Baritone saxophonist Jon Pål Inderberg is a pinnacle among the most significant Jazz artists in Norway. During his long and distinguished career he has played and recorded with some of the world’s most respected Jazz iconoclasts, notable among those Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. While the list of Inderberg’s credits is exhaustive, his contributions notably lean towards the players of the Tristano school and a deep and rarely heard intersection with Nordic folk music. Hailing from the small town of Steinkjer, not so far from Trondheim, Inderberg has gone on to make multiple records with both Konitz and Marsh as well other major international players such as Chet Baker, Bob Brookmeyer, Gil Evans and Chick Corea, and a veritable who’s who of Norwegian Jazz and traditional music talent. He was an important member of Gil Evan’s landmark Scandinavian Ensemble. Records such as Marsh’s Sax of a Kind and Konitz’s Steps Towards a Dream, on which Inderberg performs, have consolidated their place as cornerstones of not merely Norwegian Jazz, but also of the greater recorded inheritance of the Tristano School players.
As an educator in the Jazz conservatory in Trondheim, the prestigious “Trondheim Jazzlinja”, Inderberg has either taught and/or influenced the vast majority of Norwegian Jazz musicians that have come after him, and attracted Jazz students from around the world, including Australia! He is highly sought after as a lecturer, and a series of awards and grants have been bestowed upon him, including the Trondheim Jazz Festival Honarary Award and the prestigious 2010 Lindeman Prize. It is no exaggeration to say that, in many respects, Jon Pål Inderberg represents the true heart of Norwegian Jazz.
His intersection with folk music is likewise unparalleled. While others may find success and satisfaction in applying somewhat cosmetic gestures from folk music to Jazz, packaged in easily digestible “Fjord Jazz” commercial styling, Inderberg’s relationship to the musical history of his land is deep and uncompromising. From a career of working with truly legitimate folk music artists such as Sondre Bratland, Jan Erik Vold and Henning Sommerro he brings to bear a depth in his folk-Jazz endeavours that might well be called The Real Nordic Sound, and its ilk is rarely heard beyond the shores of Scandinavia.
On this tour he will be joined by two of the most pernicious upstarts from the Norwegian Jazz streets. Bassist Trygve Fiske has already made waves with his group Waldemar 4. His bass playing is one that is learned and thoughtful, deliberate yet never risk-averse. Håkon Mjåset Johansen has already established himself as one of the most important percussionists of his generation performing with artists of the highest calibre such as Jan Garbarek, Bugge Wessetoft and Axel Dörner in Europe and Americans Jon Gordon and Chick Corea, to name but a few. He was among 2001’s Nordic Jazz Comets recipients (one of the most important awards for young Nordic musicians) and has twice received the nation’s highest musical honour; the Spellemannsprisen. Both of these young Jazz warriors are, of course, former students of Inderberg’s!
If the bulk of your experiences of Norwegian Jazz music come from ECM records, then be prepared for something kaleidoscopic. This is challenging but beautiful music, deep in the Jazz tradition, deeply connected to Norwegian traditional music, yet broad and inclusive enough to encompass a good deal beyond. This band swings, it sings, and it swaggers in a way that is totally incomparable. Jon Pål Inderberg is nothing less than a paramount and unparalleled facet of the global Jazz diaspora, and such an all-too-rare opportunity to hear this national treasure of Norway in Australia is not to be missed.
