Bringing back music that's been talked about for 30 years

Three times in his life, bassist Arild Andersen has reacted in a very special way to the sound of a voice or an instrument. The one time was when he heard Kirsten Bråten Berg. 

Arild Andersen compares the reaction to a bird dog that senses something and takes a stand, without others knowing why. 

— The first time I had that reaction was when I heard Miles Davis play "Summertime" with a muta trumpet. The second time was in a rehearsal room in a private basement, when Radka Toneff came down the stairs and said "the coffee is ready". Who is talking in such a voice, was all I could think. 

The meeting was the beginning of a collaboration that lasted almost until Radka's death in 1982, at the age of just 30. The loss was a hard blow to the Norwegian jazz community. 

— The third time was when I heard Kirsten. She was brought in as a birthday present for Steinar Ofsdal (composer, musician and professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Ole Bull Academy, journal note). I was sitting at another table in the restaurant and didn't know anything. Suddenly a woman stood up and sang with a voice that completely blew me away. After Radka I hadn't played with any singer, I just hadn't managed to do it, but with Kirsten it was completely different, says Arild Andersen. 

On Saturday, October 10, you can experience Kirsten Bråten Berg and Arild Andersen together on stage at Thon Hotel Jølster in Skei.

Created something new 

Not long after, the commissioned work SAGN was released, performed at Vossajazz in 1990 and recorded on an album the following year. The band included Kirsten Bråten Berg, Bugge Wesseltoft, Nana Vasconselos, Bendik Hofseth and Frode Alnæs. SAGN was something new, and the album helped shape the jazz-folk wave that swept across the country in the 1990s. 

Arild and the others were far from the first to mix folk and jazz, but no one had done it in the same way before.

— I intentionally did not add jazz harmonies to the folk tunes. The idea was for Kirsten to sing as close to the original versions as if she were singing alone, and then I arranged the folk tunes in a rhythmic context. We created a contrast between the instrumental parts and the folk music parts that was unusual, says Arild. 

— Hasn't there been a recipe for success since? 

— When I meet musicians one or two generations after me today, they often tell me that they had a strong relationship with SAGN, and that SAGN inspired them and influenced their musical development. It's very gratifying to hear, he says and continues: 

— Another point is the band that I put together in 1990. They were unknown musicians, but have since created great careers for themselves. Not that I should take credit for that, but it's always nice to bring in new people and create music that has the energy that I think younger people give me. 

Promises a few surprises 

A number of concerts were planned in connection with the 30th anniversary of SAGN, but many were cancelled due to Covid19. Four concerts nevertheless took place in September, at various locations around Eastern Norway, and the work is scheduled for Vossajazz in 2021. 

But first, it is Vestlandet and Jazz at Jølst that are so lucky to have this star-studded line-up of musicians visit. Of the original line-up, Brazilian Nano Vasconselos has passed away and has been replaced by Helge Norbakken, and Bugge Wesseltoft has unfortunately had to cancel the Jølster concert.  

SAGN stands as solid as a post, thirty years later, but some things have changed. The musicians have developed and have a different way of interacting, and in addition, SAGN is made for live performance and has room for improvisation. 

"We'll be opening for some solo pieces that aren't on the album," he says - and promises in the same breath that the audience will get a few surprises. 

Traditional folk tunes and much of jazz have in common that the music has been passed down from generation to generation through playing and listening. Both jazz and folk have this element of music happening there and then. 

"Compared to other music genres, there is more room to make turns that you didn't necessarily make the night before," he says. 

To grow and shrink

Hilde Hegrenes is festival director for Jazz at Jølst.

Jazz på Jølst saw the light of day in 2010. With one concert on Friday and one on Saturday, they marketed themselves as "the world's smallest jazz festival," probably rightly so. Later they expanded the program, and they also jumped on the bandwagon with a concert on Thursday. 

Some things have become a tradition. In the church there is a jazz-themed church service on Sunday, and at the Audhild Viken store, music students from Firda High School play a free concert as a "homage" to the first concert in the festival's history: Night and Day at Audhild Viken, with former festival director Marit Hartvedt on vocals. 

— But this year we are shrinking a bit again, as a result of the pandemic, says Hilde Hegrenes, who in addition to being festival director is assistant principal at Vassenden School and a chorister in the Sunnfjord band "Mrs. and the Pitifuls." 

She calls it a big event when Arild and the band take the stage on Saturday night, October 10th.  

— The SAGN concert is a collaboration with Førdefestivalen , and without it we probably wouldn't have made it happen. Big names like Arild Andersen with a band are expensive for a small festival like ours, and we wouldn't have had the finances for this concert without cutting the number of concerts altogether. With Førdefestivalen "We have someone on the team to share the costs with, and it's safe for us to have such a big player behind us," says the festival director, who doesn't want to grow any bigger than necessary.