Bodø Jazz Open 2024 - Stormy Weather in Windy City (English)

To reach the northern Norwegian harbour town of Bodø, about 100 km north of the Arctic Circle, I have to change planes twice, travelling by train from Bremen via Hamburg. From Munich it would be 2,798 kilometres by car and ferry. The European Capital of Culture 2024 has a good 50,000 inhabitants and a renowned jazz festival. Pianist, composer and university lecturer Jan Gunnar Hoff is one of the founders. This year, he is one of the main protagonists and can demonstrate his versatility with his three performances. The duo concert with singer Silje Nergaard on Sunday has to take place twice due to popular demand. On Monday, he w presents the Hoff/Somsen/Lindholm trio. Together with the Dutch bassist and the Danish drummer, he performs top-class jazz in the hall of the Beddingen Cultural Centre, the home of the Ad Lib Jazz Club. The CD, which has been recorded in Copenhagen, is already finished. It lives up to the promise of the live performance. The final concert also features an international top line-up: Keyboardist Hoff and electric bassist Per Mathisen are joined by the British drummer Garry Husband and the French guitarist Nguyên Lê.  It turns out that there is an enthusiastic audience for both electric sound and fusion in Norway.

Norwegian keyboardist Jørn Øien from Tromsø, a kind of Joe Zawinul of the North, also delights his audience with his band Cosmopolitan. Fittingly, he begins his concert on Tuesday with Stormy Weather by Weather Report. Sidiki Camara enriches the repertoire of this versatile band with ngoni and djembe as well as his raspy African voice. 

Steve Hackett & Djabe have the biggest audience on Wednesday with around 500 guests. The 74-year-old former Genesis guitarist underlines his status as a member of the Rock 'Roll Hall of Fame and together they make it clear that they are in the same league.

One of the main acts, Jaga Jazzist, is Sidiki Camara enriches the repertoire of this versatile band with ngoni and djembe as well as his raspy African voiced due to logistical problems. Storm Ingunn rages for several days and paralyses the Nordland and Troms regions. The extreme weather causes a lot of disruption, with flights being cancelled time and again and visitors being forced to stay at home due to the weather conditions. On Thursday, 1 February 2024, there is even a disaster alert and the population of Troms and Nordland is asked not to leave their homes. The organising team has mastered this Sysiphon task with flying colours. 

Steve Hackett & Djabe have the biggest audience on Wednesday with around 500 guests. The 74-year-old former Genesis guitarist confirms his status as a member of the Rock 'Roll Hall of Fame and together they make it clear that they are in the same league. 

The Norwegian tenor saxophonist and composer Marius Neset and his new group play pieces from the current album "Happy" on the same day. Pianist Elliot Galvin also takes over the keyboards because Magnus Hjorth is not taking part.

The band exudes an enormous amount of energy, and the congenial rhythmic interplay between him and Anton Eger should be familiar by now. The two Brits are also on an equal footing. Bjørn Willadsen from the Central Norwegian Jazz Centre and manager of the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra says at breakfast the next morning: "Marius Neset has now reached the next level!" The piece Happy can be heard on Youtube: Marius Neset Quartet, Bodø Jazz Open, 31/01/2024.

Ketil Bjørnstad is another big name in the line-up. Storm Ingunn forces the postponement of the concert to Friday, and the modern church in Rønvik is also improvised as a venue. The pianist, composer and writer has been firmly anchored in Norwegian cultural life since the seventies. He is first interviewed at length before demonstrating on the piano that Mozart was a pioneer of jazz in his eyes and that his connection to the Abbey Road Studio inspired him musically: Lady Madonna is one of his important muses that evening. The large audience rightly celebrates its exceptional artist.

It's amazing how the Norwegians manage to organise such a festival in the almost deserted north of Norway, which is supported by a well-connected jazz scene. The programme includes 38 events. The fact that there is an Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra north of the Arctic Circle, which is still being established but is already functioning well, deserves special mention.

The penultimate concert is also the opening concert of the European Capital of Culture Bodø 2024, with two young musicians from Nordland bringing completely different commissioned compositions for their own performance in collaboration with the Arktisk Filharmoni. The trio of Berlin-based jazz pianist and composer Joakim Rainer Petersen, who also  brings along his favourite saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, also be takes part. Pianist Liv Andra Hauge contributes her piano trio with three vocalists as well as her composition. Alexander Aarøen is the third to compose a longer classical piece for the orchestra. At times, there are more than 60 musicians on stage. They receive a long and hearty final round of applause from the audience in the large concert hall, which is filled to capacity.

The Northerners need not worry about their musical future.