Saxophonist Trygve Seim shines at Oslo Jazz Fest

A tour of the ‘live’ room and control booth in the company of master engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug is a spellbinding experience for the deep sense of history that issues from the panelled walls and high ceiling, a space in which a large chunk of the history of ECM records was carved by way of cared for sound and careful silence.   

Fittingly, some artists who have been flag bearers past and present of the independent label with the major muscle are the heavyweight headliners of this year’s festival: Jan Garbarek, Charles Lloyd, Tord Gustavsen and Trygve Seim. It is the latter on that list, Norwegian saxophonist and composer Seim, who makes a strong case for the continued ability of the ECM artist to throw a mighty curve ball. His performance at the Nasjonal Jazzscene Victoria, a large balconied venue squeezed between the terraced bars and cafes on the main drag of Karl Johans Gate, is a tour de force. Launching Rumi Songs, which, as the title suggests, is an adaptation of texts by the iconic 13th century Persian poet, Seim leads a superb quartet in which vocalist Tora Augestad, accordionist Frode Haltli and above all cellist Svante Henryson create both the deep introspection and exuberant joy of the bard’s series of timelessly profound musings on human nature.

At times a kind of folk opera with no concession to cheap pathos, the music artfully lulls the audience with the precisely-manipulated hush of the instruments that only serve to highlight the exaltation of the more upbeat explosions, above all a Henryson solo that is arresting for its bulky low register power and volley of swirling high-end phrases.

If unusually configured ensembles is a loose theme for the festival then tuba player Daniel Herskedal also makes his mark. Deploying piano, string quartet and the customised percussion station of Helge Andreas Norbakken, Herskedal is on imperious form, drawing great nuance from the instrument far beyond its standard bass role. The Middle Eastern flavours in the music are both strident and subtle, but it is the precision with which scored and improvised elements coalesce that impresses.

That is intermittently the case with Ellen Andrea Wang’s Songs From Land project at Sentralen. The young bassist-composer-vocalist’s interpretation of music from her hometown of Sondre Land is not unappealing but lacks the necessary stylistic depth to really engage over a full set. Wang is heard elsewhere with the band Pixel where she is slightly Esperanza-ish in an acoustic quartet that also needs more consistent material. But she positively rocks as part of the Oslo Jazz Festival Orchestra, which is actually an inter-generational quintet in which pianist Jon Balke, the aforementioned Seim, trumpeter Mathias Eick and drummer Gard Nilssen combine to great effect in a set that strikes a fine balance between rich melodies and flighty rhythms in which Nilssen gets funky while avoiding any funk drummer clichés.

Not so Susanna, who compromises a strong voice with bland material that leans uncomfortably close to 1980s power ballad nostalgia. But another enjoyable meeting of players junior and senior comes in the shape of young tenor saxophonist Hanna Paulsberg’s quintet featuring the veteran reedsman Knut Riisnaes. At times slightly Pharoah Sanders-ish, the material swings sweet and sharp to a highly responsive crowd.  

By far the most original gig of the festival is the duet of American guitarist Henry Kaiser and Norwegian double-bass meister Arild Andersen. Performing to superb footage that Kaiser, a skilled scuba diva and videographer as well as musician, shot in the Antarctic, the two players evoke in sound the shock and wonder of what is on screen, from the sight of vast frozen vistas to the innocence of a seal pup taking its first dip in the water under the watchful gaze of its mother.

Thrillingly, the noise made by the animals has a stunning electronic character that is reinforced by the array of finely wrought slurs and smears made by Kaiser while the ever attentive Andersen suffuses the whole room with a glowing tone that he also proceeds to manipulate on occasion, throwing wiry loops and distortions into the mix so as to push the music into more layered, overtly orchestral territory. Conversational and intimate, but also expansive and energetic, the performance, which also features a brilliant commentary from Kaiser on the nature of his work, is a great advertisement for jazz as a universal artform that can draw inspiration from parts of planet earth that are largely forbidden to man, yet full of sounds to stimulate any open ear.    

–      Kevin Le Gendre
–      Photos by Trygve Seim (Carl Størmer); Charles Lloyd (Toril Bakke); Tord Gustavsen (Egil Austrheim); Pixel and Hanna Paulsberg (Matija Puzar)