NattJazz festival in Bergen, Norway

Bergen, view from our hotel room
(c)Heiko Purnhagen, 2006

NattJazz festival is happening now in Bergen (24th Mai until 3rd June). I am not quite sure since how many years NattJazz has been running, but i have been visiting this festival in 2004, 2005 and the edition of 2006 as well. The venue, USF Verftet, has 4 rooms of different sizes which were built in an old sardine factory. One room with a bar and tables, two rooms with chaired steps and one larger room for standing audience. There is also a restaurant with a terrace, where you have good chances to eat next to your favourite artists :-)

Friday was time to discover two young new bands: Peloton (Norway, Denmark, Sweden) and Cloudberry (Norway). Both played really nice concerts, Cloudberry was a bit more challenging though, the four musicians of the band (all very young, with a vocalist) really listening to each other and bringing their own voice to the project. That sounded rather promising!


Jan Bang, and in the back: DJ Strangefruit
(c)Heiko Purnhagen, 2006

Later in the evening, we also saw Nils Petter Molvaer and his band, but except three interesting tracks when vocalist Sidsel Endresen joined the band, the gig had nothing extraordinary or new. I had wished to hear more from guitarist Eivind Aarset, but unfortunately he didn’t step forward at any point.


Joe McPhee, Johannes Bauer, Mats Gustafsson
(c)Heiko Purnhagen, 2006

Saturday was the big day with Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet. Great to see them again just one week after Hasselt in Belgium!

The line-up was the same as Hasselt (see posting below). They even were standing in the same order on stage.... but not for long!

The reed/brass section guys were shuffling on stage, which from the audience, looked very nice! I thought it was a really great idea and gave another dynamic twist to the show. After the gig, we heard from the musicians that they were doing this because they could not hear each other on stage, especially not from one end to the other, hehe.


Mats Gustafsson and Peter Brötzmann
(c)Heiko Purnhagen, 2006

And what a show! We were sitting in front, 3 meters away from the stage which was only one step high. We got our ears filled, for sure!

Having seen them a week before, i could not recognize anything that they had played in Hasselt. Everything was completely different. The show started on a much higher tempo (the whole ensemble at the same time) and took off immediately, full power. Like this feeling that you are carried away by a huge wave but to where? nobody knows =:-P


Ken Vandermark, Kent Kessler
(c)Heiko Purnhagen, 2006

The gig was developing in such a way that somebody who don’t know about the band would probably think it is composed. The whole concert gave the impression that the different sequences were orchestrated somehow. That there was an invisible conductor. But it is only the ensemble which is conducting itself, flowing from one movement to the next, accelerating or slowing down, breaking apart in smaller entities or gathering everybody again. Even the end of the pieces are coordinated. There is truly something magical happening when the Chicago Tentet is playing, it will always amaze me!

After this gig, forget it, my head was full and i gave up rapidly (anyway i don’t think that the Wibutee gig would have deserved much attention, hmpff).

On Sunday i managed two full gigs (and some bits of others in between). The first was Motif, and the second was Ingebrigt Håker Flaten Quintet. Both were happening at Scene USF.


Atle Nymo, Ole Morten Vågan, Mathias Eick
(c)Heiko Purnhagen, 2006

Motif is:
Ole Morten Vågan - acoustic bass
Håvard Wiik - piano
Håkon Mjåset Johansen - drums
Mathias Eick - trumpet
Atle Nymo - sax


Klaus Holm
(c)Heiko Purnhagen, 2006

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten Quintet is:
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - acoustic bass
Ola Kvernberg - violin
Anders Hana - guitar, effects
Fredrik Rundqvist - drums
Klaus Holm - sax and clarinet

Both gigs beautiful, energiful, where the musicians are both challenging themselves and also challenging the ears of the audience: both bands are playing composed material (most of it is their own) and are improvising, sometimes very freely. No ego here: they are listening to each other and teasing each other all the time, truly having a great time playing together. Not one single minute was boring! Again this feeling after the two gigs that i was sitting in that room for nothing more than 30 minutes (both gigs were about 1h15 long, with a break in between).

Motif has released two cds at aimmusic.no, and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten Quintet has just released at Jazzland (in the Acoustic Serie). The liner notes are from Martin Revheim, also a fan of Ingebrigt's Quintet!

The same evening i also reached the end of the Polar Bear gig (2 last tracks), so it was difficult for me to have an idea about the band. I didn’t hear anything that was surprising during this short preview, but if i have the opportunity to hear them again for a full gig, i will do so.

Last evening of NattJazz part I: Monday with ATOMIC!

For those who don’t know this band yet: shame on you! Amongst the best Scandinavian jazz musicians from today, always playing their asses off! Magnus Broo (trumpet), Fredrik Ljungkvist (reeds), Håvard Wiik (piano), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass), Paal Nilssen-Love (drums): phew! =:-P

I hanged around at USF Sardinen until the gig of Avishai Cohen, but didn’t stay more than about 15 minutes. Three American players, very much full of themselves, thank you. Uah. They surely thought they were really top notch. Jeezass.

So i switched to another gig, Delirium, with three Danish and one Finnish musicians. Exactly the opposite of the Americans: unpretentious, funny, spontaneous. And on top of that: willing to share some pretty nice stuff with the audience :-)

End of NattJazz part I: i will travel again there on Saturday for one more evening of good music!