JAGA JAZZIST play Teragram Ballroom Jun 16; photo Anthony P. Huus
Norwegian eight-piece Jazz group, Jaga Jazzist, kicks off their North American tour this month with a show on June 16 at Teragram Ballroom highlighting songs of their latest release.
Jaga Jazzist’s main songwriter, Lars Horntveth, left Norway and moved to Los Angeles. Inspired by the space around him, the size of the sky above him, the endless light flashing past as he drove round the city at night, he began composing the new suite of works, which would become “Starfire”.
Jaga Jazzist is led by sibling trio; Lars, Martin and Line Horntveth. The band formed in 1994, when Lars was only fourteen years old. In their two decades of existence they’ve released five studio albums, one live album, five EPs (CD and vinyl), one live DVD and now a box set.
Other members of the 8-piece band would come visit Lars in L.A. and lay down their contributions in his apartment/studio before returning home to Norway. When the basics of the album were in place, he went back to Oslo to finish the record in the professional studios that the band had built and furnished over the years.
Concert Guide Live chatted with Lars recently about how the group formed and what it’s like playing together while living in different countries.
CGL: Who came up with the band’s name and what is its meaning?
LARS HORNTVETH: I think it was my brother Martin and former bandmate Ivar. It´s a bit hard to explain, haha. It basically means “a chased (or hunted) jazz musician”. That´s the short version. I was 14 years old at the time, I guess we would choose another name today.
CGL: What inspired the three brothers to start playing music together? When did they decide to form a band?
LH: We played in a bunch of different bands before we started Jaga. We wanted to start a band where we could write music for a bigger group. We were very inspired by the Norwegian big band Oslo 13 at the time. That was a modern jazz band. With Jaga we wanted to make all kinds of music, from rap to gipsy music to contemporary jazz. It was all over the place on the first album. It took us a few years to find a style that was more our own.
CGL: What other genres of music does the group like to play other than jazz?
LH: We basically try to make music that is difficult to put in a genre. That has always been our goal at least. I guess our music is a combination of jazz, electronic music, rock, prog and classical.
CGL: What is touring like with an eight-piece group? Talk about the other band members and how they joined the group?
LH: We have toured with this band for over 20 years now. Five of the members have been in the band from the beginning. We´re like a family. It feels like we´ve known each other forever.
The three newest members have been in the band since 2005 and 2009. Erik Johannessen and Øystein Moen both went to the Jazz University in Trondheim, Norway. Marcus Forsgren came from the band The Lionheart Brothers, which we were big fans of. All of the band members have their own bands and solo projects.
CGL: How is Norwegian Jazz different from other parts of the world? Does the group blend any ethnic music into their sound? If so, which songs are most inspired by Norwegian regional music?
LH: Norwegian jazz really took a left turn around 1969 when Manfred Eicher and his label ECM started to release and record with Norwegian legends Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdahl, Arild Andersen, Jon Balke etc. The style they went for was more folky and less based on traditional American jazz. That started a quite unique Norwegian sound that most Norwegian jazz musicians are still inspired by.
I don´t think we blend in ethnic music so much, but we definitely have some melodies here and there that are more Indian than say Norwegian.
In general, I would say that the way I write melodies are quite melancholic or nostalgic. For many people that sounds Scandinavian. I don´t disagree.
CGL: What inspired you to move to Los Angeles and is it hard to keep making music as a group while being so far away?
LH: I was taking a vacation in Los Angeles during Christmas in 2012. I liked it so much that I decided to stay. I started making the music that ended up on the album and after about a year I invited some of the guys in the band to come over and start recording. This album is made in a different way than we have done before. We didn´t rehearse before we recorded and basically treated the album as a big remix project. Most of it is recorded in Los Angeles, the rest in Oslo in various studios.
CGL: Has the group worked with many Norwegian producers in their recordings? Which producer or producers helped their recording process and why?
LH: We have mostly worked with producer/sound engineer Jørgen Træen. He´s definitely our favorite producer and a big influence on our sound. We see him as our 9th member. Jørgen helped co-produce this album with me and also had a lot of inputs when we mixed it in his studio in Bergen, Norway.
CGL: What is the group most excited about during this US tour?
LH: We are super excited to play the new music and also play some bigger venues and festivals than we have done before. Also we are bringing a quite spectacular light show. It´s gonna be very psychedelic, haha. Hope to play long shows as we have at least 3 hours of music to choose from.
CGL: If there was one jazz musician the group could share the stage with or collaborate on a song with, whom would it be and why?
LH: Our mentor in jazz music has always been Jon Balke. It´s about time we do something with him. Absolutely the most original pianist and composer out of Norway.