Jaga Jazzist

The Norwegian super group looks back on a band history of four decades and comes to town with their new album "The Tower"! Second concert at 22:30.

To call Norway the promised land of unlimited musical possibilities is probably no exaggeration. The list of Norwegian acts that romp in the no man's land between free jazz, jazz rock, electronic music, ambient, progressive rock, noise, minimal music, punk, classical and various other genres reads endlessly. In the collective Jaga Jazzist from Trondheim, all these components culminate in a special way.

Formed in 1994 by keyboardist and saxophonist Lars Horntveth and his siblings, word of the crazy teenage horde spread quickly. Even their debut album "Jævla Jazzist Grete Stitz" was hailed as a sensation in Norway in 1996. Having grown up with Talk Talk and Depeche Mode as well as John Coltrane and The Soft Machine, these kids seemed to stop at nothing, blowing up every pigeonhole, always looking for new challenges. Many members of Lars, Martin and Line Hornthveth's band went on to become well-known soloists on the Norwegian and international jazz scene, including guitarist Stian Westerhus, trumpeter Mathias Eick and keyboardist Morten Qvenild. Renowned rock bands like National Bank or Motorpsycho are also closely associated with Jaga Jazzist. In the meantime, the octet has become the most important cadre of the Boreal jazz avant-garde alongside the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.

With their current live album "The Tower", Jaga Jazzist have not by chance docked with the Californian label Brainfeeder, which is run by the musical multitasker and Coltrane great-nephew Flying Lotus. Brainfeeder is currently the meeting place for the international sound research elite. While the electronic manipulation and complete digital alienation of big band sounds were still in the foreground on the previous album "Starfire", which was already six years ago, the wind instruments are recognizable as such again on "The Tower". It seems as if the legendary arranger and big band leader Gil Evans would return to earth and adapt his unmistakable feeling for sound nuances to the possibilities of today.

A Jaga Jazzist concert is always an adventure in that you can never predict with absolute certainty what will happen. All options are open, all stops can be pulled out. "The Tower" is a teaser with its variety of timbres and musical references, but it can also go in a completely different direction. However, one factor sets Jaga Jazzist apart from all other jazz bands on the planet. Lars Horntveth is only 41 years old, his siblings are only slightly older. For 26 years now, they have been part of the vanguard of the European big band elite with Jaga Jazzist. Jaga Jazzist is much more than just a jazz group. Every performance of theirs is a credible segment of an incomparable collective life journey sealed with music.