Oslo Jazz Festival bustles with local talent and international names

Norway’s reputation as a forward-thinking jazz nation is reflected in the curation of its Oslo Jazz Festival (Est. 1986) programme. It’s a quality that extends as well throughout the Capital’s arts and culture as a whole. The MUNCH Museum, which provided a new major stage venue for the festival, is an example of a historical arts establishment in tune with the current moment. Opened in 2021, the largest global collection of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch’s art is reimagined from a contemporary perspective in a spectacular futuristic 13-storey building located beside the Oslo waterfront.

It was on the sixth floor that Jason Moran played solo grand surrounded by Munch’s mega-size canvases, and then, on my arrival, again the next evening with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra (above) this time on its new Festsalen stage. The inspirational Norwegian conservatoire ensemble made up of both student and a few alumni play in that loose, unruly yet organised fashion inspired by Mingus and Sun Ra. With infectious high spirits, the evening was full of passion-fuelled improv and riveting arrangements of, among others, Moran’s ‘Spoken in Two’ and ‘Toni Morrison said Black is a Rainbow’ from his most recent solo ‘lockdown’ piano album release. The pianist kept a low-key presence allowing the ensemble’s charismatic, quipping bassist-artistic director Ole Morten Vågan to lead the way. But Moran’s eloquent piano lines were on show all the same especially on a superb stride-piano based take on an unrecorded piece by his former mentor Jaki Byard.

A similarly mixed student-professional adventurous collective ensemble Paal Nilssen Love’s XL Workshop Ensemble formed an immersive circle in the Sentralen main hall. Although the performance was guided by the legendary native drummer’s compositional and gestural cues, there was nothing dry and formal about it. The largely sectional free-jazz collective tangles, looping minimalism and far-out dance movements were both hypnotic and rousing. So, to one of the original masters of the integration of avant-composition and improv Anthony Braxton who played with his Diamond Wall Trio of Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and accordionist-vocalist Adam Matlock at MUNCH the following evening. There was both a fascination and frustration with the music’s inscrutability; the taut, undulating collective weave of sax-trumpet-accordion was entirely mesmerising nonetheless.

 On the alternative jazz-dance scene Y-Otis (above) and Leeds-born trumpeter-producer Emma-Jean Thackray both played late in Hvelvet, a smallish room within Sentralen. “I know you’re all chilling but let’s make this into a club!” said Thackray, deadpan, her electric quartet launching into her hit album Yellow’s fusion of cosmic funk-jazz and one-love vocal mantras. A relentless international touring schedule has made for deep, in-the-pocket-grooves. But on the previous night in the same space, the intriguingly twisted funky metrics of jazz-groove beatmakers Y-Otis, featuring bassist/programmer Petter Eldh and London-based LOOP collective keyboardist Dan Nichols, made Thackray’s band sound a bit conventional.

Likewise, the punchy Ayler-inspired Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, invigorated a late-night audience with her weaves and bobs in synch with grungy North Trio featuring bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. At Nasjonal jazz scene Victoria, the hippest jazz club in central Oslo, the upcoming young French-Martinque vocalist/double bassist Sélène Saint-Aimé dug deep into her Afro-Caribbean heritage, with her cool grooving percussive ensemble with echoes of Brigitte Fontaine on her spoken word pieces. Previewing her upcoming album on UK’s Edition label, Amsterdam-based drummer Sun Mi Hong Quintet featuring Debussy-ish pianist Chaerin Im and Joe Lovano-inspired saxophonist Nicolo Ricci making impressive contributions; the music was engaging with its serenity and contrasting free-jazzy ebb and flow about it.

Sonorous saxophonist/flautist Elisabeth Lid Trøen (above) and her New Paintings of Jazz quartet’s (that included esteemed veteran pianist Dag Arnesen) Vossa Jazz commission was a genteel affair influenced by early 1960s Trane and compatriot Marius Neset’s staccato sax athleticism. Swedish ECM legend Bobo Stenson had food poisoning so his solo concert had to be called off, though the disappointment didn’t last long as later a special event Hamid Drake: in the spirit of Alice Coltrane took place on the same stage. The homage to Turiyasangitananda felt like the real thing: it was ‘spiritual’ jazz fuelled by an authentic zeal rather than a vaguely meditative vibe, the vigorous encore of ‘Journey in Satchidananda’ being a case in point. Drake’s dedication to an artist who “put a spark inside of me” spoke for his band too. French-Guadaleopan Spoken word artist Ndoho Ange’s mesmerising dance movements, Jan Bang’s haunting ‘live’ sampled backdrops, and the charismatic French saxophonist/R&B vocalist Thomas de Pourquery, whose hilarious impromptu singing about technical issues he experienced at the start of the set anticipated it all becoming a little too earnest. A compelling climax then to a city festival that continues to see jazz as a vital part of arts and culture as opposed to mere entertainment. Selwyn Harris