This week's lot comes with Scot free

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat 24 June
4.00 Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton with a broad spectrum of listeners' jazz requests, including a recording by clarinettist Omer Simeon and piano virtuoso Earl Hines.

http://www.alynshipton.co.uk/blog

5.00 Jazz Line-Up
Julian Joseph presents a special edition from BBC Scotland's Pacific Quay studions in Glasgow, featuring performance from pianist Tord Gustvsen and gypsy jazz combo Rose Room, plus the organ-driven sounds of DT6.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08vy6j4

12.00 Geoffrey Smith's Jazz
Geoffrey Smith surveys the passionate career of California-born Art Pepper (1925-1982), a major figure on the West Coast scene, renowned for his intense alto saxophone style.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03x16sc

No Jazz Notes next Monday, but...

11.00 Canada 150
Jazz on the Prairies
Hannah French presents the first in a week-long series of canada-themed programmes. She visits Calgary to hear recordings from Canada's lively jazz festival scene. Plus a profile of CBC's New Canadian Global Music Orchestra, made up of musicians from across the world who have settled in Canada, creating new traditions that reflect Canada in 2017.

There are a number of BBC programmes next week celebrating Canada's 150th anniversary as a Confederation. Let them know, now, won't you. Ring them up. At cheap rate times.

Radio 2 Tues 27 June
7.00 Jamie Cullum
New and classic jazz, plus guests, tonight with Pennsylvania-born organ virtuoso Joey DeFrancesco, who discusses his admiration for Jimmy Smith and introduces a track from his album Project Freedom*.

*Not sure if that refers to Jimmy's or to Joey's Project Freedom.

[Quarky]

My heart sank when I read the line up for Jazz on the Prairies, including Diane Krall and Michael Buble.

Shouldn't prejudge I suppose, but what have we done to deserve this? Is that all Canada can offer?

[Serial_Apologist]

My heart sank when I read the line up for Jazz on the Prairies, including Diane Krall and Michael Buble.

Shouldn't prejudge I suppose, but what have we done to deserve this? Is that all Canada can offer?

Time to find out, I guess... hopefully.

There was an experimental/improv scene based around saxophonist and CODA magazine editor Bill Smith in Toronto, iirc, the last time I checked, but that was some while back, and he is getting on for 80 now.

[Ian Thumwood]

The whole Canadian jazz thing always seems to result in the better players move to the States. Selecting Michael Buble is a bit of an insult as he has nothing to do with jazz. Diana Krall is probably more suitable she is a musician I have struggled to accept. I really hated her retro stuff when she started to make a name for herself in the early 1990's but then felt that I had been pretty harsh on her when I heard her recording with Johnny Mandel. Since that album came out, I have caught her twice in concert and expected her to possess a massive stage presence. The reality if that her music is pretty introspective and low key in performance. I didn't think she was actually much better than someone like Stacey Kent - probably pretty equal in ability. Having seen the likes of Dianne Reeves, Shirley Horn, Cassandra Wilson , Angelique Kidjo and Beth Hart perform live, I don't think she is of that sort of calibre. Curiously enough, she uses lead-sheets in live performance because of a fear that she would rock up on stage and have a memory lapse and be unable to play. It is a shame that she remains Canada's much celebrated contemporary jazz musician as she made very little impression in concert on both occasions I heard her. Probably the must under-whelming "major" jazz artist I have heard although others like Ramsey Lewis have come pretty close.

The most interesting Canadian at the moment if Darcy James Argue, the arranger although I have not heard a great deal of his recent records. The Jensen sisters aren't bad and Jane Bunnett another Canadian who has plenty of kudos with the critics it would appear. Jazzrook mentioned drummer Harris Eisenstadt on a thread about a year ago and he often materialises on some adventurous line ups although I would not know which is the best record to represent what his music is about. All about Jazz seem to go a bundle on anything he is on. Trumpeter Nate Wooley is a close associate. The music is supposed to verge on free / avant garde and seems a lot more interesting than the idea of Krall ploughing through the standards like it is 1957 and not 2017. Eisenstadt's album covers look really good as well. Still, Canada gave us Gil Evans , Paul Bley and Kenny Wheeler so the country's contribution to jazz is already assured.

