Discovering Gustavsen

Last week something arrived in the mail that I've been waiting for not so patiently. What finally came was tickets for the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in Norway, and particularly tickets to a concert by the Tord Gustavsen Ensemble. I have mentioned Tord Gustavsen before in this blog, and catching a concert of his while in Europe was something that was high on my "hope to do" list. Before I write anything else I want to say how helpful the folks, particularly Kine, at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival office have been. It is through their efforts that we finally got our tickets (we were having trouble with the Norwegian version of Ticketmaster not accepting our credit card payment). However, all that's behind us, and carefully stored with all our Europe trip material are two tickets to the Tord Gustavsen concert on July 1st.

I would like to tell you the story of how I first came to encounter to music of Tord Gustavsen. It begins one day after worship when Phyllis Brock, one of our parishioners, gave me a copy of a CD that she thought I'd enjoy. She told me that her cousin in Norway had sent her this disc and she thought I would like it because it was kind of jazzy. Phyllis told me that her cousin's daughter sang on this recording, and it was a collection of old Norwegian hymns. I accepted the CD graciously but to be truthful I wasn't expecting much, perhaps because when in the past I've been given recordings featuring other people's relatives the music hasn't always been great. But so I could be fair, and so I could tell the kind and lovely Phyllis that I had listened to the disc I put it in my van's CD player on the way home from church. That short drive was all it took for me to get hooked. The CD was great! At home I put it on the stereo and listened to it for the rest of the day. I remember thinking shortly into listening "This sounds somewhat like an ECM recording". I wanted to read all the liner notes, and to have my own personal copy so I began to search the internet. Fortunately I came across a CD import store in the U.S. that had some copies of this disc which I ordered right away.

The CD of which I am writing is called "Dype Stille Sterke Milde" (Norwegian for "Deep Calm Strong Softly") and it features the SKRUK choir with the Nymark Collective providing accompaniment. The arrangements have a simplicity, and yet a depth about them. I discovered after I got my own copy and was able to read through all the liner notes, that a person by the name of Tord Gustavsen did all the arrangements and played piano in the Nymark Collective. I was so intrigued by these arrangements, and the quietly profound music which radiated from this recording that I decided to find out more about Tord Gustavsen. So I did an internet search, and the first page that came up was an ECM page about the Tord Gustavsen Trio. No wonder this recording sounded like an ECM recording, it was arranged by an ECM artist! Without hesitating I ordered a couple of the ECM CDs by the Tord Gustavsen Trio.

A couple weeks later they arrived and since that time they have never been far from my CD player. Eventually I added to my collection all three ECM recordings plus some other recordings that feature Tord Gustavsen. For example, one day I was searching YouTube for anything with Tord Gustavsen when I came across a clip of a live concert featuring the Norwegian jazz singer Silje Nergaard. She was singing an arrangement of Stings "If You Love Somebody" and the Tord Gustavsen Trio was backing her up. If was a very unusual, yet captivating performance, and Tord's Rhodes solo was simply awesome. You can watch it for yourself here (the keyboard solo really starts to cook at 3 minutes 30 seconds): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDC6DQDtCqI

So I now have some Silje Nergaard CDs, a Nymark Collective CD, and all three ECM CDs that feature Tord Gustavsen. I have become, as they say, a devoted fan. Ironically I discovered Tord Gustavsen a little bit too late to catch his only (to my knowledge) appearance in Canada. He was in Vancouver last year, but when I found out about that concert it was only a week away from taking place and it was impossible for me to make arrangements to attend. So rather than kick myself too hard for missing that Canadian appearance I made it a priority to catch a Tord Gustavsen concert when in Europe. When I began searching the internet for information on future Tord Gustavsen concerts I came across Tord's personal website which included an email address. I took a chance and sent an email asking about upcoming concerts. I didn't expect a reply really, I have sent a number of emails to recording artists over the years and seldom hear anything back from them - which I quite understand, I can't imagine trying to keep up with the volume of correspondence some of these people must get.

Imagine my delight when Tord Gustavsen did reply. He told me he wasn't going to be playing much this coming summer because he was going to be on a paternity leave of sorts (he and his wife were expecting their first child in the early spring). Fortunately there was one concert that was happening during our time in Europe, a performance with his new ensemble at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival. Once I found out about that I was constantly checking the Kongsberg Jazz Festival website looking for an announcement confirming Tord Gustavsen's concert. This happened in March, and as soon as I could I set about trying to purchase tickets (a process which ended up taking much longer than it should have, but that's another story). Now I can't wait until July 1st when Beth and I will be sitting in the Kongsberg Kino (Cinema) watching and listening to Tord Gustavsen and his ensemble create some (what is sure to be) wonderful music.

One more part to this story - I wondered if the choir arrangements from the "Dype Stille Sterke Milde" CD were available. So I asked Tord Gustavsen about this in an email, and while they are not available commercially he has graciously sent me a few to try with my choir here. On Sunday May 24th, the last Sunday we're in Canada before our trip, I will be directing the Christ Lutheran Chamber Choir in a performance of the Tord Gustavsen arrangement of "Deep and Precious" (the English title). I picked this Sunday because we are also doing "Hosanna - a Jazz Setting for Holy Communion" that morning, thus I will have the right musicians there for accompanying the choir arrangement. If you are in the area you might want to come and listen - it will be at our 11 AM service. If you are intrigued by this choir recording that first got me hooked on the music of Tord Gustavsen you can get it through the internet here: http://www.cdroots.com/kkv-312.html

I would also encourage you to check out the Tord Gustavsen Trio ECM recordings (and yes, these were all recorded at the famous Rainbow Studio in Oslo of which I wrote about in an earlier posting). Take a moment to visit the Tord Gustavsen website where you can hear samples of his music and discover more about him for yourself: http://www.tordgustavsen.com/ And before I go there is one more thing I need to say: Thanks Phyllis!