23 - 31 MAY 2025 //
USF VERFTET // BERGEN
1973 // THE FIRST FESTIVAL
It is said that Nattjazzen was established as a countercultural reaction to the bourgeois Festspillene (Bergen International Festival). Among young people in the 1970s, a time when Norwegian society was characterized by rebellion against established norms, culture, and politics, such an opinion may have existed. However, the reality is that the Festspillene were crucial for Nattjazzen as an event during its first few years, and the two organizations had a symbiotic relationship, helping each other fulfill important needs.
Nightlife in Bergen during the 1970s was very limited. There were no nightclubs, and alcohol was not served after 11 PM. The Festspillene saw this as a problem, as it made the city less attractive to the many international guests. The Bergen Jazz Forum (BJF) had been established in 1972 by a group of local and incoming musicians and students, aiming to create a scene where Bergen's jazz could thrive. The Festspillene thus found a partner in BJF, motivated to organize concerts and run a nightclub, providing entertainment for party- and drink-loving guests. For BJF, the contacts the Festspillene had within the municipality were crucial in securing the permit to operate a nightclub – Bergen's first!
The first Nattjazzen was not a festival in the modern sense. "Night Jazz," as it was called, was a 15-day temporary jazz club that presented two artists every evening. The American tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-1990) was marketed in advance as the undisputed highlight. Gordon had been a key contributor to the American "bebop" movement, a genre innovation that, from the early 1940s, captivated jazz audiences with its complex chord and tone changes and fast tempos. Bergen's residents had also become familiar with and excited by Gordon when he was backed by Eivinn Sannes' trio at Hotel Neptun in the 1960s. However, by 1973, Gordon was in a very different place in his career. He was heavily intoxicated and had to turn back at Flesland Airport without playing a single note. Disappointed organizers and audiences had to accept that the first Nattjazzen went on without the big names.
The program in 1973 was also quite different from what contemporary audiences might expect. Nine artists, most of them local, performed a total of 31 concerts. Pianist Dag Arnesen made his Nattjazz debut at the first festival with the Bergen Ballad Orchestra, which played no fewer than six concerts! Fifty years later, a still-vital Dag Arnesen is number one on the list of those with the most performances at Nattjazz. The lack of big names did not detract from the first Nattjazz: "It swings at Håndverkeren," was the headline in the first report from the festival in *Bergens Avisen* (BA).
The combination of live music and beer served until late into the night led to packed venues, with around 300 attendees every night throughout the festival. A satisfied financial manager could go home each evening with "the bag full of money." In today's value, the festival generated over 420,000 NOK, with a profit of 125,000. The fact that the American star pianist Oscar Peterson, who had performed in Grieghallen under the Festspillene's auspices, reportedly played the piano through a long after-party, likely didn’t lessen the overall experience.
The first festival set the tone for Nattjazzen's years at Håndverkeren, with full venues and solid profits. Until the mid-1980s, the profits from the festivals were used to finance the club activities at Bergen Jazz Forum. In this way, Nattjazzen made a significant contribution to the Jazz Forum becoming one of the most active jazz clubs in the country, providing local musicians with a stable stage on which they could develop their craft.
1974 & 1976 // Jan Garbarek Quartet. Radka Toneff Quartet
Jan Garbarek (1947-) was the biggest name when the second edition of "Night Jazz" was held in 1974. It was particularly his albums *Afric Pepperbird* (ECM, 1970), *SART* (ECM, 1971), *Triptykon* (ECM, 1973), and his collaboration with Keith Jarrett on *Belonging* (ECM, 1974) that helped establish Garbarek as one of the most innovative voices on the international jazz scene.
For the still fairly inexperienced team behind the second Nattjazz festival, however, Garbarek is remembered for much more than his star status and musical contributions. According to the first chairman, Dagfinn Strønstad, Garbarek was "completely special" in the way he became involved with Norwegian jazz. He made modest demands for fees, and at Bergen Jazz Forum, he had even performed "for free."
"The audience can look forward to a great finale," wrote *Bergens Tidende* with anticipation in 1974. The quartet, which, in addition to Garbarek, featured Jon Christensen (drums) and the Swedes Palle Danielsson (bass) and Bobo Stenson (piano), played the final three nights of the festival.
Garbarek returned as the main attraction for the festival on its 10th, 20th, and 30th anniversaries, in addition to performing in 1989 and 1994.
1978-1979 // First year at the "Centre". Cornelis Vreeswijk.
After five years based at Håndverkeren, Nattjazzen had to find a new venue. During the winter of 1977-78, it was uncertain whether there would be a festival at all in 1978, until it was decided that Nattjazz, just as Bergen Jazz Forum had done before them, could use the student center at Nygårdshøyden.
With an audience area that could accommodate around 800 people, the festival's capacity at the "center" was more than doubled compared to Håndverkeren. The festivals at the center are often remembered for their long queues and smoky, packed concert rooms. The festival's identity took on a more social, communal vibe. However, the center was still very much a place for music.
The first festival in 1978 offered a wide program with a strong local profile. "Grillen" was the stage for most of the 12 Bergen-based groups, with a busy Frank Jacobsen behind the drums keeping time in half of them. Well-known artists like Radka Toneff Quintet and Knut Risnæs Quartet, along with new faces for Bergen audiences like Monette Sudler and Champion Jack Dupree, gave the program a broader national and international profile.
The highlight of the festival was drum legend Art Blakey (1919-1990) and his Jazz Messengers. Blakey’s Nattjazz concert was supposed to be the start of a Norwegian tour. However, Blakey canceled the tour after the band's Russian trumpeter, Valerie Ponomarev, had his entry permit revoked. As a result, the Nattjazz audience experienced the Blakey concert as an unexpected exclusive event.