[Serial_Apologist]

Still, Canada gave us Gil Evans , Paul Bley and Kenny Wheeler so the country's contribution to jazz is already assured.

And Oscar Peterson, of course!

Mind you, people often knock Oscar, but as my rather patriotic, Hungarian-born Canadian friend insists, his achievement as a black man coming from there at the time he did was to be respected - and his virtuosic if rather predictable riffy style was in-keeping with the pre-Bill Evans era of Swingers mixing with Beboppers, crossing Errol Garner with Art Tatum and then some. Whether or not he paved the way for the likes of Paul Bley is another matter.

[Old Grumpy]

Sat 24 June


5.00 Jazz Line-Up
Julian Joseph presents a special edition from BBC Scotland's Pacific Quay studions in Glasgow, featuring performance from pianist Tord Gustvsen and gypsy jazz combo Rose Room, plus the organ-driven sounds of DT6.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08vy6j4

Good to have JLU back after previous weeks operations.

I enjoyed watching the clips too.

OG

[Serial_Apologist]

Good to have JLU back after previous weeks operations.

I enjoyed watching the clips too.

OG

Have to say I was kinda disappointed with this week's museum fare on JLU.

[Ian Thumwood]

I caught the Tord Gustvsen set and found the interview (marginally) more interesting than the music especially when he mentioned being inspired by lullabies. Some of the phrases he played were quite interesting but as a whole I really struggle with this musician. The set wasn't at all inspiring but, having fallen asleep twice when I have been to a couple of his gigs, I didn't expect much. He is one of those typical ECM'ers who seem a bit superficial with the music being beautifully polished on the outside yet not having a great deal of depth in my opinion. It seems strange for jazz piano to arrive at a point like this if you think about the energy there has been in the past with regard to this instrument whether you are talking about Fats Waller, Earl Hines, Cecil Taylor or McCoy Tyner. If Bud Powell is seen as the breakaway point between traditionalism and modernism, it is hard to see where Gustvsen fits in. He is a kick in the teeth to the great jazz tradition. I suppose you would describe him as post-Jarrett and representative of where Manfred Eicher has sought to find something "new" now that Jarrett is solidly part of the mainstream. It is odd because Keith Jarrett is a musician who can be hugely compelling and capable of really swinging. Gustvsen seems to have taken Jarrett's model and removed all the energy and grit. For me, he is one of the chief culprits in the malaise in the cotemporary jazz scene although Eicher's tendency for pushing so many of these European pianists to the fore that he must take a good share of the culpability. It is interesting that he does seem to have rediscovered more "authentic" players like Craig Taborn, Vijay Iyer and Jason Moran even if some of the better playing produced by these three musicians often is in the context of non-ECM sessions.

I expect than I am probably in the minority regarding Gustvsen (judging by the audience reaction ) and that there will be plenty of people out there who love his music. However, it is strange to think that such a big hitter in contemporary jazz should produce music which , to be crude, doesn't have any balls. There also seemed to be a degree of electronic manipulation during the gig which , unless I missed it, wasn't mentioned. I thought that there was something wrong with my car to begin with ! It is interesting to see whether a more introspective approach to jazz always delivers the goods. History has proven than this can produce startlingly original results whether we are talking "Kind of blue" or Paul Bley's recordings. The ECM label in the 70's and 80's seemed to get this right too. I love this type of jazz. The big question for me is that if the actual music produced lacked depth or soul, then introspection for it's own sake produces the musical equivalent of sleeping tablets. It becomes pointless or, at best, like Championship level Classical music. Personally, I find that Gustvsen fits in to this category and the indentikit Euro-jazz churned out by ECM often fails for the same reasons. There are some great pianists out there who are crying for greater attention (John Escreet, Eri Yamamoto, for example) but the vogue for this kind of navel-gazing music makes jazz piano one of the most depressingly uninteresting elements within the contemporary scene. As someone who used to play piano, I always thought that pianists were the true heroes of jazz yet Gustvsen seems hell-bent on repudiating the jazz tradition and perhaps is symptomatic of the fact that there are now too many white / European people in jazz who just don't get what the music is about? Gustvsen's music seems to me to be an aural "f.y." message to the Afro-American musical heritage.

