Posts Tagged ‘Stian Westerhus’

Nils Petter Molvaer at The Hare & Hounds, Friday 26th Feb / TG Collective at The Polish Club, Saturday 27th Feb
Photographs courtesy of Russ Escritt

It was wonderful and something of a relief that all the set up for Nils Petter Molvaer’s show at the Hare & Hounds last Friday (26th February) went smoothly; it is a very complicated show with a very precise tech and visual spec and thanks to house technical manager Jon Nash and his assistant plus the cooperation of the musicians it all got set up and the show started more or less on time.

I really enjoyed the music.  Drummer Audun Kleive and guitarist Stian Westerhus are brilliant musicians who set up a really interesting framework for Nils Petter Molvaer’s improvisations, building up the tension and occasionally taking the lead in those passages where each member of the trio were really firing.  Nils Petter’s own sound on both trumpet and effects is very beautiful and he mostly concentrates on developing quite long passages where the ambient sound of either the synthesised trumpet or the effects dominate.  Overall this was attractive music with some episodes of really full on intensity.  There were, however, also some down periods when the focus on creating  soundscapes seemed to reduce the level of intensity.  But overall this was a successful gig.

One or two people have commented that the review of the trio’s London concert in The Guardian was too critical; you can read the review here.  Either the London concert was a nervous first concert, or the reviewer missed the point on this occasion.  Peter Bacon has also written a review on his Jazz Breakfast site; you can read it here.

Last night (Saturday 27th February) TG Collective played a warm, very musical and thoroughly enjoyable concert at the Polish Club reminding us all what a charming venue the Polish Club is.  It has a attractive and in a positive way a slightly bizarre feel to it, all added to on this occasion by the presence of its Valentine’s Day and Christmas decorations.  TG Collective with its healthy mix of gypsy jazz, flamenco and more contemporary material, and great musicianship and dancing from Ana Garcia really enthused a good large audience.

Owing to the Nils Petter Molvaer gig on Friday night, I could only catch half an hour of Nick Smart’s Quintet with American saxophonist John Gunther at Rush Hour Blues.  The music struck me as excellent accessible jazz with pianist Malcolm Edmonstone outstanding.

But the gig of the week has to be Trio VD at Jazz Club at The Rainbow Wednesday night (February 24th).  Peter Bacon’s review on his Jazz Breakfast blogsite captures the excitement of the gig – you can read it here. Trio VD are undoubtedly one of the most creative groups on today’s scene and I look forward to seeing how they develop.  The music is highly structured, nonetheless leaving space for improvisation, and it draws quite extensively on elements of contemporary rock music.  It is thus music that should have an appeal to fans who don’t normally listen to jazz.

Tony

Birmingham Jazz is running something of a Norwegian season these days; Tord Gustavsen was at the CBSO Centre in autumn 2009, Nils Petter Molvaer brings the music of his latest album Hamada to the Hare & Hounds on Feb 26th and Humcrush, the duo of drummer Thomas Stronen and keyboard player Stale Storlokken of Supersilent will also be at the Hare & Hounds on 14th April (this one is a co-promotion with Caspule).  The Norwegian scene has  been for some time  arguably the most interesting scene in Europe and we at Birmingham Jazz are very keen to be able to present the best of Norway in Birmingham  Indeed, we have entered into partnership with the Norwegian Embassy in order to be able to do this.

Nile Petter Molvaer has produced some excellent albums for the ECM and Universal labels in recent years, notably Khmer, Solid Ether and np3, but he now seems to be recording for his own label Sula, named after his birthplace.  Nils’ music always brings together jazz, Scandinavian folk music and contemporary dance rhythms, hip hop, electronica and blends them into an intense but beautiful whole.  The latest album Hamada shows the same mix, but there are more of the uptempo numbers and this bodes well for the live show at the Hare & Hounds.  Nils is touring with drummer Audun Kleive and guitarist Stian Westerhus, the latter known for his high energy contributions to the British band Fraud when they played at Cheltenham and toured UK a couple of years ago.  Both these players will undoubtedly take the music further in the direction of a strong rhythmic pulse and powerful solos.

All this should work really well in the excellent informal surroundings of the Hare & Hounds.

Tickets are £10 ( £8 concessions) and available on the door on the night or at www.theticketsellers.co.uk or 0844 870 0000 until 3pm today.

For further details see Nils Petter Molvaer’s website.

Tony

Supported by:

We have another run of great gigs coming up in the next week, actually eight days!

We start on Wednesday 24th February at The Rainbow on Digbeth with Trio VD led by guitarist Chris Sharkey. For me this is the best of the many young UK bands with a full on approach incorporating a rock influence.  Music begins at 9pm.

There are two gigs on Friday: the regular Rush Hour Blues session presents an American saxophonist John Gunther with a band led by UK trumpeter Nick Smart. The session runs from 5.30 to 7pm.

That leaves just about enough to grab something to eat before heading down to the Hare & Hounds Pub on Kings Heath High Street to hear the ambient music of Nils Petter Molvaer. Nils is a trumpeter from Norway and his trio has two other great Norwegian players: Stian Westerhus on guitar and Audun Kleive on drums.  Music begins at 8.30.

Saturday sees the great jazz flamenco group TG Collective at the Polish Club in Bordesley Street at 8pm.

Finally on Tuesday 2nd March Buffalo Collision play the CBSO Centre at 8pm.  The band features Tim Berne on alto sax with two of The Bad Plus piano trio, Ethan Iverson on piano and Dave King on drums, plus Hank Roberts on cello.

Tony