan Garbarek, Jon Christensen, Arild Andersen and Frank Phipps. Oslo, 1967. Photo: Arthur Sand. |
Around 1970 there were new movements in Norwegian, and what caught the fans’ interest was a group of younger musicians, spearheaded by Jan Garbarek. For some years he led a trio with Arild Andersen on bass and Jon Christensen on drums, where the music was inspired by both free and modal thinking, while still retaining the influence of John Coltrane. In 1969 Terje Rypdal (who at the time played with the rather advanced rock unit "Dream") joined, and the new quartet became a sure winner with the audiences for several years. After a meeting between Garbarek and German record producer Manfred Eicher, the group’s debut album, "Afric Pepperbird", appeared on the ECM label in 1970. In the autumn of 1972 Garbarek appeared at the Warsaw festival with a new quartet that over the next 3 " 4 years was to become one of the most remarkable units of his career including Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson and bassist Palle Danielsson alongside Christensen. "Witchi-tai-to" was recorded in the autumn of 1973, and this quartet was a sure breadwinner for Norwegian jazz clubs. Around the same time Garbarek embarked on a long collaboration with American pianist Keith Jarrett, both Danielsson and Christensen joining them in a unit which came to be known as Jarrett’s Nordic Quartet.
Both with Jarrett and Stenson, Garbareks’s repertoire included folk music themes; as early as in a 1970 TV recording an Indian sitar player was included. In 1969 the Garbarek quartet had made a quite special recording " "Briskeby blues" " where the distinguished local poet Jan Erik Vold recited his own poems. From the late 50s on, Vold had already published several articles in Dagbladet on current happenings in international jazz. The Garbarek/Vold project reappeared in 1972. In later years Vold’s poetry readings would appear on several recordings, including a 1988 session done in Paris with Chet Baker.
Rypdal and Andersen soon chose their own musical paths. By the beginning of the 1970s, Rypdal had already embarked on a parallel career as a composer of classical contemporary music, including opera as well as symphonies, while his jazz side was inspired by rock music, as documented on his first CD "Min Bul". Later in the 70s Danish trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg often participated in Rypdal’s projects.
Andersen formed his first quartet in 1974, with Knut Risnæs on tenor sax, John Balke on piano and Pål Thowsen on drums. Jon Christensen established himself as a drummer with his own distinctive sound, in a number of Norwegian as well as international/European ensembles, and within a stylistic frame that was to develop into a European direction in international jazz. This direction was to a large degree associated with recordings issued on the ECM label, where owner and producer Manfred Eicher played an unusually active part in forming the final musical results, a fact much featured in the general debate around the label and its music.
Refering to the recordings made by Garbarek and Rypdal, European critics saw connections between the music and Nordic/Scandinavian nature. Eventually, both musicians to a certain extent came to agree with this view, albeit in a more balanced way than what had been reflected in the ongoing stylistic debate. ECM also came to be associated with Norway through its clear and crisp sound picture. Sound technician (and musician) Jan Erik Kongshaug contributed greatly to this, first in Oslo’s Talent Studios, and later in Kongshaug’s own Rainbow Studios.
Towards the end of the 70s Garbarek appeared in a variety musical settings, and his domestic appearances became scarce outside of the festivals. In this perspective, these years might be seen as a transitional period. In 1975, Garbarek had participated in the recording project "Østerdalsmusikk", based on folk music from the Østerdalen valley in Norway and led by trumpeter Torgrim Sollid, where musicians from Oslo, Molde and Trondheim also took part. Aside from some elements in Garbareks music at the time, this recording was the first distinct demonstration of jazz musicians’ interests in Norwegian folk music. This project idea was followed up by Sollid in "Søyr", a larger ensemble that retained strong links to Norwegian folk music, combining these with influences from Charles Mingus and others.
 |
Radka Toneff and Arild Andersen. |
Throughout this period, jazz in Norway of course contained much more than this. After the free jazz and rock elements had established themselves among younger musicians, the total picture was stylistically much wider than earlier, catching the attention of a new and younger audience. Traditional jazz was also back on its feet through the comeback of the Stokstad/ Jensen trad band, Christiania Jazzband and Magnolia Jazzband in Oslo. The Ålesund-based Ytre Suløens Jazzensemble was formed in 1973, Molde had "Arthur Bleiken og hans jazzbeskjed" (A humorous/literal translation of Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers " even if the musical style was wildly different), while the Bergen Tradband existed up to 1979.