I only caught a fragment of the gypsy jazz group but turned the radio off when the girl started to sing the Charles Trenet number. Not difficult to appreciate why the football on Radio 5 is more attractive than the dross JLU frequently churns out but the close season meant that I have caught some of the recent broadcasts since tend to flirt with the periphery of jazz as opposed to having the guts to often plunge straight in. I think that the interviews with Le Gendre and Julian Joseph are often too obsequious and borderline creepy. Maybe they should get Matthew Shipp in as a "guest" presenter to ruffle some feathers ? Not a fan of it's magazine style of presentation but maybe this is what "the kids" want these days.

Re; The Shot Gun band - the title is uncredited but it sounds like a Mississippi Sheiks tune. The Chatmons seem too have composed a lot of tunes but I find that a lot of that kind of repertoire always sounds similar to other tunes and you wonder of it had always been kind of "public domain." I seem to recall that one of the tunes ended up in a court case with the judge finding in favour of the Chatmons.

[Serial_Apologist]

You've summed up Mr Tordry very well, Ian. Julian Joseph did in fact afterwards drop mention of the "ethereal effects" from apparently the vertical device used for that purpose, so - nothing wrong with your motor, then! Having recently been listening to some of the best of Julian's output, mostly early on, I sometimes wonder if his polite simpering towards his guests is in fact heavy irony? Perhaps one shouldn't say such things in case future guests cotton on! Most of the Gustavsen idiom sounded rather like poor imitation Chopin nocturne played very sotto voce - gestures that just don't seem to belong to the age, unless it's for escapism - fine for so-called Ambient, if one feels one has to resort to that sort of thing, but which jazz shouldn't be about at all!

[Ian Thumwood]

You've summed up Mr Tordry very well, Ian. Julian Joseph did in fact afterwards drop mention of the "ethereal effects" from apparently the vertical device used for that purpose, so - nothing wrong with your motor, then! Having recently been listening to some of the best of Julian's output, mostly early on, I sometimes wonder if his polite simpering towards his guests is in fact heavy irony? Perhaps one shouldn't say such things in case future guests cotton on! Most of the Gustavsen idiom sounded rather like poor imitation Chopin nocturne played very sotto voce - gestures that just don't seem to belong to the age, unless it's for escapism - fine for so-called Ambient, if one feels one has to resort to that sort of thing, but which jazz shouldn't be about at all!

SA

I think that your comments probably underestimate Chopin who I would consider to have been a formidable improviser and an innovator who changed both rhythm and harmony in Classical music. I don't seem him just being "Romantic" but think he should also be considered as a "Revolutionary." It is a fascinating topic but Chopin has had a massive influence upon jazz piano (read the John Mehegan jazz theory books which explains how Bill Evans was taking his cue from Chopin's harmonic language.) This issue with Gustvsen is the attack which you mention. I don't think having a "Chopin influence" is a bad thing as long as it is refracted in a way that it also faithful to jazz. I have never heard McCoy Tyner talk about his favourite classical composers but I think that Chopin would be high up in his agenda and he sounds nothing like Tord.

I can't see Julian being ironic and think that he is being pretty honest in his exchanges with other artists. I would love to hear someone really put these college-educated jazz musicians under the cosh in an interview There was a similar interview back in May when Kevin Le Gendre was way too obliging with a percussionist who had worked with Bjork and suggested that there were other influences that were important to him beyond jazz. Fair enough, you might say, but surely it is reasonable enough on a jazz programme for someone to question a musician who performs in a jazz environment why jazz is not the principle influence ? The impression with so many younger musicians is that they seem to want to disown jazz. It would be more interesting if the "fringe" players were given a hard time and put them under the spotlight. No one bothered to ask Gustvsen why he had rejected the afro-American model of playing or asked his opinion of blues / swing / attack, etc, etc. I am sure that in the old days of "impressions" the interviews were far more searching. Ditto, Charles Fox.

