Nils Petter Molvaer Trío

• Reduced mobility
• Magnetic loop

Following in the footsteps of what we’re seeing at some European festivals, electro-jazz continues to carve out a space for itself in the JAZZMADRID programme. And what better way to prove it and add some sparkle to this year’s edition than with a concert by one of the great exponents of this trend, none other than the Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer.

This musician’s performances seem to have been designed for fans who aren’t satisfied with the history of jazz and want to see what’s going on right now. We certainly can’t say that Molvaer’s name isn’t already familiar to us here at JAZZMADRID, because he visited us back in 2016, accompanied by Jamaicans Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. He returned two years later, this time leading his own band.

Molvaer has always marched to the beat of his own drum. It is no secret that the trumpeter has always been looking for new ways to develop jazz. Shortly after he turned 21, he was involved in the formation of Masqualero, a group that also featured saxophonist Tore Brunborg, double bassist Arild Andersen and drummer Jon Christensen, all of whom, like him, were Norwegians.

Nils Petter Molvaer, however, needed more sonic freedom and decided to lead his own projects from now on. Not only that, but for quite some time he had been seduced by the rhythmic heartbeat of drum ‘n’ bass, and the results of his explorations could be heard on his two recordings at the end of the millennium, each one more interesting than the other: Khmer and Solid Ether.

To the naked ear, this music may well seem to be a blueprint for the future, but in reality the driving force behind Molvaer’s creativity is rooted in the sonic evocations of Miles Davis and, above all, Jon Hassell, whose earthy trumpet sound Molvaer embroiders with real panache. Sparkling in the fast tempos, inspired and with a haunting lyrical gravity in the quieter ones, taken as a whole, this trumpeter offers a suggestive aesthetic palette that has accumulated to date almost twenty published albums.

In this work, the alternation of electronic elements with the dynamic improvisation of jazz is responsible for a musical aesthetic that remains allergic to classification. And, in its final materialisation, it is only fair to acknowledge the solidity and originality of the musicians with whom Molvaer always accompanies himself. With them, the trumpeter will once again thrill us, interpreting, we anticipate, compositions from his latest albums, Nordub, from 2018, SulaMadiana, from 2020, and Stitches, from 2021. Music in which poetry of an unknown Scandinavian nature is always equally as present as electronic calculation; compositions that capture the sonorous atmosphere of the Antarctic, but also the scorching sands of the desert… Molvaer is a living contradiction. And it is precisely this detail that makes his music a fascinating art.