Terje Rypdal

[Mister Triscuits]

Happy birthday to Terje!

[Zeuhlmate]

[Udi Koomran]

[Zeuhlmate]

1981

[mozo-pg]

1981

Really, very impressive!

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ I will -never- forget watching that on live transmission back when I was 10 years old; it was by far the strangest and loveliest music I'd ever heard and/or seen on television. We only had one channel here in Norway up until 1992, the state-run NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation), and they pinpointed prominent programs like this (or indeed the Euro Song Contest aka. Melodi Grand Prix) to fit with schedules wherein they hoped for people to stay more or less collectively at home and sit around the set.

It's still odd yet highly beguiling how someone would actually expect for folks to sit through four minutes straight of this kind of meditative sound, especially in hindsight now that youngsters in particular can't seem to endure anything specific for more than a minute if there's nothing "in it" for them.

[mozo-pg]

^^Terje must have been a star in Norway. It's cool you saw this as a youngster. I watched the clip with my wife, who had no involvement with this type of music before we met, and she was struck by its beauty and emotion. It's hard to articulate but it's almost like he takes an entirely new approach to guitar playing, like Fripp, and creates sounds not typical with the usual guitar player.

[Rick L.]

Nice.

[GuitarGeek]

I was kinda taken aback some time ago, when I looked up Rypdal's catalog on Wikipedia, and realized how much of his 70's and 80's output I have. Except for the eponymous album (his second album as a leader, first one on ECM), Blue and Undisonous, I have every single album he did during the 70's, 80's and 90's, on either CD or LP (and sometimes both).

So this weekend, I decided to buy the downloads from Amazon, of the eponymous album, What Comes After, Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away, and After The Rain. Except for the eponymous record, I have all of those on vinyl (bought back in the 90's, I think What Comes After was bought at a thrift store), but really haven't listened to them in ages. I now have every album Rypdal released as a leader from the eponymous album up through Chaser. I also got Barre Phillips' Three Day Moon, the bassist's 1979 album, which Rypdal also played on.

So last night, I listened to Terje Rypdal (I mean the album, silly) for the very first time. That strikes me as a very sort of free jazz record, less "fusion" there, except for the electric instrumentation, and especially Terje's always evocative guitar playing. Also kinda nice to his (now ex-)wife Inger Lise Rypdal's vocals on the one track she appeared on, I think it was Electric Fantasy.

I reacquainted myself with What Comes After, having probably not listened to it in over 20 years. I actually bought my LP copy, I think, at a thrift store my mom used to frequent. I'd go in occasionally to check the LP's, and I think sometime around 94 or so, I found that one. Probably only paid a buck for it. This album kinda seems like an extension of the free-ish areas of the previous record. It's almost a power trio kinda sound, because you've got Terje, Jon Christensen (who also played on the previous record) on drums, and there's two bassist credited, both Barre Phillips and Sveinung Hovensjø, though I'm not sure if they play together or if they alternate on different tracks. And there's also an oboist/English Hornist named Erik Niord Larsen, who plays on one or two tracks, I think. Anyway, it's a solid record. But it still feels like "baby steps" toward the next string of records, which I think are where Terje really hit his stride.

So this afternoon, I spent some time with first Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away and then Odyssey. Side one of the former finds the Rypdal/Christensen/Hovensjø trio joined by a French hornist and a keyboardist (playing electric piano, and wonder of wonders! A Mellotron, making a rare appearance on a "jazz" record). Side two is the title piece, Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away (Image for Electric Guitar and Orchestra), which I believe was the first Terje's "classical" pieces to be released. Fantastic music on this record. I think this is what Gustav Mahler might have sounded like if he had played guitar and led a "fusion" group.

Odyssey I consider to be one of the greatest of all "fusion" records. Originally a double LP (I own it in that format), here Rypdal again expands his group by adding an organist and trombonist, and really pulls out all the stops. My only thing is, I sometimes wish sides three and four had been reversed. See, the album opens with a track called Darkness Falls, and the last track on side three, Ballade, has always sounded like the sunrise, if you know what I mean. So to me, Ballade should have been the last track on the album (on the original CD release, it was, because side four was left off altogether). I dunno what to say about this record, to me this is in the same pantheon as Bitches Brew, A Tribute To Jack Johnson etc.

It's worth noting that the 3 CD reissue of Odyssey also includes an album length piece, recorded back in 74 or 75 but unreleased until this set came out a few years ago, called Unfinished Highballs, which is an extended suite of big band pieces, commissioned for and broadcast by Norwegian Radio. Again, this shows another side of Rypdal's music you don't often hear on his small band ECM records.