There have been relatively few "true" swing jazz performers in Norway. In this as in earlier periods, trumpeter Rowland Greenberg was still the dominant figure. Other musicians included pianist Øystein Ringstad, tenor saxophonists Kristian Bergheim and Totti Bergh, clarinettist Terje Larsen and drummer Per Nyhaug " many of these having their musical background from the early 1950s.
A larger group of musicians were to be found within the "neobop" and mainstream styles. In Oslo these styles were represented by pianists Egil Kapstad, Roy Hellvin, Ivar Antonsen and Terje Bjørklund (the two latter being expatriates from Northern Norway leaving Oslo again towards the mid-70s), bassists Terje Venaas and Sture Janson, saxophonists Bjørn Johansen, Knut Riisnæs and Harald Bergersen, trumpeter Ditlef Eckhoff, trombonist Frode Thingnæs, drummers Ole Jacob Hansen, Svein Erik Gaardvik and Svein Christiansen, and vocalists Karin Krog and Laila Dalseth. In Trondheim alto saxophonist Asmund Bjørken led a popular unit including Bjørn Alterhaug on bass and Kjell Johansen on drums, and other important local musicians included Ove Stokstad (saxes), Lars Martin Thomassen (trumpet), and not least important the student-based big band "Bodega Band" fronted by pianist Per Husby and bassist Jan Tro. Pianist Eivin Sannes worked in both Stavanger and Bergen, and Bergen also saw a new talent forming in pianist Dag Arnesen. In Northern Norway tenor saxophonist Kjell Bartholdsen was a central figure, alongside guitarist Thorgeir Stubø who had moved back to his native Narvik teaming up with trombonist Viggo Hansen. In Tromsø pianist Tage Løf, bassist Kjell Svendsen and drummer Tore Rønne were to be found, plus a group of younger musicians in the band "Hei og Hå". Saxophonist Guttorm Guttormsen had moved from Northern Norway to the southern town of Skien, where bassist Bjørn Kjellemyr also worked for a period of time.
In Oslo the Club 7 environment included a string of musicians playing both modern jazz and rhythm ‘n blues-influenced music, among these Calle Neumann (alto sax), Christian Reim (piano) and Espen Rud (drums). In the early 70s younger musicians who caught the listeners’ attention included the brothers Erik (alto sax) and Jon Balke (piano), saxophonists Vidar Johansen and Arne Frang, and guitarist Jon Eberson. In the mid-70s focus was suddenly brought on a promising new singer, Radka Toneff.
Several new big bands were established in this period. In addition to the radio unit, which from 1970 was named the Thorleif Østereng/Helge Hurum big band, and the aforementioned Bodega Band in Trondheim, both the Sandvika and Guttormsen/Ekholt big bands were formed, and the University of Oslo had its own big band from 1969-1977.
An important feature of the 1970s was that many of the new bands worked as more permanent units with a set personnel, and that younger musicians made a conscious effort to make jazz a more substantial part of their income. This was connected to the growth in the number of clubs and the resulting increase in touring possibilities. Towards the end of the decade around 45 clubs were in operation, and Oslo was considered one of the jazz centres of Europe.
The Molde and Kongsberg festivals were well established, and the music festivals of Harstad and Bergen now also featured jazz events. Smaller weekend festivals appeared (Fredrikstad, Kongsvinger) and larger festivals were also added: Vossa Jazz (at Voss outside of Bergen) in 1974, Bergen Jazzweekend (which later expanded and was renamed Nattjazz) in 1976, and Dølajazz at Lillehammer in 1978.
The Norwegian Jazz Federation (NJF) was still struggling to find a platform that could encompass the entire Norwegian jazz scene, and there were continuing recruiting problems connected with finding representatives for the various regions. The NJF had, however, started to look at jazz in a much wider musical context, and was trying to establish closer bonds to governmental cultural organizations. The federation’s magazine Jazznytt was developing promisingly, and had become an active forum for debate, even if some of the themes were somewhat introvert. The tradition of covering the various festivals was continued, and a string of both young an older musicians were presented in portrait interviews.