[Serial_Apologist]

SA

I think that your comments probably underestimate Chopin who I would consider to have been a formidable improviser and an innovator who changed both rhythm and harmony in Classical music.

They weren't intended to!

No one bothered to ask Gustvsen why he had rejected the afro-American model of playing or asked his opinion of blues / swing / attack, etc, etc. I am sure that in the old days of "impressions" the interviews were far more searching. Ditto, Charles Fox.

I would imagine him saying something to the effect of trying to capture the spirit of jazz through ones own indigenous musical traditions without obeying the letter - which would be fine except he doesn't - for me at any rate! It isn't an impossible thing to do - plenty have done so, from Norway to Japan by way of London and Kingston Jamaica, and successfully shown the universality of jazz expression, extending it beyond is original Afro-American diaspora,

[Alyn_Shipton]

Didn't hear Gustavsen from Glasgow, but I think he is an interesting musician and have followed his career since his first album (interview in my book "Handful of Keys") But I think you boards are giving him a hard time. Might be worth reading the interview I did with him for Jazzwise in the March 2014 issue:
Tord Gustavsen
Although the new album Extended Circle by Tord Gustavsen features his quartet, it kicks off with the kind of slow burn trio performance that harks back to his earlier albums Changing Places, The Ground and Being There. The difference however, between his original trio and his present one is bassist Mats Eilertsen. On the second chorus of the opening track “Right There”, Mats effortlessly takes the lead, and a variation on the slow, hymn-like melody sings from his bass with that mixture of clarity and warmth that is a hallmark of the great Scandinavian bassists, from NHØP through Arild Andersen to Palle Danielsson. And it’s a real contrast to the playing of Mats’ predecessor, Harald Johnsen, who was much more of an ensemble player and less of a foreground soloist.
“Yes, he’s very different,” agrees Tord. “Harald died of a heart attack in 2011, after a run of very bad health, which had prevented him from playing. It was absolutely tragic He was my age and a very beautiful person, and on top of that he was a great bass player. So after his death, for me just to go on and form another trio would not have felt right. I needed to have a different line-up for a while, and to find a different way to play my music. It’s only now that I am really able to return to the trio format again. There were three albums by the first group, and now this is the third by the quartet, so there’s a certain symmetry there. It wasn’t really planned to have two sets of three albums from the outset, but the way the band grew into a quartet was that particular players who had previously come to work with me on side projects seemed right for the band. Then when we toured, playing music from our second quartet album The Well, we kept adding compositions and some freer things that we played live, and it seemed a good idea to put these into a third quartet album.”
Tord is clearly a great fan of Mats Eilertsen’s playing, saying that he sees no limits to his melodic thinking, his inventiveness or technique, but that he is also a great supporting player, able to set up and maintain a groove. To those who come fresh to a Gustavsen concert, not having heard the band before, its fondness for slow tempi and a dynamic range that starts quiet and takes time to get only a bit louder can be a shock to the system. It’s certainly a big contrast to many other bands on the concert and festival circuit. “When we’re clicking,” says Tord, “there’s a great combination of humbleness and strength. But here on this album I think there is more obvious energy than on our previous discs. So on ‘Eg Veit I Himmerik Ei Borg’ — an old Norwegian hymnal melody that we play over an uptempo drum groove — or ‘Glow’ which comes near the end of the record, there’s outgoing and extrovert playing. But nonetheless it comes from our accustomed point of departure, of stillness and contemplation.”
The structure of one of the band’s concert sets is always about building dramatically on grooves drawn from gospel, spiritual and country songs, and there’s no less careful artistry about the way the present album has been sequenced. In the age of the shuffle i-pod, it might seem an anachronism to think in terms of building a structure into an album — a debate I had in Jazzwise last year with Brad Mehldau — but Tord shares his view of the importance of a planned sequence with his long-term producer, ECM’s Manfred Eicher.
