Nov 19, 2024 12:57 PM
In Memoriam: Roy Haynes, 1925–2024
Powerhouse jazz drummer and bandleader Roy Haynes died Tuesday in Nassau County, New York. He was 99. One of the few…
“The hymns are at the core of my musical self,” says pianist Tord Gustavsen. “They are my ‘standards’ as a European ‘jazz’ musician.”
(Photo: Sam Harfouche)ECM Records has long enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with Norwegian jazz. The tradition dates back to its early years in the 1970s, when ECM put saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Arild Andersen, guitarist Terje Rypdal and others on the international jazz map. Decades later, new waves of notable Norwegians emerged through the ECM portal, a list including Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Matthias Eick and pianist Tord Gustavsen, whose 21-year relationship with the label has yielded uncommonly fruitful and quantifiably successful results.
A dogmatically melodic and meditative pianist, Gustavsen has earned a vast and devoted following, both with traditional jazz audiences and listeners from the ambient and new age circles. Gustavsen’s quest continues with the release of Seeing, number 10 in a discography dating back to 2003’s prominent Changing Places album and featuring Gustavsen’s sensitive trio, with bassist Steiner Raknes and longtime drummer Jarle Vespestad. The latest album serves as a glowing example of his cohesive brand of jazz steeped in introspective Nordic atmosphere.
In a recent interview, Gustavsen touched on the underlying forces of his musical mission: “I have always felt that there is a huge paradox of forces at play in me between expressivity and elegance, both as a player and as a person — between raw emotion and cultivated form. Many seem to only notice the restraint, the silence and the spaciousness, but to me, the other side of coin is just as essential in bringing about the totalities, and in forming the piano touch.
“And the subtleties of interplay, in textures, rhythmic nuances, melodic ideas and counterpoint that we develop in the trio are so precious. I am deeply grateful to Steinar and Jarle for being on this journey with me.”
Gustavsen has both benefited from, and paled by comparisons to, legendary pianist Keith Jarrett, ECM’s flagship artist for decades. Gustavsen style taps a similar vein to the more lyricism-channeling aspect of Jarrett’s musical voice, but doesn’t approach Jarrett’s vast virtuosity — nor does the Norwegian claim to have such aspirations.
Seeing, for instance, is partly noticeable for the dearth of actual soloing/improvisational space, leaning instead into a chamber-esque character of structures subject to expansive breathing and stretching. As the pianist asserts, in his view, “Every note should ideally be deeply meaningful, and every groove in deep contact with the center of the universe. The music should feel essential and deeply authentic. A ‘head’ is never played as an excuse for improvisation: melodies are cherished and interpreted with the same seriousness as a pop band would.
“At the same time, every improvisation should sound like the most meaningful utterance here and now — with structure, sound textures, melodic qualities of the highest order. It’s, of course, not possible to always play the best concert of one’s life, and to never play a meaningless note. But this focus, this urge for fullness, authenticity, presence and unsweetened beauty is my guide, and the guide of the trio.
“Of course, the focus on melody and clarity may attract listeners not accustomed to the jazz conventions more than other idioms, but that’s never an aim in itself for us. If so, it would not have worked.”
One easy measure of the pianist’s public reach comes algorithmically, in this digital age. For example: his piece “Curves,” from 2018’s The Other Places, boasts over 17 million listens on Spotify, a fairly astronomical figure by the standards of jazz marketing math. “I just realized this myself a while ago,” he says, “and was delighted and lightly surprised. I don’t how much of it comes from the specific qualities of this tune, as opposed to our other material, and how much comes from the fact that things tend to have snowball effects on digital platforms.
“Not to be overly modest about the qualities of the track. I do think it’s a really good composition of mine, and well played, with a soothing surface and still some subtle mystique and mildly enigmatic intricacies in form and harmony. But I think several of our other tunes could have had the same potential.”
Hymn-like elements have long been a critical aspect of Gustavsen’s musical output, linked to his upbringing, steeped in church music in the small town of Hurdal, not far from Oslo, where he was born in 1970. The liturgical link is especially notable on Seeing, which includes a traditional Norwegian church hymn (“Jesus, gjør meg stille”), variations on chorales by J.S. Bach and the hoary English hymn “Nearer My God To Thee,” along with five temperamentally compatible original pieces.
Gustavsen explains, “The hymns are at the core of my musical self. They are my ‘standards’ as a European ‘jazz’ musician. They lie deeper than the American songbook for me — although I have also immersed myself in that tradition.” He points to three sources of hymn-based musical repertoire he draws on, directly or inspirationally: folk-based Norwegian church music, European chorales and spirituals and gospel music from the rich black church tradition in America.
Diving deeper into the subject, he comments that “the hymns are such a rich heritage, musically and spiritually. One can engage with them in so many ways: dwell in them, meditate on them, struggle with them, turn away from them, open up to them anew, converse creatively with them — or all of the above, which has been the case for me.
“I am deeply grateful for my spiritual heritage, but also for the openness that has allowed me to study other religions and spiritual traditions — to play with Sufi musicians and be open to their poetry, read Buddhist scripture and basically be blessed with moving into an Integral Christianity that embraces everything, yet still feels rooted, and transcends the confusion of post-modern nihilistic relativism.”
Closing out Seeing is the tune “Seattle Song,” so named because of its spontaneous birth during a sound check in that city. The muse strikes in sometimes unexpected times and places. “I cherish these moments,” Gustavsen says, “and try to honor them with making a simple phone recording and going back to it to see if there was perhaps something there worth going further with.
“It’s precious to play with musicians that every night give me fresh perspectives, real presence, and inspiring responses to my ideas — both during sound check and in concert.”
Looking toward future endeavors, Gustavsen plans to explore with his trio and other ensemble settings and delve into side projects alongside former collaborators. The list includes vocalists Simin Tander and Mahsa Vahdat, choirs, saxophonists Trygve Seim and Tore Brunborg and trumpeter Arve Henriksen, partnerships he says “enrich the totality in substantial ways.”
The component parts of his artistic whole add up to a creative continuum, more about the journey than specific destinations or “arrival” points. “Every day involves feelings of both arrival and departure,” he says. “But I am definitely not at a place of summing up or concluding. What we do these days, includes traces of all phases of the band’s life and all the twists and turns in my own development. But it’s just as much a new point of departure, with the interplay developing all the time, new compositions being added.” DB
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