In 1974 the NJF presented two initiatives that caught public attention: An analysis on the state of Norwegian jazz on the national public radio (NRK), and a critical assessment of the various festivals’ use of Norwegian jazz. The ensuing debate ended with the positive result that documentation of Norwegian jazz was increased in the NRK as well as on the festival programmes. In 1977, Rolf S Grundesen became the first paid employee in the NJF (although in the beginning only half-time). This laid the foundation for a considerable increase in activities, further helped by the first direct government financial support in 1980. Work was also in progress towards creating a parallel organization for musicians, leading to the formation of Foreningen Norske Jazzmusikere (Federation of Norwegian Jazz Musicians) in 1979. From 1974 NJF was represented in Nordjazz, the first Nordic joint venture between jazz organisations, and from 1976 in the Norwegian Council of Music Organizations (Norsk Musikkråd)
Was this period, then, a golden age? This question should not be answered too categorically. In simplified terms one should perhaps say that several positive and important developments occurred, but some critical lessons were also learned. A central feature was the musicians’ determination to develop the music further on their own terms rather than directly from American influences. Towards the end of the period the first ground was prepared for a better and broader organization of Norwegian jazz, which in turn made the music more available to the public. Young jazz musicians managed to create an audience for themselves mostly consisting of young students, accounting for the increase in general interest since the elder part of the audience did not go out all that much. During the 1970s the network of post-graduate schools and other educational institutions was greatly expanded, especially in the districts. In connection with these, several jazz clubs sprang up, supplementing those in the university cities " even if admittedly the attendance of these clubs often consisted of people satisfying social rather than true jazz interests.
The shock waves after the political rebellions in 68 spread in different forms, also giving inspiration to a sort of radical cultural identity tied up with the jazz environment - including some rather mythical impressions of the Club 7. Some young musicians joined radical political groups; in Oslo the short-lived radical periodical Vår Musikk (Our Music) appeared. On other occasions, such as the 1972 EU vote, jazz musicians’ names were often found on political pamphlets and petitions. In larger cities, such as Oslo, a growing division between fans of new and older forms of jazz could be detected, apparently also reflecting political differences. The musicians’ own evaluations of each other across this divide were not always done with great respect. Interesting tensions as well as conflicts of interest were revealed, an important aspect of this being connected to the growing professionalism of musicians and clubs " since most of the full-time musicians belonged to the modern camp, while the traditional musicians still were amateurs with "straight" jobs on the side.
 |
Hot Club de Norvège. From the left: Svein Otto Aarbostad, Jon Larsen, Per Frydenlund and Finn Hauge. |
The number of jazz clubs in Norway reached its peak in the early 80s, with a total of around 70 clubs. This was probably, as previously indicated, due to a number of reasons, one of which being that Norwegian jazz was very well organized; only Sweden was on a comparable level. Foreign musicians touring the country expressed both surprise and satisfaction at the state of affairs. Admittedly, not all club concerts presented what could be labelled jazz by a traditional/rigid definition of the term. Both ethnic music as well as rock was presented in some clubs, the demand for related forms of music often being greater outside of Oslo. The latter aspect was discussed at the 1981 congress of Norsk Jazzforbund, and the debate on the inclusion of "related music" went on. This was not solely a semantic discussion " it also revealed the conflict of interest between musicians and clubs. Smaller, local clubs based their programming on availability of musicians as well as on the preferences of organization committees and local audiences.
Gradually, an increasing number of clubs found it hard to survive. Economy was weak and unstable, and for many volunteers jazz was only one of many community tasks. There was a decrease in the number of clubs " in 1988 the annual report from Norsk Jazzforbund listed only 40 clubs, a result of this also being a dramatic decrease in jobs for jazz musicians. If this situation should be seen as comparable to the early 60s, where a significant part of the younger jazz audience disappeared into rock, it might bear some relevance to note that 30 rock clubs existed at the inauguration of Norsk Rockforbund (Norwegian Rock Federation) in 1982, most of these outside Oslo. Among young people, local jazz clubs were loosing their earlier near-monopoly in presenting live music outside of the traditional Saturday night dances. In Oslo an upsurge of new cafes and clubs came as a result of the rigid licensing rules being gradually liberalized from 1985. These establishments often attracted former parts of the jazz club audiences whose interests were mores social than musical.