“We typically record over two or three days, and then Manfred and I listen and share ideas of what will work, until we arrive at a musical journey we both like. We tend to have very similar tastes, but we can also surprise each other. Once the quartet has played much of the material in concert we already have ideas about putting things together, drawn from that live experience, but these ideas may not come out in the final order of things on the album, because we will be adding new pieces that we have not done in concert. As soon as Manfred and I have agreed on the first and second piece, then the stage is set. This time the placing of the first and second pieces was his surprise to me, but I instantly liked it, and these piece tossed the remaining order about a bit from my original plan, but it settled very quickly.”
In fact the album is a musical palindrome, with a trio track at the beginning and end, the contemplative piano solo “Silent Spaces”in the middle, and the more uptempo pieces as the second and penultimate segments. Tord likes this arrangement, and says it fits very much with how the quartet tackles a live event.
“In concert we always try to build spontaneously like the ritual of a church service. One piece leads to the next, but it also contains a response to the piece before. In a festival atmosphere that’s really difficult to achieve, because you tend to have only one short set, transient audiences can actually have too much music to handle, and there will inevitably be more volume in other people’s concerts as we work almost entirely acoustically. Our challenge is for our live audience to really join us on our musical journey.”
Mention of church ritual brings us to the piece called “Devotion”, which is a reworking of a segment of a mass which Tord wrote in 2013 for the choir at Nideros Cathedral in Trondheim, the world’s most northerly Gothic cathedral. In fact it is the third large scale devotional piece that Tord has so far composed, and he says he finds writing such pieces are essential to his work, and complementary to his career as an instrumentalist.
“Two years ago at Sofienberg I wrote a “Mass For The Dead” as part of the Oslo Church Music Festival which was basically the quartet playing between poetry readings by Cecilie Jørstad. Two years before that I had my first attempt, a requiem with choir and Cecilie, and then last year for the Nideros I wrote a mass for choir, piano and percussion. The piece on the album is based on the ‘Alleluia’ from that most recent mass.”
As the melody slowly unfurls on Jarle Vespestad’s tenor saxophone, it is possible to hear the syllabic pattern of “Alleluia” in the melody. And Tord says he is pleased by the way this comes over. “I’m not passionate about taking my choir pieces and making them into instrumental music, but this was a very natural transition onto the quartet repertoire. As it developed, it took on qualities of its own, so, for example, what was a brief choral passage in the original is drawn out and extended for the band, and I like the idea of connected threads between different areas of my music.”
This brings us back to the first time I heard Tord in concert, playing for the singer Silje Nergaard, and the way that they would set up multiple pulses in a piece, with a fairly quick melodic structure superimposed on a statelier underlying tempo. I hear a similar effect in the way in which he uses Jarle’s tenor almost as a vocalist.
“That layered way of playing music is a passion of mine,” agrees Tord. “Jarle’s humble approach allows him to grow in strength and presence. So much so that if we play a trio piece in a concert set, it’s as if he’s still there — the dialogue continues, even when he is off stage!”

[cloughie]

SA

I think that your comments probably underestimate Chopin who I would consider to have been a formidable improviser and an innovator who changed both rhythm and harmony in Classical music. I don't seem him just being "Romantic" but think he should also be considered as a "Revolutionary." It is a fascinating topic but Chopin has had a massive influence upon jazz piano (read the John Mehegan jazz theory books which explains how Bill Evans was taking his cue from Chopin's harmonic language.) This issue with Gustvsen is the attack which you mention. I don't think having a "Chopin influence" is a bad thing as long as it is refracted in a way that it also faithful to jazz. I have never heard McCoy Tyner talk about his favourite classical composers but I think that Chopin would be high up in his agenda and he sounds nothing like Tord.