1979, Cornelis Vreeswijk
The 1979 festival opened at Konsertpaleet with a much-discussed artist of the time: Cornelis Vreeswijk (1937-1987). Vreeswijk is primarily remembered today as a folk singer and is mentioned in the same breath as other greats like Evert Taube and Jacob Bellman. The concert was marketed as one of the highlights of the festival and serves as an example of how Nattjazzen early on sought to profile itself by booking artists from the fringes of jazz.
The 1979 edition of Vreeswijk came in the form of a collaboration with the Swedish sextet Jazz Incorporated. The band presented material from Jan Johanson, Charlie Parker, and Vreeswijk himself. The project thus seemed perfectly suited for Nattjazzen, but the reception was mixed. Bergen's press correspondents felt that the audience particularly appreciated the 45-minute tour through selected Parker material. However, Vreeswijk’s vocal performance hindered a strong overall experience. "He really does best as a troubadour," was the verdict. The Norwegian singer Ole Paus performed the same evening at Konsertpaleet and, in contrast to Vreeswijk, had a very successful reception.
In hindsight, the Vreeswijk concert is an early example of how Nattjazzen, throughout its 50-year history, has rarely had a purely jazz-focused profile. The festival has often had "headliners" who operate at the borders of jazz, appealing to audiences well beyond the core jazz crowd. The idea has been that artists with broad appeal would attract more people to the festival, giving more attendees the chance to discover and develop an interest in jazz music, which would provide the festival with a stronger financial foundation to present a wider variety of jazz for its core audience. The Vreeswijk concert is perhaps an example of how such bookings don’t always succeed in striking a balance between artistic integrity and commercial success.
1972 - 2022
HIGHLIGHTS & MILESTONES
Text by Trond Erlien
Composed for the 50-year Anniversary in 2022
1980 // Carla Bley. The Scandinavian Jazz Ensemble.
Carla Bley and DSJE as the highlight of one of the best festivals
Among the audience and volunteers involved in the first decade of Nattjazz, the festivals of 1980 and 1981 stand out as milestones in Nattjazz history. In both 1980 and 1981, Nattjazz took the initiative to create an ensemble made up of the leading figures in Scandinavian jazz: the *Danish-Swedish Jazz Ensemble* (DSJE), which in each case would work with a top international bandleader.
In the 1970s and 80s, Carla Bley (1936-) and Gil Evans (1912-1988) were regarded as some of the foremost arrangers for larger ensembles. The concerts with Bley in 1980 and Evans in 1981 were profitable and popular. However, it is the 1980 concert with Carla Bley and DSJE that truly stands out in Nattjazz’s collective memory.
"I love to lie," "I hate jazz." Carla Bley was a quote machine, and both the national and Bergen press had headlines and lead sentences filled with phrases she had readily uttered during the preparations. For the festival organizers, she was apparently not always the easiest to deal with: "She wasn't nice until the first bottle of gin, and after the second, she became very argumentative." However, above all, Bley came across as a grateful and creative bandleader. She could not praise her ensemble enough and would have preferred to take Bergen pianist Dag Arnesen back across the Atlantic with her.
By 1980, Bley had spent two decades establishing herself as an independent thinker in the international jazz scene. For Nattjazz in 1980, she brought newly composed music, which was later released on the album *Social Studies* (Watt/ECM, 1981). Among the compositions performed in Bergen and released on *Social Studies*, the track with the Norwegian title *Utviklingssang* ("Song of Development") is considered a highlight of Bley’s catalog. *Utviklingssang* was written as a protest song, dedicated to the Sami people's fight against the development of the Alta River. It is a deeply melancholic ballad that conveys Bley’s interpretation of the loss of nature and history expressed by the Norwegian Sami during the struggle. The song remains an example both of Bley’s musical talent and her social orientation as a composer.
The DSJE projects were very expensive and would not have been realized without the Festspillene (Bergen International Festival) taking on much of the financial risk. The income was split: the Festspillene kept the revenue from a concert in Grieghallen, while Nattjazz received the revenue from a concert at the student center. The fact that the projects were performed in two settings with very different audiences might help explain their status in history. By taking little financial risk with the projects, Nattjazz also gained great freedom in the rest of the programming. The 1980 festival thus remains one of the strongest in the festival’s 50-year history.
The program showcased an ever-growing breadth in Bergen’s jazz scene, where now well-established musicians like Per Jørgensen, Frank Jacobsen, and Dag Arnesen could be heard alongside new voices. Jon Balke, who in the 1980s would emerge as a genre-crossing mainstay on Norwegian jazz stages, played with three different bands. Other respected Norwegian musicians such as Radka Toneff and Knut Risnæs were heard, while the Romanians in Benone Damian returned after a fireworks display of a concert in 1979. Alongside Carla Bley, the program featured big international names such as Kenny Drew, George Adams, and Don Pullen, and not least the avant-gardist Pharoah Sanders.
Arvid Genius, a jazz musician and writer who had been involved in BJF (Bergen Jazz Forum) and who often appeared critical of Nattjazz's programming, acknowledged in *Bergens Tidende* after Sanders' concert that "even Coltrane would have been satisfied."
1981-1984 // The Bergen Wave. Masqualero.
"The Bergen Wave" with Son Mu and Ny Bris
The term "Bergen wave" has been used in various contexts to describe how musicians from Bergen for a period of time took a central position on the national music scene. In the 1980s, jazz also had its own "Bergen wave." The wave of jazz coming from Bergen consisted of a number of musicians who frequently played in different constellations. In hindsight, however, the bands Son Mu and Ny Bris stand out as the foremost representatives of this movement.
Ny Bris debuted at Nattjazz in 1981 with Dag Arnesen (piano), Kåre Garnes (bass), Per Jørgensen (trumpet and vocals), Ole Thomsen (guitar), Frank Jacobsen (drums), and Olav Dale (saxophone). Son Mu made their debut in 1982, led by Knut Kristiansen (piano), and, like Ny Bris, had Olav Dale and Frank Jacobsen as central members, along with Arild Seim (guitar) and Gaute Storaas (bass), who was later replaced by Yngve Moe.
