It might have taken a little longer this time, but with ‘Holiday On Fire,’ guitarist, composer and producer Torben Waldorff has done it again.

Damn … damn! That’s the kind of reaction I have when hearing an artist who left us with still a lot remaining to give. You May Also Like: Vincent Meissner Trio, “Young Folks” from ‘Wille’ (2023): One Track Mind Nils Landgren Funk Unit – ‘Funk Is My Religion’ (2021) MatthewRead More

Ornette Coleman used it, and so did Gerry Mulligan. And now, a quartet of Norwegians in their mid-20s is doing it, too. However Pixel, as this Nordic combo is called, isn’t making Harmolodics out of the non-chordal trumpet/sax/standup bass/drums configuration. You May Also Like: Manu Katché – Unstatic (2016)

Apart from his trademark whammy bar-induced vibrato, Norwegian guitarist, keyboardist, saxophonist, composer and bandleader Terje Rypdal has been one of the hardest to define figures of progressive jazz You May Also Like: The Dream, featuring Terje Rypdal – Get Dreamy (1967, 2017 reissue) Terje Rypdal – ‘Conspiracy’ (2020) Various ArtistsRead More

The British expat residing in Oslo Roy Powell is a Hammond B-3 specialist who prefers not to get stuck in tradition. You May Also Like: Mumpbeak – Tooth (2017) Brian Charette – Once & Future (2016)

Two major figures from the first generation of Finland’s modern jazz musicians saxophonist Juhani Aaltonen and pianist Heikki Sarmanto have played together for nearly fifty years, recording some thirty albums together in a variety of settings along the way. With that much history between them, you’d think that they’d haveRead More

ECM is a record label that is often stereotyped as offering only open, spacious, and sterile European — frequently Scandinavian — kind of chamber jazz and I’ve often come across so many exceptions, that characterization can’t even be considered the rule. But Tord Gustavsen’s music can be. Playing economically andRead More

I had come into writing this review thinking I had already reviewed the prior release by pioneering fusion jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, Hamada (2009), but found that I hadn’t. You May Also Like: Eivind Aarset 4tet – ‘Phantasmagoria, or A Different Kind of Journey’ (2021)

Photo of Ingrid Jensen from http://www.ingridjensen.com by S. Victor Aaron Nordic Connect is a grouping of musicians from Canada (Ingrid Jensen, trumpet; Ingrid’s sister Christine Jensen, alto and soprano saxes), U.S.A. (Ingrid’s husband Jon Wikan, drums), and Sweden (Maggie Olin (piano, Fender Rhodes; Mattias Welin, acoustic bass). The name pointsRead More

by Pico Jan Gabarek. There, I had to get that out of way right off. A Norwegian saxophone player who skillfully blends jazz with folk music of his homeland…who else would come to mind so quickly? Probably no one. But to be fair to tenor saxophonist Karl Seglem, he’s workedRead More