In Oslo the number of clubs had also passed its peak. In 1980 11 jazz clubs were mentioned in the newspaper Aftenposten. A year or so later several of these were gone. There was still, however, clubs like "Malla", Hot House, Jazz Alive, Guldfisken and New Orleans Workshop. The first three of these were important venues for the more modern forms of jazz of the 80s. One sociologist presented a theory that the increasing club audiences had been a direct result of the increase in divorce rates among people in their 30s and 40s.
In 1985 the Club 7 went bankrupt and had to close its doors. As a jazz venue, Club 7 had played a central role all through the 70s, musically as well as socially. In addition, it was the only Oslo club with sufficient facilities to bring on larger and more expensive foreign bands. Rock club Sardines and "Malla", which in 1984 was renamed Oslo Jazzhus, were for several years also important venues for jazz in Oslo " until they too were closed down. Oslo Jazzhus became an important stage for young musicians who later went on to play central roles at the new club Blå.
In 1976 the Ad Lib club was established in Bodø, and for many years this was one of the most active and well organized clubs in the country. The Bodø jazz community also played a central role in Nordnorsk Jazzforum (A regional organization for jazz in Northern Norway) in setting up numerous touring projects throughout the 1980s and 90s.
Outside of the ECM label hardly any recordings of modern Norwegian jazz were issued during the 1970s. After a short-lived and half-hearted attempt on the Nordisc label, NJF decided to establish its own label, Odin, using clubs and big bands as an important distribution channel for its productions. The first Odin production featured guitarist Thorgeir Stubø’s North Norway-based quintet, and by the mid 1990’s some 50 issues had been produced. Singer Radka Toneff’s duo album "Fairy Tales" (with pianist Steve Dobrogosz) became the best-selling Norwegian jazz production ever. Guitarist Jon Larsen started Hot Club Records, originally based on his own band Hot Club de Norvège. Shortly thereafter producer Bjørn Pedersen initiated the Gemini label. Yet another couple of labels were musician-run " Curling Legs (Guitarist Knut Værnes and saxophonist Morten Halle) and Norcd (Saxophonist Karl Seglem). Particularly in the 1980s new trends in Norwegian jazz tended to appear on the Odin label, while the various other labels gradually created their specific stylistic profiles. During the first half of the 1990s Odin experienced problems both with regards to economy and capacity, and this part of the NJF activity gradually came to a halt.
Around 1980 plans for a Norwegian jazz archive were laid, modelled after the jazz section of the Swedish Folk Archives. In 1981 the Norwegian Jazz Archives were founded with Johs Bergh as chairman. Through the Jazz Archive a large body of material has been collected, including written source material, photographs, pictures and recorded music .This material has been of vital importance for three books on the history of jazz in Norway (covering the period from 1920 to 1960) published by the archive.
 |
Jøkleba. From the left: Per Jørgensen, Jon Balke and Audun Kleive. Photo: CF Wesenberg. |
Internationally as well as domestically the ten year cycles regarding important stylistic changes were not as evident as before. At the same time impulses from other musical genres became stronger. The European influence on jazz and improvised music increased, and Norwegian contributions took an important part in this development. The new "Nordic" element came mainly from Norway and less from Sweden and Denmark. The ECM releases continued to be an important factor in this respect. The term "ethnic music", lifted from the international pop music scene, became a term for hitherto unfamiliar non-western music. Latin American music was of course well known in jazz, including the bossa nova of the early 60s. But more original forms of Brazilian music caught the attention of Norwegian jazz musicians, not the least through the yearly Oslo carnivals in the mid-80s. In the 1970s, percussionists Miki N’Doye and Helge Linnaae were central figures in the Club 7 based, African-oriented units E’olen and Tamma, with a personnel that otherwise consisted of jazz musicians. In Bergen, pianist Knut Kristiansen worked along the same stylistic trails. Especially among younger musicians, rock influences were also apparent. Another example of many-faceted ethnic influences can be found in the Brazz Bros. quintet, who in the 1990s used Norwegian folk music themes and also collaborated with African musicians.
