Music / European jazz
Review: Tord Gustavsen Trio, Bristol Keyboard Festival, St George’s
There’s always been a close fit between the spiritual themes of Norwegian jazz pianist Tord Gustavsen’s music and St George’s, which may account for his steadily growing audience at the former church over the years. For Tord this was ‘probably the fifth, or maybe sixth’ visit and the room was packed and attentive when he appeared with long-time drum partner Jarle Vespestad and newly enlisted bassist Sigurd Hole.
The set that followed reflected their new ECM album The Other Side, with a few ‘old favourites’ slipped in, starting with a raga-like treatment of JS Bach’s Jesu Meine Freude that opened with tentative frills on the piano and built to a crashing Rachmaninov-recalling ten fingered workout over a thumping two chord riff. Within the melodic variations there were Middle Eastern modalities, perhaps an echo of Tord’s work with Afghan vocalist Simin Tander, and the emphatic drumming rhythms emphasised those references at times.
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It must be said that Jarle Vepserstad was almost the principal focus both of the band’s live appearance and the music. He used a good cop/bad cop two handed technique, with one hard stick and one soft (or even a bare hand), thus deploying a wider vocabulary of tone throughout. This combined with his grasp of fractured beats to provide a complex rhythmic framework that was never abrasive and often quick to respond to the pianist’s phrasing, while his frequent smiles and writhing facial expressions added a visual dimension to what is often a quite static performance.
By contrast, Sigurd Hole’s contribution on bass was more diffident, perhaps reflecting his ‘newbie’ status, with repeated use of gentle harmonics and long bowed notes adding atmosphere rather than energy. His solo intro to the hymn Kirken, Den er Gamelt Hus was an ethereal combination of harmonics with high overtones that resembled Asian throat singing before the gentle hymn tune emerged on the piano, hinted with a Satie-like elegance. This was another number where the drummer held the narrative together as it moved into a Halloween finale, the bass swooping ghostly high harmonics like a Theremin while the pianist deployed an electronic keyboard to add distant church organ.
The new album is noticeable for the wider use of electronics and despite his professed admiration for the St George’s Steinway Tord had a number of devices discreetly laid out around and on the piano. These added texture on occasion, though it was not always clear that they were needed. For The Other Side Sigurd added a rolling bass guitar riff to take the Flamenco-flavoured melodic part through jazz changes, resulting in a hard-bopping blues mood somewhat at odds with the general mood of Scandinavian restraint, with Tord Gustavsen crouched even lower over the keyboard as he thumped out the chords.
One highlight was a new tune, title not given, that actually felt like an old tune from the band’s earlier days. It began as a simple acoustic duet between piano and bass, the pianist’s hand damping the strings for texture while picking out a melody tinged with Scandinavian folk music. When the drummer joined in using only his hands and foot-pedals (and a little dub-style reverb from the sound desk) the muted ensemble playing had a warm acoustic timbre that emphasised the folksiness of the theme. It was another moment when Jarle’s musical charisma brought everything together perfectly, and maybe made the point that, for all the electronic embellishment, it is their control of natural sounds that best suits Tord Gustavsen’s music.
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