Both Son Mu and Ny Bris drew inspiration from beyond jazz, and were thus part of a broader trend that applied to jazz as well as other genres in the 1980s. While Ny Bris’s music could seem like an uninhibited play with various traditions, Son Mu’s music was a more committed flirtation with Caribbean music, particularly salsa. Both bands became highly sought-after acts at Norwegian jazz festivals in the 1980s and established themselves as strong live bands that played advanced yet, for many, accessible music.
At Nattjazz, the two bands went from being typical local acts in 1981 and 1982, to eventually becoming headliners and guarantees for full houses. Son Mu also appeared several times in the expanded version of the band, Papa Mu, and was reunited at Nattjazz in 2001. It can be seen as a recognition of Ny Bris's importance to Bergen jazz and Nattjazz that they returned for the 50th anniversary in a new version: a new Ny Bris, still with Dag Arnesen as the creative center.
1984: Masqualero
Arild Andersen on bass, Jon Christensen on drums, Jon Balke on piano, Tore Brunborg on saxophone, and Nils Petter Molvær on trumpet. Masqualero was a meeting between two generations of jazz musicians and stands as a vital turning point in Norwegian jazz. If there is such a thing as a Norwegian jazz canon, the album debut *Masqualero* (ECM, 1983) occupies a central place in it!
Masqualero debuted at Nattjazz in 1984, at a time when the festival had gradually become more open to other genres besides jazz, and when several jazz musicians were pushing the outer limits of jazz. While the program still featured top international jazz names such as Max Roach, Joe Henderson, Airto Moreira, and Michael Urbaniak, the Masqualero concert was experienced by *Bergens Tidende*'s Geir Johnson as one of the festival’s "absolute highlights": "An exquisite mix of lingering ballads and fiery improvisations," a "cultural renovation" that "pointed forward to a different kind of music that is still not everyday fare." While the programming in the previous years had made Johnson question jazz’s position at Nattjazz, he saw Masqualero as a confirmation of Nattjazz’s place not only as a music festival, but as a jazz festival of note.
Masqualero returned to Nattjazz in 1986, 1988, and 1990. Each time, the superlatives from the Norwegian press were just as strong. While the international jazz press also saw Masqualero as an expression of the fact that the Norwegian jazz scene not only had excellent musicians, but also that they could play "real jazz," the band had an explicitly ambivalent relationship with the term "jazz." Ahead of their Nattjazz concert in 1986, Arild Andersen said they were "uncertain whether they were playing jazz." They had started referring to their music as "tilt music," something "off-kilter – a little out of balance." This ambivalence in Masqualero may also be fitting for the continuously evolving generations of Norwegian jazz musicians who, in the 1990s and 2000s, helped turn Norwegian jazz into an export product.
1985-1989 // Sidsel Endresen. Marylin Mazur.
1988, Sidsel Endresen
Sidsel Endresen (1952-) made her debut at Nattjazz in 1984 with the 1980s phenomenon *Chipahua Soul Survivors*. In 1988, she performed at the festival under her own name for the first time, in a sextet led by Jon Eberson and Endresen herself. In 2002, she performed the commissioned work *Living Rooms* at Nattjazz.
Since the 1980s, Endresen has likely been a key contributor to the development of vocal music in Norway. As a long-time teacher at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, she has shaped and been a role model for a long line of vocalists. Above all, she has been a trendsetter in her field. While her voice has an unmistakable timbre that gives her a recognizable sound, she has relentlessly entered new projects without looking back at the previous ones. Nattjazz audiences have also been able to experience Endresen's musical journey through an ever-changing array of collaborative projects: from her work with Jon Eberson in the late 1980s, Bugge Wesseltoft in the 1990s, Christian Wallumrød in the 2000s, to Stian Westerhus in the 2010s.
In 1988, Sidsel Endresen created a "full house and storming applause" during a festival that in two ways pointed to Nattjazz's future. Despite a strong program with a wide range of local, national, and international artists like Son Mu, Masqualero, and Modern Jazz Qt., 1988 stands out because it marked the first time Nattjazz ran at a loss. Thus, 1988 provided an early taste of the years to come, where the festival faced stronger competition for audiences, and its financial outcomes became more varied.
1989, Marilyn Mazur’s Future Song
Marilyn Mazur (1955-) and her project *Future Song* were considered one of the festival's major highlights in 1989. The Danish-American percussionist Mazur was an incredibly "hot" name in international jazz at the time, collaborating with legends like Miles Davis and Gil Evans. In 2022, Mazur performed with Jon Balke and Torben Snekkestad.
*Future Song* was a project that Mazur "dreamed up" while playing with Miles Davis. From the outset, it was a cross-border collaboration involving several Norwegian and Nordic musicians. Alongside Mazur, Norwegian drummer Audun Kleive played a key role in creating a complex, percussive soundscape.
Marilyn Mazur has, in many ways, been a pioneer in international jazz. She was an early example of a prominent instrumentalist who made a name for herself through collaborations with established greats and later became a sought-after headliner at jazz festivals worldwide. She also led the all-female project *Primiband*, which Nattjazz audiences could hear in 1983.
The Bergen jazz scene, like jazz in general, has been highly male-dominated. From 1973 to 1987, the percentage of bands featuring women was, with one exception, under 17%. Three of the festivals during that period had no female musicians on stage! For many decades, and especially in the 1970s and 1980s, women in jazz were primarily vocalists. Alongside Mazur, the aforementioned Carla Bley and British horn player Barbara Thompson were the only female bandleaders at Nattjazz during the 1970s and 1980s who were not vocalists.
1990-1993 // Mari Boine. Veslefrekk.
1990, Mari Boine
Mari Boine (1956-) was one of several artists in the 1990s who brought Sami cultural traditions to a wider audience.