Jan Garbarek’s music was an important domestic source, with its open and lyrical quality using simple themes from folk music around the world. His cooperation with Indian musicians was significant, as were his later projects involving Norwegian folk singers Agnes Buen Garnås and Mari Boine. Through the 1990s an increasing number of people questioned the jazz bearings of these projects, and in several interviews Garbarek himself was open to the question of whether his present musical direction had anything to do with jazz. At the same time, however, he clearly stated that the ensuing musical results would not have been possible without his jazz background.
Towards the end of the end of the 1980s a growing interest in Norwegian folk music was apparent. The Vossajazz festival had already contributed to this through their decision to make the Jazz/Folk issue a central feature in their programming. One of the larger projects was the commission given to bassist Arild Andersen resulting in "Sagn" (1990) and "Arv" (1993), incorporating traditional singer Kirsten Bråten Berg and Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos.
Several of Andersen’s chosen musicians, such as saxophonist Bendik Hofseth, drummer Paolo Vinaccia and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, were also involved in their own projects involving pop and rock artists. Saxophone player Karl Seglem made several quite free and rudimentary-sounding recordings, often working in tandem with highly untraditional drummer Terje Isungset and using folk music elements. Singer Sidsel Endresen made her debut as a leader in 1990, with a new group that made several recordings for the ECM label. In later years, her duo projects with pianist Bugge Wesseltoft have attracted attention both because of the unconventional repertoire and her unique style of singing.
Based on a more traditional definition of jazz, Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet), Tore Brunborg (tenor), Jon Balke (piano), Arild Andersen (bass) and Jon Christensen (drums) formed a quintet under the name "Masqualero". The quintet developed its own profile both in sound and choice of thematic material, and after the initial Odin recording three more albums were recorded for ECM. Parallel to this, Balke worked together with trumpeter/vocalist Per Jørgensen and drummer Audun Kleive worked in the trio Jøkleba, performing stage improvisations based on well-known jazz tunes as well as original material.
A certain influx from younger players could also be seen amongst musicians playing earlier jazz styles. Special mention should go to pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen as a ragtime specialist on a high level. A group of more established musicians formed a larger ensemble, Christiania 12, specializing in American jazz from around 1930.
For a long time, almost all Norwegian horn players had started their careers in school marching bands. During the sixties and seventies a string of amateur big bands came out of these school bands, and by the late 1980s the NJF membership included 102 big bands.
Until 1990, the NRK Radio Big Band had been the only professional band with stable personnel. That year, a drastic budget cut in the station’s music budget greatly affected jazz: The big band disbanded, and the number of other jazz productions was also reduced. Still, the NRK continued its tradition of being an important source for the jazz listener, presenting news, portraits of musicians and a journalistic treatment of Norwegian jazz.
The project big band Oslo Groove Company was perhaps the most important professional big band involving younger musicians, another project band working at the same being the Bergen big Band. In addition to more unconventional larger units such as those led by pianist Jon Balke, the Trondheim Kunstorkester (Art Ensemble of Trondheim) was started in the late 1990s, later renamed Trondheim Jazzorkester and led by saxophonist Trygve Seim and pianist Erlend Skomsvoll.
In retrospect, the 1980s and 90s can be seen as a period where the musical scope of jazz grew steadily wider, with borderlines between styles becoming more indistinct. From this perspective, a renewed discussion on "related genres" would become increasingly more complicated. In the nineties the subject was only raised a few times, often in the form of musicians’ comments related to the programming of the main festivals.
By the mid-80s the total number of festivals had reached eight: Molde, Kongsberg, Vossajazz, NattJazz (Bergen), Dølajazz (Lillehammer), Jazz Mass (Trondheim), Hammerfest, and the Varanger Festival in Vadsø. Shortly thereafter another three were added: Oslo Jazz Festival, Sildajazz (Haugesund), and the Stavanger festival that was later to become known under the name MaiJazz. The Trondheim and Hammerfest festivals eventually disappeared, but the others are have been running continuously ever since. The Molde and Kongsberg festivals, both taking place in July, received most of the media attention " Norwegian jazz was and still is best covered in the summertime, when there might be a scarcity of other material and journalists won’t mind a paid holiday.