I can't see Julian being ironic and think that he is being pretty honest in his exchanges with other artists. I would love to hear someone really put these college-educated jazz musicians under the cosh in an interview There was a similar interview back in May when Kevin Le Gendre was way too obliging with a percussionist who had worked with Bjork and suggested that there were other influences that were important to him beyond jazz. Fair enough, you might say, but surely it is reasonable enough on a jazz programme for someone to question a musician who performs in a jazz environment why jazz is not the principle influence ? The impression with so many younger musicians is that they seem to want to disown jazz. It would be more interesting if the "fringe" players were given a hard time and put them under the spotlight. No one bothered to ask Gustvsen why he had rejected the afro-American model of playing or asked his opinion of blues / swing / attack, etc, etc. I am sure that in the old days of "impressions" the interviews were far more searching. Ditto, Charles Fox.

I agree with what you say about Chopin. Until recently i thought o f him just to be a writer of pretty tunes. Then I stared to try to play them and realised there was much more to him and the complexity of his writing.

[Serial_Apologist]

Didn't hear Gustavsen from Glasgow, but I think he is an interesting musician and have followed his career since his first album (interview in my book "Handful of Keys") But I think you boards are giving him a hard time. Might be worth reading the interview I did with him for Jazzwise in the March 2014 issue:
Tord Gustavsen
Although the new album Extended Circle by Tord Gustavsen features his quartet, it kicks off with the kind of slow burn trio performance that harks back to his earlier albums Changing Places, The Ground and Being There. The difference however, between his original trio and his present one is bassist Mats Eilertsen. On the second chorus of the opening track “Right There”, Mats effortlessly takes the lead, and a variation on the slow, hymn-like melody sings from his bass with that mixture of clarity and warmth that is a hallmark of the great Scandinavian bassists, from NHØP through Arild Andersen to Palle Danielsson. And it’s a real contrast to the playing of Mats’ predecessor, Harald Johnsen, who was much more of an ensemble player and less of a foreground soloist.
“Yes, he’s very different,” agrees Tord. “Harald died of a heart attack in 2011, after a run of very bad health, which had prevented him from playing. It was absolutely tragic He was my age and a very beautiful person, and on top of that he was a great bass player. So after his death, for me just to go on and form another trio would not have felt right. I needed to have a different line-up for a while, and to find a different way to play my music. It’s only now that I am really able to return to the trio format again. There were three albums by the first group, and now this is the third by the quartet, so there’s a certain symmetry there. It wasn’t really planned to have two sets of three albums from the outset, but the way the band grew into a quartet was that particular players who had previously come to work with me on side projects seemed right for the band. Then when we toured, playing music from our second quartet album The Well, we kept adding compositions and some freer things that we played live, and it seemed a good idea to put these into a third quartet album.”
Tord is clearly a great fan of Mats Eilertsen’s playing, saying that he sees no limits to his melodic thinking, his inventiveness or technique, but that he is also a great supporting player, able to set up and maintain a groove. To those who come fresh to a Gustavsen concert, not having heard the band before, its fondness for slow tempi and a dynamic range that starts quiet and takes time to get only a bit louder can be a shock to the system. It’s certainly a big contrast to many other bands on the concert and festival circuit. “When we’re clicking,” says Tord, “there’s a great combination of humbleness and strength. But here on this album I think there is more obvious energy than on our previous discs. So on ‘Eg Veit I Himmerik Ei Borg’ — an old Norwegian hymnal melody that we play over an uptempo drum groove — or ‘Glow’ which comes near the end of the record, there’s outgoing and extrovert playing. But nonetheless it comes from our accustomed point of departure, of stillness and contemplation.”
The structure of one of the band’s concert sets is always about building dramatically on grooves drawn from gospel, spiritual and country songs, and there’s no less careful artistry about the way the present album has been sequenced. In the age of the shuffle i-pod, it might seem an anachronism to think in terms of building a structure into an album — a debate I had in Jazzwise last year with Brad Mehldau — but Tord shares his view of the importance of a planned sequence with his long-term producer, ECM’s Manfred Eicher.