Boine made her mark as a musician by blending Sami joik with genres such as folk and rock. Her second solo album *Gula Gula* (Idut, 1989) won the Spellemann Award in the open category and was released the following year on Peter Gabriel's RealWorld label. Boine's lyrical universe is primarily in Sami, and for most listeners, the joik comes forward first and foremost as a musical contribution.
At the same time, Boine has been a clear voice advocating for the Sami cause. The song *Oppskrift for herrefolk* (Recipe for the Master Race), the only Norwegian-language track on *Gula Gula*, delivers a sharp critique of how Norwegian authorities handled the Sami minority:
"Let language and culture have their place in museums / As research objects and tourist attractions / Give cheerful speeches at every anniversary / Let what was once a nation be split and die"*
When she debuted at Nattjazz in 1990, Boine was a typical expression of contemporary trends. Nattjazz became one of many platforms where indigenous cultures were introduced to a broader audience. Boine returned to the festival several times during the 1990s. In addition, Nattjazz audiences became familiar with other advocates of indigenous music, such as Sami Nils-Aslak Valkepää (1989) and Mongolian Sainkho Namchylak (1994).
1993, Veslefrekk
Veslefrekk made their Nattjazz debut in 1993, with the then more renowned trumpet player Nils Petter Molvær joining the trio. The Bergen press didn’t take much notice of the concert. But for those who were there, at what became one of the last concerts at the old venue, it must have been a surprising experience. The Veslefrekk performance in a way signaled a new era.
The trio, consisting of Arve Henriksen (trumpet), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards), and Jarle Vespestad, is representative of several trends that have shaped Norwegian jazz from the mid-1990s onward and contributed to the way the Norwegian jazz scene has been perceived in international jazz press: As a scene populated by trained musicians well-versed in jazz traditions, but where eager improvisation takes precedence over inherited forms, allowing the music to challenge people's perceptions of what jazz can be.
The Veslefrekk concert in 1993 is also special because it marked the Nattjazz debut for three musicians who would later go on to have numerous Nattjazz performances with other bands, many of which shared a background in the so-called *jazzlinja* (jazz program) at the Trondheim Conservatory. Bands such as Farmers Market, Stoken Experience, Food, The Trio, Bol, and Køhn/Johansen Sextet.
For Nattjazz, all these bands, along with others emerging from the jazz program, are associated with a more fundamental shift in the festival's programming. Nattjazz was founded with the explicit goal of promoting Bergen jazz, and local bands formed the core of the festival’s programming until well into the 1990s. This goal was gradually abandoned during the first half of the 1990s, and the festival’s program began to reflect an increasing number of bands with roots in the Trondheim jazz program in the next 10-15 years.
Since their debut, Veslefrekk has performed numerous times at Nattjazz, particularly in 1997, when they first collaborated with noise musician Helge Steen. This collaboration marked the beginning of the highly productive and sought-after improvisational band Supersilent.
1994 // First festival at Verftet.
When Nattjazz was forced to move out of Håndverkeren in 1977 and found a new home at the Student Centre, it was in reality a completely new festival that took shape. The venues were larger and more numerous, and the opportunities for increasing revenue and expanding the program grew. The move to Kulturhuset USF, the old sardine factory at Nordnes, in 1994, would have a similar impact.
It wasn’t just the venue that was new in 1994. Jon Skjerdal had replaced Pål Gjersum as the jazz director in the autumn of 1992. With new leadership and new premises, the festival signaled higher and more ambitious goals than before. Nattjazz's time at USF began with several thousand attendees and the legendary *The Band* performing in front of the factory building.
At the Student Centre, the festival usually had two main stages. At USF, the festival had at least three. In 1994, you could hear major artists like the Brecker Brothers, John McLaughlin, Mari Boine, and Salif Keita in the Trædesalen. Sardinen was mostly occupied by local jazz bands like Orleysa, Hot Cargo, and Vincze/Søbstad Group. In addition, narrower or more experimental projects were given a space at Scene USF or the Cinematheque. However, the festival didn’t limit itself to just the USF venues.
Before 1994, Nattjazz had occasionally used venues outside its regular location. In the first years after the move to USF, this became the rule. In 1994, for instance, the audience could hear the Jan Garbarek Quartet at Johanneskirken, Big Town Playboys at Torgallmenningen, and the Danish bassist Niels Henning Ørsted-Pedersen’s commissioned work *Uncharted Land* at Grieghallen.
The 1994 program led some to murmur that there was too much in it that wasn’t jazz. But Jon Skjerdal appeared untroubled in the press. In his usual relaxed style, he stated that debates about whether something was jazz or not weren’t particularly interesting. What mattered was that musicians were given the chance to develop, and that the audience enjoyed what they saw and heard. Perhaps to the frustration of some, but certainly to the festival's relief, it also turned out that long lines and packed venues were not just a feature of the Student Centre.
Perhaps it helped ticket sales that *Bergens Tidende* (BT) called the program a "super program." Whether it was Mongolian folk singing, American mainstream jazz, African rhythms, or promising Bergen jazz guitarists, people showed up. The 1994 festival set a record for both attendance and revenue, and for the first time in three years, Nattjazz could report a real profit.
1996 - 1999 // Creative excess, financial failure. Van the Man.
1996: Funk Fest, Creative Overload, and Financial Disaster
On April 19, 1996, Nattjazz finally announced the big news: they had managed to bring the soul king James Brown to Bergen. Many would say that this was the largest single booking in the festival's 50-year history. However, the arrival of the "Soul King" was just one event among many that made the 1996 festival particularly notable. The program overflowed with creative ideas, but financially, it turned into a disaster that left lasting scars on the festival organization.
The 1996 festival is perhaps the clearest expression of how the thinking around the kind of festival Nattjazz should be underwent fundamental changes in the 1990s. Several years before 1996, parts of the festival leadership had begun touring major European festivals for inspiration. Both festival director Jon Skjerdal and then-chairman Finn Johansen were particularly excited by the Dutch North Sea Jazz Festival. In enormous tents housing thousands of people, you could hear artists for the masses. Yes, major jazz artists, but not only jazz. You could hear everything from soul, funk, and world music legends to artists with a central role in the 1990s popular culture. Could Nattjazz achieve something like this?
