Tord Gustavsen feat. Simin Tander

Perhaps one of the most important tasks of a jazz festival is to provide a stage to all the wonderful, complex diversity that national socialist zealots are trying to get rid of. If there is music that was born a bastard and founds its entire self-concept on this fact, it is jazz. On his new album “What Was Said”, Tord Gustavsen presents an unusual mix of very different musical influences and poetic voices. Together with his longstanding companion Jarle Vespestad (dr), the Norwegian pianist has once again got together with a new singer: Simin Tander grew up in Germany, has an Afghan father and sings in her father’s mother tongue Pashto, amongst others. At first, it seems a little off the drawing board but then creates magical moments: on “What Was Said”, released on ECM, Tander sings Norwegian church songs in Pashto, and lyrics from the great poet Rumi poems are translated into English which go into dialogue with poems by U.S. poet Kenneth Rexroth, who in turn was an admirer of Rumi. Two instrumental pieces build bridges between the different levels that this album connects with each other. The result: delicate, sparsely instrumentalised pieces that open up new rooms in which the most impossible encounters become possible.