Having released his 10th album “Seeing” on ECM this year, Tord Gustavsen is a man who needs little introduction. A hugely celebrated pianist in his native Norway, he proved equally popular on the other side of the North Sea for the opening night of the 2024 EFG London Jazz Festival – playing to a sold out crowd at Cadogan Hall, with his trio featuring Steinar Raknes (double bass) and Jarle Vespestad (drums).
A concert of two halves, the trio was supported by fellow Norwegian Nils Okland with a set of Nordic folk music on the violin and hardanger fiddle: a series of light melodies over a steady heartbeat drummed by his heels. This was interspersed by Okland – equally soft spoken himself – telling the audience about Norwegian folk music, the country’s national instrument (the hardanger) and its variety of possible tunings. Okland ended his set with a version of Solveig’s Song from Grieg’s Peer Gynt, played on the very instrument that was a major inspiration for the composer.
A captivating introduction for some, perhaps not for others: in the interval, a group of men behind me lamented the 45 minutes of their life they wouldn’t get back. Personally I thought this judgement so expressed was a bit obtuse and unfair, but I can understand that a set of Norwegian folk music on solo fiddle was not what many people had come here for.
It was no surprise then to see Tord Gustavsen met with a reception much more unanimously enthusiastic (though it would be false to say that all traces of Nordic folk had left with Okland). The trio’s set was split into three distinguishable movements, which themselves consisted of tracks from the latest album as well as older favourites such as Graceful Touch from 2003’s “Changing Places”. These movements were woven together seamlessly, with solos from Vespestad, at times playing with paper towel rolls, and Raknes, whose bowed harmonics were steely and haunting.
Gustavsen himself brought the light, lyrical touch that characterises his ECM albums, as well as a more boisterous energy to juxtapose this. Between performances, deadpan humour and almost-existentialist musings (with mentions of meditation, mantras, death and resurrection) felt appropriate for a venue which had formerly been a church.
To round things off, the trio was joined by Nils Okland, for a beautiful encore that tied the jazz and Nordic folk elements together very nicely; no audible complaints from behind this time.