The trips to North Sea Jazz inspired the festival leadership with visions of turning Nattjazz into an internationally recognized large-scale festival. The festivals at the dock in the 1990s clearly show how these visions influenced the programming. The program still had a core of jazz, but the leadership thought bigger and more varied. As early as 1995, the audience could hear Herbie Hancock and Mory Kante in a tent outside USF. In 1996, in addition to James Brown, you could hear Cheb Khaled, the singer who brought the Algerian folk music tradition of raï to a wider audience during the 1990s.
Even outside the tents, the program reflected the festival leadership's willingness to look beyond the jazz genre and traditional concert formats. Among the projects that left the strongest impression on the festival’s memory was "Ankle Deep." This project, which opened the festival, was dedicated to Merethe Blinkenberg, the dancer and choreographer who tragically died in the winter of 1995, and was a collaboration between musicians, artists, and dancers. A stage was built at the quay at USF, submerged underwater so it wasn’t visible. The performance was timed to the tides so that the dancers, to music composed by Ole Thomsen, could dance – with water up to their ankles.
In addition to the opening at the water's edge at USF, Luluk Purwanto performed from a bus on Torgallmenningen, and there were concerts at the Aquarium, Ole Bullsplass, Johanneskirken, and the Foyer of Grieghallen.
Inside the venue, Røkeriet was ready for use for the first time. Alongside the tent, the use of Røkeriet, with acts like Freak Power, French Funk Federation, and Brooklyn Funk Essentials, showed how the programming was shifting toward filling the venue with music other than jazz and how funk was the genre of the time. At the same time, jazz-hungry people from Bergen got their share with American heavyweights like the Dave Brubeck Quartet and Dave Holland Quartet, local tributes to Charlie Parker, and jazz-linje-based bands like Jazzjoikensemblet, Kvitretten, and Storytellers. Not least, Bugge Wesseltoft made his festival debut with New Conception of Jazz, a typical fusion of jazz and electronic music that later became one of Norwegian jazz’s greatest export products.
The 1996 Nattjazz offered a musically varied, artistically ambitious, and, not least, expensive program. The vision of creating an internationally recognized festival received a severe reality check when it became clear that the audience didn’t show up in the numbers the festival leadership had hoped for. The newspapers wrote that funk and James Brown "saved Nattjazz." But the reality was that the 1996 festival’s finances were beyond saving. As the financial aftermath became clear and the deficit grew, the Nattjazz board tried to temporarily mask the tragedy with irony: “The consolation is that we’re not talking about dollars,” was the comment about a loss that today would amount to NOK 1.3 million.
However, the irony was quickly set aside, and the passionate Nattjazz community rolled up its sleeves to save the festival. Ten of the festival’s true enthusiasts personally guaranteed the financial solution that satisfied the creditors and ensured that planning for the 25th anniversary in 1997 could begin.
1999: Van The Man
In 1999, the beloved Northern Irish artist Van Morrison headlined the Nattjazz program. With a musical foundation built on hits like *Gloria* (1964), *Brown-eyed Girl* (1967), and the album *Astral Weeks* (Warner, 1968), "Van the Man" had built a reputation over decades as an artist in the "hall-of-fame" class. The expectations for the festival were therefore high, and the fall from grace was steep.
The plan was for the concert to take place in the so-called Kjødehallen at the back of USF. Two months before the festival, Nattjazz had already sold and reserved over 2200 tickets. Then the fire department imposed restrictions on the number of attendees. In order to ensure that as many people as possible could experience Van Morrison, the concert was moved to the square in front of USF. A beautiful summer day with 25°C (77°F) and sunshine meant that the USF square had to be sprayed with seawater to keep the dust down. When the concert started with Little Jimmy Scott, the atmosphere was lively. But when Van Morrison took the stage, the typical Bergen north wind and rain arrived, sweeping over the USF square. It ended – in the words of *Bergensavisen* – as a "scandalous concert."
The experienced and highly regarded Van Morrison delivered the goods, until his road manager interrupted the concert when the lighting rig began swaying in the wind. Despite the audience chanting "we want more," Morrison left the stage after barely an hour. The concert was followed by a weeks-long public backlash in the newspapers. A deeply offended concertgoer summarized the experience in *Bergensavisen* by asking what kind of organization Nattjazz actually was: "Amateurs – or cynical exploiters?"
The booking of Van Morrison was yet another clear expression of the ambition to make Nattjazz a festival of international scope.
2000 - 2003 // Krall and Kyrkjebø. The 30th anniversary. Dee Dee Bridgewater.
2000. Krall and Kyrkjebø in Kjødehallen
Although Kjødehallen was deemed too small for Van Morrison in 1999, the venue was used the same year for performances by major acts like Salif Keita and the John Spencer Blues Explosion. In 2000, the hall concerts became a highlight of the festival.
The festival kicked off in the hall with Nils Petter Molvær, who, for a jazz musician, had unusually high sales with his album *Khmer* (ECM, 1998). Molvær was followed by Cesaria Evora, "the queen of morna," the EBU Orchestra led by Bugge Wesseltoft and Lars Gudim, and the Japanese Shibusashiruza Orchestra. The clear commercial highlight was the "star encounter," as BT called it, between Canadian jazz diva Diana Krall and Bergen's own Sissel Kyrkjebø.
2,300 seated concertgoers had the chance to see Sissel and "jazz's new first lady." Backed by the strong Bergen Big Band, Sissel and Diana performed classic American crooner songs, closing with *Amazing Grace*.
For Nattjazz in 2000, the hall concerts were undoubtedly significant. Ticket sales were far beyond the budget, which helped erase the financial deficit left by the disastrous 1996 festival. Twenty years after Sissel and Diana's performance, it seems somewhat of a rarity that a Nattjazz concert would be followed by a newspaper story where Rune Larsen shared how he was moved to tears. Viewed in the context of Nattjazz's 50-year history, this concert speaks to the diversity and shifts in programming.
