Frode Gjerstad Trio
After two decades of trios with various international musicians, this is Frode Gjerstads first all-Norwegian trio. And it is a significant move towards a Nordic improvised sound. In the past, he has played in trios with Hamid Drake, William Parker, John Stevens, Johnny Dyani, Kent Carter, Wilber Morris and Rashid Bakr.
This trio has made 5 recordings just out: "First Last" on the US label, Falcata-Galica. A studiorecording from November -99 when the group was quite fresh. Then came a live recording from September 2000 in Oslo, "The Blessing Light" on Cadence Jazz Records. This CD is dedicated to the late British drummer, John Stevens. "Sharp knives cut deeper" with Peter Brøtzmann on the Italian label Splash came in-03, "St.Louis" is a live recording from our 2002 US tour that came out on FMR in -04 and in 2005 we recorded "mothers & fathers".
The trio has so far toured and/or played festivals in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Poland, Slovenia,Kroatia, Italy, USA and Canada.
Ben Watson, Hi-Fi News:
This trio has a freshness which the big names in London and New York find it hard to muster these days.
Glenn Astarita, All about Jazz:
This band often performs with a distinct sense of spiritualism to coincide with an abundance of hearty soloing and curiously interesting three-way dialogue.
Paal Nilssen-Love first started playing with Frode Gjerstad when he was 15. Since then, he has become one of the most active musicians of the new generation in Norway. He has also played and recorded with international sax-players Mats Gustavsson, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark and Ian Bellamy. He has played with super-guitarist Pat Metheney. And is now a permanent member of the Brøtzmann Tentette. www.paalnilssenlove.com
Øyvind Storesund plays the acoustic bass with the group "Cloroform" where they combine improviasations, sampling, hip-hop and modern electronic sounds. Together with Paal, he also plays with Frode Gjerstads "Circulasione Totale Orchestra". www.cloroform.com
FRODE GJERSTAD has for many years been the most dedicated free jazz player in Norway.
He is one of the few Norwegian musicians playing modern improvised music outside the "ECM-school". He has chosen to play mainly with international musicians because there was no tradition in Norway for playing this music. However, over the last few years a good number of younger musicians are now picking up on the music.
He has played with many of the best european players like John Stevens, Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy, Derek Bailey and Peter Brøtzmann, South-Africans Johnny Mbizo Dyani and Louis Moholo-Moholo as well as US players Borah Bergman, Rashid Bakr, Wilber Morris, Billy Bang, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Jackson Krall, Sabir Mateen and Bobby Bradford.
His relationship with John Stevens which started in -81 and lasted up until his death in -94 was of great importance both musically as well as on a personal level.Through Stevens, he was introduced to some of the finest British improvisers and got to know their way of playing quite well.
They co-led the trio "Detail" starting with Johnny Dyani on bass. After Johnny died in -86, with Kent Carter on bass.
He has also been active, running a group of very young Norwegian musicians, the Circulasione Totale Orchestra where he started the group dealing with electric instruments and modern rock-oriented rhythms. He has used the band to present his own compositions as well as a workshop and place for young people to get to know free improvisations.
The band presented a comissioned work at the Molde Festival in -89 with a 13 man band combining free improvisastions, compositions as well as rapping and scratching.(Three horns, three bassists, three drummers, accordeon, guitar a rapper and a DJ).
The Circulasione Totale Orchestra is at the moment a 7 piece band with two drummers, two acoustic basses, guitar, trumpet and himself on sax. A powerful everchanging band.
He has received several grants from various foundations and has been very active in the Norwegian Jazzmusicians Federation as well as in the committee for the Norwegian Contemporary Music Federation. Voted Jazz Musician of the Year in Norway, 1997.
HiFi News: (England) Ben Watson:
In the early 1980's alto saxophonist Frode Gjerstad led a superb trio, Detail, with Johnny Dyani, bass and John Stevens, drums. Unjustly overshadowed by his compatriot Jan Garbarek, Frode Gjerstad is a more vital player, less dependant on Getz/Trane cliches. Here the New York rhythm-section is superb, laying down a groove simultaneously brutal and sensitive. Welding such a profusion of idias into emotional coherence is not easy. When achieved, hipsters call it: top-notch living jazz.
Jazziz, USA, -Sam Prestianni
"Frode Gjerstad may be the heaviest Norwegian alto saxophonist you've never heard of. His melodic phrases are punchy and surprising, soaring, at times beyond the Milky Way. This album exemlifies the health and wealth of energetic, contemporary free jazz."
Cadence, USA , Stuart Broomer:
Gjerstad has a voice of his own: he is a singer and a storyteller with his horn, with a talent for extended improvisations in which motifs are developed incrementally.
Cadence, USA, Michael Rosenstein:
Gjerstad has a a crying alto tone that has a searing emotional directness. starting with simple, insistent themes he skillfully builds extended improvisations out of fleet, leaping lines colored with a chilling, souldful directness. He plays with the command and authority of a mature musicianwho has honed a personal voice, while continuing to push in new directions.
The Oregonian,USA,Bill Smith:
As Gjerstad searches the soul of his instrument and Drake and Parker awaken the silce behind him, the three achieve a primal squawl, that echoes not only the raging beauty of John Coltrane, but at times, the raw and ancient glory of the Master musicians of Jajouka
Calling Signals
Nicholas Stephens, acoustic bass www.loosetorque.com
Frode Gjerstad, clarinets
Eivin One Pedersen, accordeon
Various drummers
Instinctual Eye
Kevin Norton, vibraphone, drums www.kevinnorton.com
Nicholas Stephens, acoustic bass
Frode Gjerstad, clarinets
Gjerstad-Nilssen-Love project
Paal Nilssen-Love, drums
Frode Gjerstad, reeds
Sabir Mateen, reeds
Peter Friis Nielsen, electric bass