Since I decided to play everything I have in order, I have to stop here, because I'm in the middle of Rolling Stone, that LP side length piece from side four of Odyssey.

[GuitarGeek]

Now I'm listening to After The Rain, which took a different direction from the previous albums. Rypdal ditches the rhythm section here and does a mostly solo recording, with himself playing guitars, keyboards, flute, soprano sax, and percussion. His then-wife Inger Lise also appears on one track. This is slightly in the "new age" vibe, but I suppose it's in keeping with some of the other more sort of pastoral things I've heard from ECM, say Ralph Towner or Jan Garbarek.

[GuitarGeek]

that song was played on the radio constantly in 1968... UGH! Harper Valley PTA... like it was yesterday

I was wondering if anyone besides me recognized it. What's even crazier is, I don't know how many decades later, certainly not before the late 80's, but she did a techno remake of Fru Johnson. If you know the song, you'll recognize the vocal melody, but she's singing over this sort of techno dance mix drum machine backing. Hilarious.

[jkelman]

I was
It's worth noting that the 3 CD reissue of Odyssey also includes an album length piece, recorded back in 74 or 75 but unreleased until this set came out a few years ago, called Unfinished Highballs, which is an extended suite of big band pieces, commissioned for and broadcast by Norwegian Radio. Again, this shows another side of Rypdal's music you don't often hear on his small band ECM records.

Since I decided to play everything I have in order, I have to stop here, because I'm in the middle of Rolling Stone, that LP side length piece from side four of Odyssey.

I'm very familiar with the Odyssey Old & New Masters Edition box, since I wrote the liners ..I'd met Terje on a few occasions, but it was great to be able to sit down, well, on Skype, and talk to him about this very important record, the real "arrival" of his unique flip on things, where instead of the rhythm section playing rubato on many of the tracks, they play time, and it's Rypdal and trombonist Torbjørn Sunde who later rubato lines (sometimes unison, sometimes in hamony, sometimes interweaving) over top. I love the idea, with these lovely melodies floating on top of a strong rhythm section groove.

I will also note, re Unfinished Highballs, that despite being relatively rare then, 2009's Crime Scenes pairs Rypdal, his Skywards band and longtime occasional partner, Dutch trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg, with the Bergen Big Band. I was actually at the show, in Bergen, where it was premiered at the city's annual Nattjazz festival.

Anyway, check out Crime Scenes. I was lucky that ECM decided to use some of my photos from the show in the CD booklet!

Cheers!
John
PS: There is a lot of material that artists perform live that never make it to record. Shame!

[GuitarGeek]

So now I've moved onto Waves. I think this might have been one of teh records I borrowed from the library when I was in high school. In any case, it was one of the first Rypdal albums I owned so it's definitely an early addition to the collection. This is one of my favorites. In particular, I love Per Ulv, love the way it starts with the rhythm box, and then band comes in and everything. Years later, when I was on AOL and had discovered a Rypdal mailing list, I learned that Per Ulv is Wile E. Coyote's Norwegian name. Other great numbers here include Stenskoven and The Dane Curse, the latter being an adaptation of one of the movements of Rypdal's second symphony.

[jkelman]

Now I'm listening to After The Rain, which took a different direction from the previous albums. Rypdal ditches the rhythm section here and does a mostly solo recording, with himself playing guitars, keyboards, flute, soprano sax, and percussion. His then-wife Inger Lise also appears on one track. This is slightly in the "new age" vibe, but I suppose it's in keeping with some of the other more sort of pastoral things I've heard from ECM, say Ralph Towner or Jan Garbarek.

At the time (I bought it when it came out), I really loved it because it was so different.

[GuitarGeek]

.

I was actually at the show, in Bergen, where it was premiered at the city's annual Nattjazz festival.

Lucky you. I've never had the chance to see Rypdal perform.

I kinda lost track of what he was doing after the mid 90's. I think Skywards might be the last album I have from him. I know every once in awhile I hear about a new album here or there, but I've been a bit lax in picking up the new stuff for about the last 20 or so years, I guess. But I'm intending to rectify that in the near future.

PS: There is a lot of material that artists perform live that never make it to record. Shame!

Well, yeah, that's true, too. Lots of examples of that, actually, now that I think about it.

[Rick L.]

If you don't have If Mountains Could Sing, check that sucker out. I really dig that one.

[jkelman]

If you don't have If Mountains Could Sing, check that sucker out. I really dig that one.

Absolutely! I've got all his stuff.,, "The Return of Per Ulv," which opens the album, is one of his most memorably melodic compositions, ever!