2002. 30th Anniversary
"If the sun shines in Bergen at the end of May, we can promise a real folk festival," promised festival director Jon Skjerdal ahead of Nattjazz 2002.
The 2002 program had an exceptionally broad profile. Among the artists who were important both commercially and for Nattjazz's jazz identity at the 30th festival, Jan Garbarek stands out. In 1974, Garbarek had been the festival's first big name, and he had performed at previous anniversaries. He confirmed his status in 2002 by selling out two concerts at Grieghallen. Besides Garbarek, Sidsel Endresen's commissioned work *Living Rooms* was a project with significant artistic prestige.
The tone was set when the opening event became one of the greatest audience successes in the festival's history. In collaboration with the Bergen International Festival, Nattjazz set up a stage at Torgallmenningen, creating a public space estimated to host up to 5,000 people.
For a festival whose soul lies in jazz, it must have felt especially good that the opening took the form of a jazz celebration in one of Bergen's key public spaces. Zawinul Syndicate, led by the 76-year-old and still spry Joe Zawinul, with the Portuguese vocal phenomenon Maria João, kept the audience going for nearly two hours. Later that evening, they filled Røkeriet at USF.
Nattjazz 2002 was packed with artists appealing to different audience segments, drawing people to the venue. Jazz enthusiasts enjoyed performances from Norwegian and international mainstream jazz artists like Urban Connection, Knut Risnæs Qt., Kenny Garrett, and Eliane Elias, as well as freer music from Aaly Trio and Håkon Kornstad Trio.
USF's large venue, Røkeriet, was filled night after night. Ethno music lovers got their fix with Natascha Atlas and Cheick Lô. A reunion with Son Mu and Chipahua attracted 1980s nostalgics. Bergen Big Band, with guest vocalists like Tor Endresen and Erik Røed, made Røkeriet swing with a repertoire of Frank Sinatra's greatest hits. Popular Norwegian bands like Bel Canto and Kaizers Orchestra attracted a wide audience of young adults. The Swedish rockers Kent brought the house down at Røkeriet. This also created issues, as many attendees had not realized they had purchased a ticket for a full house event with multiple concerts, not just Kent's show. As a result, many arrived shortly before Kent took the stage and could not get in.
It wasn't just the opening at Torgallmenningen that brought the festival to an outdoor, non-paying public. A total of 12 free outdoor concerts, most of them at Vågsallmenningen, offered the public a taste of the main program. The most significant event at Vågsallmenningen was a commissioned work for youth, written and arranged by percussionist Terje Isungset. *Rhythmdoctors* was a fusion of rhythmic improvisational music, incorporating elements of hip-hop, with the sounds of basketball players from Ulriken Eagles and live skating samples as rhythmic elements. Volunteers worked overnight to dismantle a large skateboard ramp at Bønes, transport it with a police escort to Vågsallmenningen, assemble it for the concert, then dismantle it afterward and return it to Bønes. This was all done to sample the skaters!
The sum of events in 2002 set a visit record that made Nattjazz Norway's largest jazz festival. The 37,000 recorded visits were a result of the broad program that offered something for everyone, the ambitious format that demanded a lot from the organization, and, not least, the fact that Bergen got the sun the festival organizers needed to pull off the folk festival Jon Skjerdal had promised.
2003. Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater (1950-) is a jazz singer and artist who holds a well-deserved place on jazz festival lineups. In this regard, her Nattjazz debut in 2003 came late.
Bridgewater made her mark in the 1970s as a vocalist in traditional American orchestral jazz, gaining recognition through collaborations with musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, and Max Roach. She also built a career on Broadway. In 1975, she won a Tony Award for Best Actress for her role in the musical *The Wiz*, which the following year won a Grammy for Best Musical Album. As an actress, she is probably best remembered for her role as Billie Holiday in *Lady Day* (1986), a role that allowed her to showcase her full range as both an actress and singer.
The breadth of Bridgewater's career is the foundation for her reputation not just as a powerful jazz vocalist and interpreter of "the American songbook," but also as a live performer with a rare stage presence. She was described as "vulgar, sensual, and sparkling" and was praised for her rare ability to combine "raw folkiness with refined vocal artistry," according to BT's Einar Engelstad after her 2003 performance.
Ten years later, in 2013, Bridgewater returned to Nattjazz and had the honor of opening a newly renovated Røkeriet.
2007 // Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
The American soul vocalist Sharon Jones (1956–2016) and the musicians of The Dap Kings are probably the performance that stands out most in the memory of the 2007 festival.
Sharon Jones had a background as a gospel singer, prison guard, and security officer. She was well into adulthood when, in 1996, after impressing as a backing vocalist for the band Soul Providers, she got the chance to perform in a more professional format. Soul Providers would later transform into The Dap Kings, a band with a remarkable ability to maintain a steady and swinging groove.
With The Dap Kings behind her, Jones released a series of critically acclaimed albums in the 2000s. They became popular among DJs and were a frequent presence at both jazz and rock festivals. As the front figures of Daptone Records, Jones and the band were largely credited with revitalizing soul and funk as popular genres in the 2000s.
With a musical expression and authenticity that made Røkeriet sound like a dive bar in a 1970s blaxploitation film, they kept the audience going for several hours during the Pentecost weekend of 2007.
2009 // Stein & Mari
"Experimental enough that it wasn’t entirely everyday fare. At the same time, it was down-to-earth enough that an ordinary music ear never got lost in the turns." This was how the debut performance at Nattjazz by the duo Stein and Mari was described in *Bergens Tidende* (BT).
The duo Stein and Mari consists of Stein Urheim (1979-) and Mari Kvien Brunvoll (1984-), both of whom have backgrounds from the jazz program at the Grieg Academy. They are both characterized by what is often considered a hallmark of jazz musicians: confident in their own expression, technically brilliant, and with an ability to create what listeners perceive as genuine listening experiences.
