Tord Gustavsen: The Best Tord Album You Never Heard! The Jazz Trio's "Seeing" & Ulrich Drechsler

Playlist Link: The Lesser Known Tord Years - Before ECM:    • Tord Gustavsen -The lesser known "early ye...   Tord Gustavsen : One of my favorite artists of the last 20 years, a Norwegian jazz pianist, has recorded on over thirty albums... from his first Aire & Angels album with Siri Gjaere, to his most recent release, Seeing, on ECM records, Tord never fails to impress! Tord seemed to be heading in a different direction years ago as he graduated from the University of Oslo with a psychology, sociology, and comparative religion degree... but music was always in his life, even from the young age of 4. It seemed, music was deep within the mind and soul of Tord as after graduating, he pursued a musicology degree and was soon accepted into the jazz department at a music school in Trondheim. During the 1990s, Tord was forming and playing with several different jazz bands and was playing out frequently... all the while maturing and honing his musical sound and direction. When recording started for Tord in the late 1990s, it did not ever slow down. In only a few short years, he had recorded 10 or 15 albums with many different groups including the Nymark Collective, Skruk, Silje Nergaard, the Carl Petter Opsahl band, Siri Gjaere, and more. His early connections with several artist/musicians proved quite stabilizing as he found musical friendships that would become lifelong. Several of these included Jan Erik Kongshaug who he worked with on several albums and his very first album with Aire & Angels and who was a strong connection with the ECM label; Jarle Vespestad - who has now recorded and toured on almost literally dozens of albums with Tord; Harald Johnsen - who Tord had the pleasure of sharing three of his most beautiful and life-defining albums of his career with, but who suddenly and tragically passed away after their third album together; and Mats Eilertsen, who Tord has played with in a variety of bands and settings. Tord continued on after Harald Johnsen, as he and Jarle restarted with a new series of albums featuring a central quartet formation with Tore Brunborg & Mats Eilertsen. The first of these albums was Restored, Returned which also added Kristin Asbjornsen singing some poetic artistic melodies with the quartet. Two more albums followed with just the quartet - The Well, and Extended Circle. And then Tord changed slightly as he made "What Was Said" only with Jarle Vespestad and with Simin Tander on sparse, meditative vocals. Tord returned again to the Trio setting in 2018 with "The Other Side." Other prominent Norwegian jazz musicians include the more modern names like Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Matthias Eick, and Tore Brunborg; but also the classic ECM artists like Arild Andersen, Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Ketil Bjornstad, and Jon Christensen. Tord has been playing out promoting the Seeing record with Jarle Vespestad and Steinar Raknes. Look for them playing near you! You REALLY need to see the magic of Tord & Co. Tord Gustavsen Trio: Feb 25 - Lugano, Switzerland Feb 26 - Stuttgart, Germany: Theaterhaus Feb 27 - Munchen, Germany: Unterfahrt Jazzclub - the Norway of Jazz Feb 28 - Regensburg, Germany: Jazz club Regensburg March 6 - Bergen, Norway: University Aula -with Trygve Seim March 7 - Tonsberg, Norway: with Tonsberg Docker and Mathias Eick March 8 - Oslo, Norway: University Aula Seriene with Trygve Seim: Inner Chorals - Bach March 13 - Hamm, Germany - Kurhaus Bad Hamm March 17 - Vancouver BC, Canada - CapU Jazz Series, BlueShore Events - Scandinavian piano jazz March 18 - San Diego, Ca - La Jolla -Athenaeum Jazz -Music & Arts Library March 19 - LA, Ca - Irvine Barclay Theatre March 20-21 - San Francisco, Ca - SF Jazz - Joe Henderson Lab March 22.- Inverness, Ca - Music + Minds March 25 - Helena, Mt - The Myrna Loy March 27 - Athens, Georgia - Ramsey Concert Hall UGA - University of Georgia March 28 - Savannah, Georgia - Trinity United Methodist Church - Savanna Music Festival March 29 - North Bethesda, Maryland - Strathmore at The Mansion April 4 - Hurdal, Norway - solo concert April 24 - Inderoy, Norway -Soddjazz 2026 Festival May 9 - Paliesius Manor, Lithuania - solo piano concert #jazzmusician #ecm #vinylrecords #jazzpianist #nonesuch #recordstoreday