Home Norway Fine arts/music Oslo Jazz Festival 2019 presents Jazz in Church
Oslo Jazz Festival 2019 presents Jazz in Church
The neo-Romanesque Grønland Church in Oslo from 1861 will host three acoustic jazz concerts during the Oslo Jazz Festival 2019. Bedehus & Hawaii featuring Geir Sundstøl, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra with Alf Hulbøkmo and Nils Petter Molvært as well as Nordic Voices are three acclaimed Norwegian groups which will perform in the church in August.
Oslo Jazz Festival is one of Norway's many jazz festivals and has been a key part of the capital's music calendar since 1986. In later years, the festival has embraced genres beyond jazz like gospel, blues and electronica.
The neo-Romanesque Grønland Church in Oslo from 1861
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Bedehus & Hawaii featuring Geir Sundstøl
Sildajazz is one of the other acclaimed jazz festivals in Norway and in 2017, when guitarist and composer Trond Kallevåg Hansen received the Statoil Sildajazz Prize, he was commissioned to compose a work for next year's festival. The result was a composistion named "Bedehus & Hawaii" (translated into English "Little Bethel & Hawaii".
Geir Sundstøl supplies his magic touch on "Bedheus and Hawaii"
The work refers to all the summers Hansen spent at his grandparents' place on Bømlo. He uses this and other elements from his childhood and adolescence as an inspiration for his compositions.
What makes 'Bedehus and Hawaii' so distinctive is probably the particular blend of instruments and instrumentalists
What makes 'Bedehus and Hawaii' so distinctive is probably the particular blend of instruments and instrumentalists. Hansen has chosen to use his familiar trio partners, Alexander Hoholm on double bass, and Ivar Myhrset Asheim on drums and percussion, alongside the virtuoso violinist Adrian Løseth Waade. Adding Geir Sundstøl supplies the magic touch.
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Alf Gulbækmo was commissioned by Sparebank 1 last year to compose "Skumringsbarda"
Trondheim Jazz Orchestra w/ Alf Hulbækmo
The work "Skumringsbarda" composed by Alf Gulbækmo was commissioned by Sparebank 1 last year and will have its premier performance by Trondheim Jazz Orchestra in Molde Cathedral at the Molde International Jazz Festival 2019, just a month ahead of the concert in Grønland Church in Oslo.
Skumringsbarda is a fantasy-world, a sort of play with good and evil forces. With weirdoes, scary people and smart ones many things can happen, and you find many strange things. Alf discovered this tempting as a teacher, spending several recesses with pupils in the woods behind the school.
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Nils Petter Molvær & Nordic Voices
Jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær is an internationally acclaimed group performing meditative music from the Middle Ages to modern times a capella, only accompanied by the trumpet of Molvær. The collaboration started in 2013.
Jazz trumpeter, composer and producer Nils Petter Molvær is considered a pioneer in combining different genres within jazz and electronic music. Molvær made his album debut in 1983 with the legendary Norwegian band Masqualero. Since then he has collaborated with several renowned musicians, like Marilyn Mazur and Ketil Bjørnstad who are also playing at this year's Oslo Jazzfestival, and has created music for numerous tv series, films, documentaries and plays as well as ballet music for The Norwegian Opera & Ballett.
You can buy tickets to all three concerts here.
Feature image (on top): Trondheim Jazz Orchestra
Oslo Jazz Festival 2019 presents Jazz in Church, written by Tor Kjolberg
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