8 August 2004

After the VANDERMARK 5 recording session I headed to Molde Jazz Festival in Norway to perform with ATOMIC/SCHOOL DAYS and FREE FALL. Haavard Wiik was the “Artist In Residence” at the festival a proved why he deserved to be so- he is truly one of the great pianists of this time period and he’s not even 30 years old yet! The ATOMIC/SCHOOL DAYS concert was packed and the audience was so enthused we needed to play three encores. The FREE FALL show was the last of the first half of the year for me, now I’m in the middle of a month break from performing. The time is being spent resting and studying, getting ready for the second half of the year, especially the composing necessary for the TERRITORY BAND-4 project which takes place in Chicago during the September. In the first part of that month the reed trio, SONORE (Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustafsson, myself), goes on tour in North America. Our tour in Europe last October was one of the highlights of 2003 for me, and I expect this chance to bring our music to this side of the ocean will one of the highlights of this year. We’ll be traveling by van with Amos Scattergood who will drive and record the shows, and probably a dozen saxophones and clarinets. Check the web site for the itinerary, the full tour will be posted shortly!

In July the DUAL PLEASURE 2 was released by smalltownsupersound. A double cd of live and studio performances made by Paal Nilssen-Love and myself in Oslo last fall. I think the music could be fairly described as EXPLOSIVE. Plans are in the works for a European tour next spring, I will keep you posted! In time for the SONORE tour and the TERRITORY BAND-4 performances Okka Disk will be releasing two new albums by those groups, NO ONE EVER WORKS ALONE by SONORE and MAP THEORY (as a double cd) by the TERRITORY BAND-3. The music for the SONORE cd comes from the last concert of our European tour in October, 2003, in Cologne, Germany. MAP THEORY was recorded in September of 2002 and I am extremely happy that this music is being released now and in time for the band
getting back together for more work.

Keep your eyes and ears posted on the site, new music and new texts are set for release, most of which can’t be found anywhere else. I will be starting a new set of communications on the COLLABORATIONS section called Postcards, short updates of ideas and events from the road. Lastly, check out the ALL ABOUT JAZZ web site, I will be the artist in residence for the month of August, posting the column Defining Terms and answering questions. Look forward to seeing you when I return to concerts later this month, wherever you are! Until then, keep listening-