VossaJazz still tried to feature Norwegian and international folk music alongside their jazz programming, while Kongsberg tried to establish a less commercial profile by including important aspects of avant garde jazz. Joint projects with Ny Musikk (the Norwegian branch of the ISCM) had been introduced in the 1970s.
For long periods of time the festivals have represented a main venue for musicians and listeners alike to experience new trends and developments in international " and in the 1990s particularly European " jazz. Several festivals started commissioning a "festival composition" from a Norwegian musician, a practice which admittedly often resulted in a concert of scattered original tunes rather than a complete "work" in the traditional sense of the word. Only a few of these works lived on after the concert, mostly in the form of recordings.
Even with " or perhaps also because of " a risky economy, the larger festivals grew in size, partly as a result of more ambitious programming. Molde was leading the way with the first Miles Davis concert in 1984. Other new features at the larger festivals were acts representing borderline activities such as rap, hip-hop and techno.
 |
Bugge Wesseltoft. Photo: CF Wesenberg. |
At the Trøndelag Music Conservatory in Trondheim, a new educational course for teachers was introduced in 1982, with jazz as the main subject. This was the start of what was later to become known as the "jazz studies" in Trondheim. The jazz students became an important addition to the Sondheim jazz scene, even if there were periods when club activities were low, and many of them also became central figures in the further development of Norwegian jazz. Among the first of these were trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær and saxophonist Tore Brunborg. Particularly in the nineties many students established their own ensembles, developing original modes of expression on a high musical level through the use of electronic as well as acoustic instruments.
Even if several students in the 1990s worked within styles continuing along traditional jazz lines, others continued the non-American traditions created by the musicians of the 1980s. The new jazz studies in Trondheim also served as an inspiration to younger musicians in other parts of the country, and jazz related topics were gradually being introduced in the music departments of Oslo and Kristiansand too. When the club Blå opened in Oslo in 1998, the youngest generation of musician became a central source for the development of the club’s varied and radical profile, including acoustic jazz as well as electronic, rock-influenced music and DJs.
Within the latter forms, keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft soon became a central figure, receiving considerable international recognition for his 1996 album "New Conceptions of Jazz". The same applied to trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, through his two ECM productions "Khmer" and"Solid Ether". It may well be that their use of modern musical technology has created a new connection between jazz and contemporary music, but one shouldn’t deny the fact that their musical choices have also created quite a bit of controversy in more established jazz circles.
Norwegian jazz organizations " particularly the Norwegian Jazz Federation (NJF) and the Federation of Norwegian Jazz Musicians (FNJ) " continued their work of strengthening the basis and infrastructure of Norwegian jazz life. NJF received their first official funding in 1980, followed by FNJ the year after. Political cooperation with other music and governmental institutions was conducted through the participation of both organizations in the Norwegian Council of Music Organizations. The FNJ got involved in the early stages of specific cases such as the debate around TONO’s (Norway’s Performing Rights Society) treatment of the jazz genre, and the channelling of funds from a sales tax on blank cassette tapes into a fund for performing artists. Meanwhile the NJF and the North Norway Jazz Forum successfully worked together on securing four permanent positions for jazz musicians (named the Noor quartet) in Northern Norway after an initial trial period was over.
One central argument was that Norwegian jazz had reached a high, internationally acclaimed artistic level. For this reason it was important to discontinue a tradition that many felt represented a discrimination and downgrading of jazz, both in the distribution of state musical funds, official concert promotion and higher music education. This work gradually showed results " in 1990 public subsidies to the two main organizations reached NOK 1,5 million (about £120.000), and the major festivals also received increased funding. But there was still a considerable gap when comparing these figures to those received by established "classical" music institutions and festivals.
In the autumn of 1990 the Labour government had issued a grant of NOK one million to rock music. Together with folk music organizations, the NJF tried to establish a cooperative venture with the Norwegian Rock Federation to strengthen all three music genres collectively. As a result of this, official funding for musical workshops, aimed at young performers within these genres, started seeping into the Norwegian Council of Music Organizations. The rock people, however, had great expectations on their own behalf, which at times made cooperation a bit strained.