[GuitarGeek]

If you don't have If Mountains Could Sing, check that sucker out. I really dig that one.

Yeah, I think I have that one. Isn't that the one with Return Of Per Ulv on it?

Edit: Never mind. Question already answered.

[jkelman]

Lucky you. I've never had the chance to see Rypdal perform.

I kinda lost track of what he was doing after the mid 90's. I think Skywards might be the last album I have from him. I know every once in awhile I hear about a new album here or there, but I've been a bit lax in picking up the new stuff for about the last 20 or so years, I guess. But I'm intending to rectify that in the near future. .

Back when I was traveling a lot, between 2008-14, spending roughly 3-4 weeks a year in Norway, I actually got the chance to see him quite a few times. But before that I saw him with the Skywards Trio in Montréal, 1997, and before that, also in Montreal, in a double bill with Ralph Towner & John Abercrombie, in 1980. Rypdal was touring his Descendre album, with Palle Mikkelborg and Jon Christensen. Great shows both, but apparently he didn't much like flying, so didn't come over here often, unfortunately.

Other than Crime Scenes, , other shows I saw in Norway and, one in Germany, included his trio with Miroslav Vitous & Gerald Cleaver twice (Molde, 2010 and Enjoy Jazz Festival, in Mannheim, Germany, 2009, as part of its ECM @ 40 festival-within-a-festival), and a commissioned show, again in Molde, in 2013, The Sound of Dreams, with a tremendous bassoonist (James Lassen), the Skywards Trio, Jon Christensen, and Rypdal's son, Marius, on electronics.

As for recent albums? The new one, short as it is, is terrific. I'm also very partial to 2003's Vossabrygg, a commission for the Vossa Jazz festival.

[GuitarGeek]

also in Montreal, in a double bill with Ralph Towner & John Abercrombie, in 1980.

Damn! Rypdal, Towner AND Abercrombie, all in one night?!

he didn't much like flying, so didn't come over here often, unfortunately.

Ah that explains it. Well, "he's a relatively obscure Norwegian musician who isn't very well Stateside" explains it, but "Buddy Holly complex" (as Rory Gallagher once described his own issues on that front) drives the point home.

Liek I said, I intend to fill the holes in my Rypdal collection in the near future, even if it means just getting the downloads instead of physical media. I'm just amused that up until Skywards, I'm really just missing a couple things. Let me ask you, how is the Dream album? I've always been curious to hear that one. I remember a story about how he actually sent a copy of it Jimi Hendrix, and he had signed it, something like "Thanks for the inspiration, Terje", and then like 30 years later, a guy who bought Jimi's record collection in an auction got in touch with him to tell him that there was a lot of needle wear on that particular record.

Another record I've been meaning to get forever is John Surman's Morning Glory, which I know Terje played on. I'll probably have to order that from Wayside.

[Paulrus]

"The Return of Per Ulv," which opens the album, is one of his most memorably melodic compositions, ever!

That one has popped up a lot on my Pat Metheny station on Pandora, which motivated me to check out his other stuff. I dig his whole hard-edged-guitar-hero-meets-ECM-jazz thing. His collaborations with Miroslav Vitous and Trilok Gurtu are stupendous.

[jkelman]

Liek I said, I intend to fill the holes in my Rypdal collection in the near future, even if it means just getting the downloads instead of physical media. I'm just amused that up until Skywards, I'm really just missing a couple things. Let me ask you, how is the Dream album? I've always been curious to hear that one. I remember a story about how he actually sent a copy of it Jimi Hendrix, and he had signed it, something like "Thanks for the inspiration, Terje", and then like 30 years later, a guy who bought Jimi's record collection in an auction got in touch with him to tell him that there was a lot of needle wear on that particular record.

Of its time but, that said, very good. A company reissued it on vinyl a couple years ago, and provided a high res (24/48, as I recall) download promo.

Not sure how your ears are, etc, but some of Terje's stuff is available as high res downloads (for sale), including the new one, Waves (24/192), the Odyssey box...they sound great ...

Another record I've been meaning to get forever is John Surman's Morning Glory, which I know Terje played on. I'll probably have to order that from Wayside.[/QUOTE]
Morning Glory is terrific. Don't miss it!

[Zeuhlmate]

Dont miss Michael Mantler - Happless Child !

[jkelman]

Dont miss Michael Mantler - Happless Child !

Oh yeah!!

[GuitarGeek]

Dont miss Michael Mantler - Happless Child !

Yeah, I've got that saved to my I-tunes wishlist (along with a few other Mantler records I'm after), so I'll get to it eventually.