Both have also been celebrated in jazz circles, receiving awards like the Vossajazz Prize and others. However, neither is particularly known for playing jazz, at least not in the form people often refer to when they use terms like "real jazz." Their music is often quiet and beautiful, almost always taking unexpected directions, but seemingly with few connections to traditional jazz.
Over the past 10-15 years, Stein and Mari have established themselves as two of the key new voices in the Bergen jazz and improvisation scene, with backgrounds from the Grieg Academy. Along with other musicians with similar backgrounds, such as Øyvind Skarbø and Øyvind Hegg Lunde, Stein and Mari represent a new generation of locally rooted musicians who have left their mark on Nattjazz.
2012 // The City Neighborhood Festival in Vågsbunnen
Through 50 years, Nattjazz's format has been changed several times. With one exception, however, an important aspect of the format has remained unchanged. With the exception of Nattjazz 2012, all festivals have been based in one venue. Nattjazz 2012, on the other hand, was a district festival without a clear central festival hub, located "in the most charming neighborhood of the city" – as the proposal to local politicians described it.
Images of summer-dressed and smiling crowds gathered closely together between the small houses of Skostredet emphasize how different this was from previous festivals. "An infectious success," it was called in *Bergens Tidende* (BT). The festival demonstrated the potential of the neighborhood. By the middle of the festival, Nattjazz had reached 90% of its budget, and the local business community cheered for a near-continuous street party. In hindsight, it's somewhat difficult to imagine that this festival could have been held elsewhere. But it was by no means a given that Nattjazz 2012 would be held in Vågsbunnen as a neighborhood festival. On the contrary. When it was decided that USF would undergo a major renovation, the festival organization sought something familiar, another venue that could house the entire festival. Unused industrial plots, the old fire station in the city center. There were plenty of proposals. But all of them were either too small or simply too difficult to convert into a festival area.
It was Jonathan Krzywinski, Nattjazz's problem solver number one, who came up with the idea. Through many years of professional work with the City Conservation Officer and with an office at the end of Østre Skostredet, Jonathan saw the opportunities that lay in the neighborhood and the cultural value of holding Nattjazz there. He had the professional weight and organizational understanding needed to convince others that Nattjazz 2012 could and should take place in Vågsbunnen. Above all, he had the local knowledge and determination necessary to lead the several-week-long volunteer effort required to transform the area into a small festival village with concert venues where Nattjazz could present both large and small acts. Nattjazz 2012 would not have become what it did without Jonathan.
The festival area in Vågsbunnen used venues that had previously been used for concerts and other cultural activities, as well as areas built from scratch. The area had four main stages, along with several smaller indoor and outdoor stages used sporadically.
Banco Rotto was divided into two, and the bar area closest to Skostredet was named "Banken." Banken hosted artists like Kurt Elling, The Bad Plus, and Needlepoint. It was a space for informal music in a casual setting, catering to an audience with a clear interest in jazz and related rhythmic music. Korskirken provided a more "formal" setting, requiring a disciplined seated audience.
With a capacity of around 400, Korskirken was used for more acoustic performances, often featuring subdued and accessible jazz and improvisational music. Performances included solo concerts by Ståle Storløkken and Bugge Wesseltoft, as well as larger, more rhythmically oriented ensembles such as Bergen Big Band and the Hannah Paulsberg Concept. "Trykkeriet," a former printing press location, was specially rigged for the festival. Trykkeriet accommodated 70 people and hosted free jazz, noise, and other forms of improvisational music, with bands like Splashgirl, Andtratx, and Marvel Machine.
The artists expected to draw the largest crowds performed on "Kaien," an outdoor stage with space for about 1,500 people, set up on a parking lot tucked behind the houses of Skostredet and Østre Skostredet. Particularly in the first part of the festival, people gathered on Kaien in the warming spring evening sun to hear American Esperanza Spalding, Goran Bregovic’s Balkan party music, and Swedish cult rockers Bob Hund.
*Each individual stage had its charm and served its purpose. But it was the crowds between Nattjazz's temporary stages and the established bars that created the "street parties," with thirsty and satisfied bar and festivalgoers strolling between concerts and other meeting points, exchanging listening experiences and more.
Although the temperature literally dropped in the second half of the festival and showed how dependent such a festival was on the weather, the entire event was so successful that the festival management considered staying in Vågsbunnen. When USF was ready again in 2013, with a newly renovated and technically upgraded Røkeri and new bar and concert areas, the overall assessment still concluded that the costs and risks of staying in Vågsbunnen were too high, and the long-term opportunities at USF were more attractive. Therefore, after a brief interlude in the city, Nattjazz returned to cultivating the festival grounds at USF.
2013 // Reggie Watts
"Comedian, musician, and performance artist" all in one person. That was Reggie Watts, who had the honor of closing Nattjazz 2013.
Watts studied jazz in the first half of the 1990s. He made a name for himself as a musician, first as the frontman for Maktub, a band that operated in the borderlands between hip-hop, soul, and rock, and as the keyboardist for Wayne Horvitz's band, another genre-blending artist. Watts began experimenting with live music looping early on, and from the early 2000s, he increasingly integrated comedic elements into his music. Building a career based on this mix of comedy and music, he gained prominence in the 2000s through radio, YouTube, and, notably, the comedy channel Comedy Central. By the time he performed at Nattjazz in 2013, he had truly begun to make a name for himself.
Yo, Uh. Word. Adjective. Pronoun. Adverb. / Run on and on and on. / Where my gerunds at? / Parenthetical, uh.
Watts' lyrics make no sense, and that's kind of the point. He has stated that his aim is to "disinform" and "disorient" his audience. Live, he appears as a comedic, musical one-man absurd theater show. He's more than a competent instrumentalist, an excellent and unpredictable beatboxer, and has a huge voice that controlled drifts through a musical landscape spanning several octaves.
