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FLOATING –
On the year’s longest and brightest day in
the North, the 23rd of June 2004, what we Norwegians
call “Sankthansaften”, I was sitting with Wulf Müller and Yngve
Næss from Universal Music outside “Sult” (“Hunger”), a famous
bar and eating place, close to the old Rainbow Studio at
Grünerløkka in Oslo. Earlier the same day, I had recorded the
first part of the planned “The Rainbow Sessions”, bid farewell
to the old beloved studio and waited for the new one to take
shape. The solo-piano-project “The Rainbow Sessions” (a planned
triple-CD), had already formed in my mind, but what to do next,
on a larger scale? “Why don’t you make a recording in the
classical trio-format?” asked Wulf suddenly. “You have
never done that before.” No, that was true. I had avoided
the trio so far, perhaps because it is so challenging, and
perhaps also because it can make you, as a band-leader, run into
the danger of playing too many notes all the time. So far, the
piano-trio seemed scary to me, because in this concept the
melody so often is used just as an excuse for the pianist to
play ornamentally and improvise endlessly, without taking any
deeper care of the melody itself and of the compositions deeper
needs and structure. “But you could still think melodically”,
said Wulf, in his easy, friendly way. That sentence opened up so
much for me. Yngve nodded. This was also important. He knows me
so well.
So this was how the
‘Floating’-session started. Later that summer, Jan Erik
Kongshaug moved into his new Rainbow Studio, a wonderful room
with an incredible acoustic, far beyond what I dared to expect
and even better than the old studio was. It was encouraging to
see how the always humble Jan Erik was still searching for
perfection in every sense in his 60th year. More than
twenty years ago, he created “The Rainbow Sound”, recording with
distinguished producers and artists from all over the world, all
with different needs and aesthetic approaches. A few months
after moving into the new premises, one of his dreams came true:
a new Steinway D-model was bought for the new studio. It was an
honour for me to follow him to the Steinway-factory in Hamburg
and help him choose the right one. I concluded “The Rainbow
Sessions” on that new instrument, and, at the same time, made
plans for the trio-recording some months later. The brilliance
of a new Steinway is something very special. The quality of a
good piano makes you, as the player, more aware of your
possibilities, and Jan Erik, as a kind of silent co-producer,
telling you in his intelligent and discrete way if you are doing
a good job or not. In fact, he has by his way of working,
produced many more recordings than he has taken credit for.
A dream came true for me when
Marilyn Mazur and Palle Danielsson said yes to participate in
this trio-recording. Marilyn has her own, generous identity. And
because she does not work with traditional brushes, tightening
up the soundscape so much, she creates a lot of space for her
fellow musicians, and also brings her own artistic intelligence
and energy into the music. Palle Danielsson has been a hero for
me since the early Cornelis Vreeswijk-recordings and, of course,
since his early jazz activities in Sweden, with his incredible,
warm sound and his artistic wisdom. He brought his "small"
double-bass, well known from the "Belonging"- period, and
Marilyn brought her beautiful bells, cymbals and different
percussion instruments from all over the world, many of them
from Asia. I knew Palle from before, but Marilyn I had never
met. It is a strange thing to say “Hello” over a cup of coffee
in the morning, and then go into the studio and record three
tracks before lunch. When the first day ended, we were more than
halfway through the album, and after day two, we had finished
the recording. It was like when you meet someone and immediately
feel you have established a strong friendship.
The music itself gave us the possibilities.
It came to us - floating.
Sandnessjøen,
18th June 2005
Ketil Bjørnstad |