Tord Gustavsen

Tord Gustavsen
Gustavsen with Simin Tander and Jarle Vespestad at Cosmopolite Scene in Oslo during Vinterjazz 2016
Background information
Born	5 October 1970 Oslo, Norway
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, bandleader
Instrument(s)	Piano
Years active	2003–present
Labels	ECM
Website	tordg.no/index_2.html

Tord Gustavsen (born 5 October 1970) is a Norwegian jazz pianist and composer. He tours extensively worldwide, and he has been a bandleader for a trio, ensemble and quartet at various times, all bearing his name.

Early life

Gustavsen was born on 5 October 1970 in Oslo and raised in rural Hurdal, Akershus. He "grew up playing church music".

Later life and career

Gustavsen holds a bachelor's degree (mellomfag) in psychology at the University of Oslo, before he attended the Trondheim Musikkonsevatorium for a three years study of jazz (1993–96). Thereafter he became a graduate (Cand.philol.) of musicology at the University of Oslo, where he was guest teacher of jazz piano and theory (1998–2002).

Between 2003 and 2007 The Tord Gustavsen Trio released three albums on ECM Records. The trio was made up of Gustavsen on piano, Harald Johnsen on double bass and Jarle Vespestad on drums. The albums "contained rapt, pristine, meditative music, which resonated with the inner needs of a large, discriminating audience": combined sales exceeded 100,000. The trio won the Nattjazz prize in 2005.

A later ensemble was composed of Gustavsen, Tore Brunborg (saxophones), Mats Eilertsen (bass) and Vespestad (drums). With vocalist Kristin Asbjørnsen added for some tracks, the album Restored, Returned was recorded in 2009. The album was awarded with Spellemannsprisen (the Norwegian Grammy). The quartet's follow-up, The Well, was released in 2012. That year, Gustavsen played over four days at the Montreal Jazz Festival: with the quartet, as a solo pianist and in a duo with vocalist Solveig Slettahjell. The quartet album Extended Circle two years later "reveals a new edginess and dynamic impact that the quartet brings to Gustavsen's music."

In addition, he has recorded as a session musician, and guested on friends' albums. Collaborative projects have included Norwegian jazz vocalist and songwriter Silje Nergaard, musician Carl Petter Opsahl, actress Cecilie Jørstad and drummer Rune Arnesen, duo aire & angels and jazz vocalist Siri Gjære. He also took part in Nymark Collective established by Kåre Nymark. Since 2014 Gustavsen has collaborated with the German-Afghan jazz singer Simin Tander, releasing the album What Was Said (2016). They also performed at the 2016 Vinterjazz and the 2016 Vossajazz in Norway.

Gustavsen continues to be highly interested in psychology and has written a lengthy thesis on the paradoxes of improvisation, drawing on the dialectical psychological theory of Helm Stierlin and Anne-Lise Løvlie Schibbye.

Honors

• 2005: Nattjazzprisen (for the Tord Gustavsen Trio)
• 2009: Spellemannprisen in the class Jazz (for the Tord Gustavsen Ensemble)

Discography

Albums

Collaborations

aire & angels duo with Siri Gjære

• aire & angels (1999)
• aire & angels II (2002)

Nymark Collective

• First meeting (2000)
• Contemporary tradition (2002)
• Bessie Smith Revisited - Live in concert (2008) - with Kristin Asbjørnsen

Silje Nergaard

• Port of Call (2000)
• At First Light (2001)
• Nightwatch (2003)
• The Essential + Live in Koln[DVD] (2005)

SKRUK

• SKRUK / Rim Banna Krybberom (2003)
• SKRUK / Torun Sævik / Cecilie Jørstad Sommerlandet (2004)
• SKRUK / Nymark Collective dype stille sterke milde (2006)
• SKRUK / Mahsa Vahdat I vinens Speil (2010)

Carl Petter Opsahl

• Indigodalen (Heilo, 2001)
• Improvisions (Park Grammofon, 2005)
• Love, The Blues (Park Grammofon, 2008)

Other projects

• Whoopin (2001)
• Humans & Places (2006) with Ulrich Drechsler Quartet
• ID (2007) with Anna Maria Jopek
• Sorgen og gleden (2008) with various artists
• Natt i Betlehem (2008) with Solveig Slettahjell (Peaked in NOR: #32)