Norwegians have apparently recognized that their chance to play a role in the past of jazz is gone, so they have decided to press ahead to win themselves a place in the future of jazz. The most innovative and most exciting initiatives of the past fifteen years have come from the land of the fjords rather than from overseas. Some of the more conservative enthusiasts of the genre toll the alarm on hearing that drum’n’bass and trip-hop replace the swing beat and electronic sound is increasingly gaining ground. Of course the conservative platform is seriously challenged by the valid argument that these new initiatives might after all be more in keeping with the true spirit of jazz that used to be a style of great popularity meant to be danced to: the so-called nu jazz, or future jazz disks by the northern colleagues are sold in the hundreds of thousands and it is simply impossible to stay seated while listening to their music.
A huge concert of the Autumn Festival brings to the audience the best in Norwegian jazz, providing an insight into what might be the most exciting witch’s kitchen of contemporary jazz. The performers include Beady Belle lead by Beate S. Lech, a singer with a magical voice. Humcrush, a duo playing a kind of futuristic electro-jazz accompanies Sidsel Endresen, a singer with a voice impossible to pigeonhole. This northern goddess is capable of producing the most different sounds and when she is singing in the traditional way, we suddenly find ourselves overwhelmed with all that northern people know about long winters and loneliness. The biggest shot of the night will certainly be the appearance of Bugge Wesseltoft, a pianist already a legend despite his young age who, over and above playing solo, will also perform a few compulsory exercises with the DJ group, Mungolian Jet Set. Wesseltoft who first made his name as a classical jazz piano virtuoso, committed himself to electronic dance music in the mid-1990s, releasing his New Conception of Jazz, a record that might be immodest in its title but is certainly epoch-making in content and has won him a Grammy award.

Many of the former big names in rock and pop are but pitiful shadows of themselves often driven to continued concert engagements by the sheer need to earn money. However, Adrian Belew, the man who once revived King Crimson and worked with Frank Zappa and David Bowie is an entirely different category. The role he had played in the history of his field of music has certainly made his one of the big names of the past, yet, he might be envied by the youngest generation for his new and fresh approach to music. The Adrian Belew Power Trio in which twenty-one year old Julie Licks [bass guitar] and her brother, just one year her senior, Erick Licks [drums] play with the front man without any apparent generation problems is a shining example to prove the point. The group Adrian had formed with his two former pupils incorporates in its style all Belew’s musical experiences from progressive rock to experimental jazz.