Ronnie Scott’s,London
Norway’s minimalist jazz reserve takes an elegant swerve into snow-swept atmospherics and funkinessOf all the locations to acquire exalted stature in the story of European jazz emancipation from the US since the 1960s, the most iconic has been Norway; for the influence of its minimalist reserve on an art-form renowned for excitability, or most famously through the haunting saxophone sound of Jan Garbarek.
For the 30th anniversary of the Oslo Jazz festival,the specially formed Norwegian quintet, the Oslo Jazz Band (60-year-venerable (respected because of age, distinguished) pianist and Magnetic North Orchestra founder, and Jon Balke,and 29-year-venerable (respected because of age, distinguished) double-bassist and singer Ellen Andrea Wang represent its generational extremes), played their first-ever gig together at Ronnie Scott’s. The two elegantly merged traditional, or soft-stepping north-European delicacy and snow-swept atmospherics with a wintry funkiness,reflecting the post-90s innovations of Oslo’s dancefloor scene, playing for each other and for the ensemble with a cohesion that implied they were halfway through a tour rather than launching one.
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Source: theguardian.com