2015 // Emilie Nicholas
It was with an electronic, English-language cover version of the Dum Dum Boys classic "Pstereo" that Emilie Nicolas made her mark in the minds of Norwegian listeners in 2013. The song was a commission for the Pstereo festival in Trondheim. The fact that Nicolas received this commission is clear evidence that someone recognized early on that she had potential beyond being a vocalist trained in jazz at the Trondheim Conservatory of Music.
Nicolas won a Spellemann Award (the Norwegian Grammy) for Best Newcomer and Best Pop Artist for her album *Like I’m a Warrior* (Universal RCA, 2014). Her distinctive tone and talent for writing big, catchy songs quickly made her a popular feature at Norwegian festivals. Her jazz background also gave her a particular appeal for festivals like Nattjazz.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Nattjazz aimed to give the festival commercial appeal by featuring big international artists. However, maintaining this profile became increasingly difficult for several reasons. Touring patterns changed, and the sponsorship market dried up in the latter half of the 2000s. The room for maneuver became smaller. At the same time, the festival consciously redefined its profile, setting an ambition to become more "progressive." The goal is for 70 percent of the music at the festival to be composed in the year leading up to the event.
A highly attentive audience filled Røkeriet to capacity when Nicolas performed on the last Saturday of 2015. As a headliner, Emilie Nicolas is a perfect example of how the goal of presenting new and often innovative music can be combined with commercial appeal and a narrower financial scope.
2019 // Skarbø Skulekorps. Hedvig Mollestad.
Skarbø Skulekorps
The brass band movement received an unexpected boost when Øyvind Skarbø's commissioned work *Skarbø Skulekorps* debuted at Røkeriet in 2019. Since then, the band has marched onto concert stages both at home and abroad, and has released two of its own albums. The band was last seen in prime time on the Norwegian talk show *Lindmo*.
Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen
With the prestigious commission to write the work for Vossajazz in 2018, guitarist Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen marked herself as a significant figure in Norwegian jazz. The reception of *Ekhidna*, the piece performed at its world premiere at Voss, made it one of the highlights of Nattjazz the same year. The recording of the work later won both the Edvard Prize and the Spellemann Award.
Mollestad has collaborated with numerous artists both within and outside of jazz. Most people probably associate her with her own trio, *Hedvig Mollestad Trio*, which, in addition to Mollestad, consists of Ivar Loe Bjørnstad (drums) and Ellen Brekken (bass). The trio delivers a mix of jazz and hard rock, making them popular on both jazz and rock stages.
From a jazz historical perspective, Mollestad is also interesting as part of the growing number of prominent female instrumentalists in Norwegian and Nordic jazz. Until the 1990s, the number of women who had performed at the festival could be counted on one hand, with the number of female instrumentalists being even fewer. Since 2005, the proportion of bands with female musicians, with few exceptions, has remained above 35%, and in 2019, for the first time, the percentage was over 50. Increasingly, these women are instrumentalists, and they are often active in multiple bands at the same time.
The representation of women at Norwegian festivals has been a hot topic, especially since 2010. Nattjazz, like many others, has faced criticism for having too few women on its program. The increasing percentage of women at Nattjazz is due in part to more conscious programming, but also because the jazz scene itself is changing. That female musicians are literally making more noise will likely contribute to strengthening the recruitment of future female jazz musicians. This is a welcome self-reinforcing effect that will, in turn, make the job of festivals easier in the future.
2020-2021 // Jazz festival in the age of corona
Spring 2020 will be remembered for a long time, but probably not for live music experiences. For Jon Skjerdal, it was the first year since 1993 that he did not organize Nattjazz. For both him and the rest of the festival organization, the spring became a sort of vacuum, and in a vacuum, there is little one can do.
An event did take place, however. In Håkonshallen, a few members of the festival team and technicians were able to hear a band led by trumpeter Mathias Eick perform *Kind of Blue* – Miles Davis's groundbreaking 1959 album. The project was a collaboration with the Bergen International Festival and was meant to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the album's release. While only a few were physically present to hear the band live, the streaming made it the Nattjazz concert that reached the most people.
When the decision to cancel Nattjazz 2020 was made, there was a sense of relief in the organization. They were free from all the uncertainty related to whether and how a festival could be held. 2021, however, was something entirely different.
During the planning phase for the 2021 festival, it became clear early on that the festival could be held in some form. It was also clear that the festival organization felt that one year of hiatus was enough. The result of the planning was a 16-day festival with two concerts every day. How many people could be allowed in was uncertain for a long time. Initially, the limit was 100, but the number was increased over the course of the festival. The requirements for distancing, contact tracing, and safety protocols meant that much more effort had to go into planning and preparedness. While this was the lowest number of concerts at Nattjazz since the last year at Håndverkeren in 1977, it was also the longest festival and the one that required the most work per concert.
For concert-hungry audiences, the festival offered concerts that, in a way, were tailored for a disciplined and attentive crowd. In a clearly marked Røkeri, the audience could sit quietly and listen to the concerts, while busy waiters brought what they needed. The program was also well-suited to this format. It was the most focused program of Norwegian jazz since the early years at Håndverkeren. The festival opened with Osing Marius Neset and Bergen Big Band, followed by the Hanna Paulsberg Concept. Arild Andersen Group played for two evenings, and the audience was finally able to hear the *Kind of Blue* project live. It also seemed fitting for a festival of such a subdued format to feature the first-ever "disputation" in Nattjazz history: *Kjetil Møster – Playing the Electric Saxophone*.
When the festival was canceled in 2020, many of the artists were moved to the 2021 program. And when it became clear that the 2021 festival would be limited and without international guests, many were again transferred to 2022. The fact that these musicians wanted to "keep going" says a lot about the uncertainty that has characterized their daily lives. In 2022, the time finally came for John Scofield, Avishai Cohen, and many, many others.