Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen has been at the forefront of Scandinavian jazz for more than a decade.
He creates reflective, evocative music blending sounds from his Norwegian heritage with hints of cool jazz, blues and gospel themes. Gustavsen’s quartet with Tore Brunborg on saxophones, Sigurd Hole on acoustic bass, and long-term associate Jarle Vespestad on drums, works to serve the dynamic emotional intensity of Tord’s compositions with elegance and meditative measure.
You're appearing at the Brisbane International Jazz Festival in June as one of the main highlights. Will this be the first time that you've played in Brisbane?
Yes, it will be my first time. I’ve been to Australia three times before, but never in Brisbane; really looking forward to it.
Are there any other musicians or groups that you're planning on seeing yourself at the Brisbane Intl Jazz Fest?
Would have loved to, but we’re arriving more or less directly to soundcheck, and leaving the day after for Wellington, so I doubt that there will time much time for it.
What other countries have you toured in the past year or two and what have been some of the highlights?
Lots of great venues.. concert halls in São Paulo and Rio this year being among the really nice ones. And Saint Peter’s Church on Manhattan – such an oasis of contemplative peace and inspiration in the middle of the New York buzz and stress. Also, the SF Jazz concert hall in San Francisco was a very impressive and inspiring room. And last year’s UK tour putting us in 10 fabulous venues around the country – with such attentive audiences everywhere. Have to stop here – could have mentioned so many more places.
The show that you'll be playing at the Brisbane International Jazz Festival – is it completely rehearsed, or will there be a lot of improvisation?
A lot of improvisation, for sure. But our music is about striking the liberating balance between melodic concentration and textural freedom. It is not our goal to do everything differently than the night before. In our passion for melodic clarity and stripped-down beauty, we may sometimes be more like a pop band than a jazz band, but the emphasis on artistic honesty and the imperative of the music feeling as true as possible and seriously breathing here and now, is just as central to us as it is to any ‘free-jazz’ band. You could say that the fusion of musical freedom and lyrical discipline is a lot of what defines this band.
Before studying music, you studied psychology. Do you think there is a link between the two fields of study? Do they complement one another?
For me, they really do. And I did a master’s degree in musicology with a thesis on the psychology of improvisation, where I really got to combine the two areas of passion – exploring the paradoxes of music-making theoretically but with the embodied experience from my own musicianship as a guiding force and constant test of relevance.
Are you currently working in the field of psychology, or is music your full-time work?
Music is definitely my full-time work – touring, composing, recording, administrating it all… but I do have this little philosopher/ psychologist/ theologian inside of me; guiding, commenting, and inspiring what I do, and possibly waiting to be let out in the open to do some more theoretical writing one day.
Tord Gustavsen QuartetYou've previously played with The Tord Gustavsen Trio, The Tord Gustavsen Ensemble and now the Tord Gustavsen Quartet. Has your sound evolved with each group that you've lead, and does it continue to evolve now?
The groups and formations are natural prolongations of each other. My sound and my approach is in one perspective the same – I deal with stripped-down lyrical beauty and a strong, melodic emphasis in open landscapes and sensual, musical textures, as I always have done. But my orientation has certainly developed and grown over the years – and hopefully also my ability to integrate more influences without compromising the unity and focus of it all. The tunes have less of a standard-jazz structure now, more Scandinavian folk traditions have been integrated into it, and we do more open, spacious, free playing during the concerts these days. Also, the change of bass players has changed the sound – it is a deeply integrated band, with everyone’s sound being defined by the totality in which it operates. Harald Johnsen, the bass player in the trio, tragically passed away a few years ago. It has not felt right to play in the ‘classical’ piano trio line-up too much after that, and hence the inclusion of bass player Mats Eilertsen and saxophonist Tore Brunborg in the ensemble was a good move in every way. Now, after six years [we’re getting old], Mats has left the band to do more solo work, and we are starting a new journey with Sigurd Hole on bass in the quartet, and another formation without bass – and I really love this parallel journey.
The Tord Gustavsen Quartet play the Queensland Multicultural Centre – as part of the Brisbane International Jazz Festival - 5 June.