In 1991 the Ministry of Culture proposed the first grant to Den Norske Jazzscene ("The Norwegian Jazz Stage"), - a new tour production organization jointly established by NJF and FNJ. In the following year’s governmental report on culture, a plan for a Norwegian jazz centre was proposed. Based on this report, the organizations decided to merge. Norsk Jazzforum (Forum for Norwegian Jazz) was established in 1998, replacing the NJF and FNJ. Regional jazz centres were established in all parts of the country, under the administrational leadership of Vestnorsk Jazzsenter (Jazz Centre for Western Norway).
 |
Jan Garbarek. Photo: Einar Bangsund. |
In the seventies, several Norwegian jazz musicians, and particularly the younger ones, established contact with musicians in Sweden, Denmark and Finland, - partly as a result of the Nordjazz project. This became increasingly more common throughout the 1980s, and gave important impulses to Norwegian jazz both with regard to the individual musicians’ development and through specific concert projects in Norway. Club tours featuring foreign soloists or bands were also becoming more frequent in the 80s. On some occasions, festival-like presentations of Norwegian jazz abroad were co-arranged by the NJF and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the first of these taking place in Paris 1985.
More than anything else, however, record releases accounted for the increased attention given to Norwegian jazz abroad. In particular, the 1990s saw an ever-increasing number of Norwegian jazz recordings being reviewed in leading US, UK, Scandinavian and German jazz periodicals. Generally, the releases were very well received, and several were put forward as belonging among the very best of their genre. This happened within American-inspired mainstream jazz as well as more European or Nordic styles. The ECM label still occupied a central position, but several releases on smaller Norwegian companies also managed to reach international audiences. Some of these had strong folk music elements, like the recordings of saxophonist Karl Seglem, while keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær were front figures in releases presenting a blend of digital/electronic music and acoustic instruments. Molvær and Wesseltoft may both be considered to represent a contrast to the developments in American jazz of the 1980s and 90s. In 1990 Time Magazine presented trumpeter Wynton Marsalis on its front page under the title "The New Jazz Age" " a musician considered by many as a traditionalist and therefore quite controversial as far as leading the way into new jazz forms. From 1995 on, several younger Norwegian musicians also started performing music obviously inspired by American jazz of the 1960s.
Since 1945, Norwegian jazz has developed considerably, stylistically as well as quality-wise, and has made important contributions to further developments and innovation in international jazz. It should come as no surprise that some of the new forms of musical expression have been questioned as to whether they can be called jazz. Such questions have appeared before, but have not necessarily been raised in connection with music on the borderlines of a musical tradition, where artistic tension can be seen as being part of a creative process.
Jazz in Norway has developed in waves. Stronger and weaker periods have always followed each other in jazz " a fact ascertained by both Jan Garbarek and Radka Toneff in interviews around 1980. Rather than seeing this as a general case of history repeating itself, such variations are better viewed as allowing necessary time for musical reflection and consolidation after periods of musical innovation. The reasons behind all such changes are of course complex and varied, but it is obvious that development and innovation in jazz is also dependent on an encounter between the music and younger generations of musicians and audiences alike.
At the same time the expanded palette of musical styles, created a general audience for jazz encompassing all ages from teenagers to old age pensioners. This jazz crowd could not be considered homogenous, however, as stylistic barriers often followed age and generation differences. On the other hand, journalist Torodd Karlsten in 1982 maintained that the development of Norwegian jazz pointed towards a landscape where the music itself was the main point, - and that earlier sociocultural links were losing their importance.
There was a steady progression in the work towards the strengthening of jazz in Norwegian cultural policies, including the education system. This was achieved through a collaboration between the organizations and individuals both inside and outside of official institutions. In the media, the writings by several jazz friendly journalists also gave important contributions to bringing public attention to the subject. By the end of the century, it seemed, likewise, that the ground had also been prepared for to jazz to become an object of research within academic circles.
In 2000, The Observer published an interview with Nils Petter Molvær, under the heading "Fjord Focus". His music was described as having connections to nature, geography and icons from national romanticism, dressed in new musical technology. Quite possibly, these factors will constitute an important part of the Norwegian jazz experience in the coming years as well.
Steinar Kristiansen
Translated and adapted by Per Husby