“We typically record over two or three days, and then Manfred and I listen and share ideas of what will work, until we arrive at a musical journey we both like. We tend to have very similar tastes, but we can also surprise each other. Once the quartet has played much of the material in concert we already have ideas about putting things together, drawn from that live experience, but these ideas may not come out in the final order of things on the album, because we will be adding new pieces that we have not done in concert. As soon as Manfred and I have agreed on the first and second piece, then the stage is set. This time the placing of the first and second pieces was his surprise to me, but I instantly liked it, and these piece tossed the remaining order about a bit from my original plan, but it settled very quickly.”
In fact the album is a musical palindrome, with a trio track at the beginning and end, the contemplative piano solo “Silent Spaces”in the middle, and the more uptempo pieces as the second and penultimate segments. Tord likes this arrangement, and says it fits very much with how the quartet tackles a live event.
“In concert we always try to build spontaneously like the ritual of a church service. One piece leads to the next, but it also contains a response to the piece before. In a festival atmosphere that’s really difficult to achieve, because you tend to have only one short set, transient audiences can actually have too much music to handle, and there will inevitably be more volume in other people’s concerts as we work almost entirely acoustically. Our challenge is for our live audience to really join us on our musical journey.”
Mention of church ritual brings us to the piece called “Devotion”, which is a reworking of a segment of a mass which Tord wrote in 2013 for the choir at Nideros Cathedral in Trondheim, the world’s most northerly Gothic cathedral. In fact it is the third large scale devotional piece that Tord has so far composed, and he says he finds writing such pieces are essential to his work, and complementary to his career as an instrumentalist.
“Two years ago at Sofienberg I wrote a “Mass For The Dead” as part of the Oslo Church Music Festival which was basically the quartet playing between poetry readings by Cecilie Jørstad. Two years before that I had my first attempt, a requiem with choir and Cecilie, and then last year for the Nideros I wrote a mass for choir, piano and percussion. The piece on the album is based on the ‘Alleluia’ from that most recent mass.”
As the melody slowly unfurls on Jarle Vespestad’s tenor saxophone, it is possible to hear the syllabic pattern of “Alleluia” in the melody. And Tord says he is pleased by the way this comes over. “I’m not passionate about taking my choir pieces and making them into instrumental music, but this was a very natural transition onto the quartet repertoire. As it developed, it took on qualities of its own, so, for example, what was a brief choral passage in the original is drawn out and extended for the band, and I like the idea of connected threads between different areas of my music.”
This brings us back to the first time I heard Tord in concert, playing for the singer Silje Nergaard, and the way that they would set up multiple pulses in a piece, with a fairly quick melodic structure superimposed on a statelier underlying tempo. I hear a similar effect in the way in which he uses Jarle’s tenor almost as a vocalist.
“That layered way of playing music is a passion of mine,” agrees Tord. “Jarle’s humble approach allows him to grow in strength and presence. So much so that if we play a trio piece in a concert set, it’s as if he’s still there — the dialogue continues, even when he is off stage!”

I guess we'll have to disagree on Tord, but it is most generous of you to go to the trouble of re-printing this, Alyn - for which, thank you very much.

[Serial_Apologist]

I agree with what you say about Chopin. Until recently i thought o f him just to be a writer of pretty tunes. Then I stared to try to play them and realised there was much more to him and the complexity of his writing.

Some of it is pretty tunes, but with Chopin there are also chromatic harbingers that even go as far as Wagner in Tristan and Parsifal, looking forward to early Schoenberg, and of course ditto Scriabin and Szymanowsky. I could never get my mum, a great Chopin interpreter, to acknowledge Schoenberg as logically following on from where Chopin had started out remarkably early in his own output.

In Bill Evans's case the most obvious Chopin influence is to be found in "Peace Piece", almost a hommage, built up improvisationally around a repeat accompanying figure of two bars' length that comes out of one of the Nocturnes in a similar but more jazz phrased way - which one, I'd have to dig out.