The great role model of jazz pianists
Everyone loves Mary
Text: Sven Ove Bakke
Morten Qvenild is starstruck by Maria Kannegaard practicing in his office. Håvard Aufles had her as a teacher at the jazz school in Trondheim. Liv Andrea Hauge thinks her music is magical.
Since her days studying jazz in Trondheim, Maria Kannegaard has been a musician's musician - legendary and admired for her piano playing and unique musicality. There's something about Maria, to paraphrase the title of a Hollywood film from the late 90s, but what is it exactly?
Maria Kannegaard opens Kongsberg Jazz Festival with her trio on Wednesday, July 2nd, effectively a quartet this time with Helge "Deathprod" Sten as a subsidiary sonic mood maker. Here she performs the brand new commissioned work "Borte Vekk Meg i Morgen", which is a collaboration between Kongsberg Jazz Festival, Nasjonal Jazzscene and Mandaljazz, the latter being the venue for the work's premiere.
Three pianists about the pianist
It is wrong to say that Maria Kannegaard has been a "hidden gem" or a "well-kept secret", it has rather been the opposite in jazz circles.
But now a wider audience has also discovered her music after Joachim Førsund's four-episode, NRK-broadcast podcast series "The Pianist" told the story of her life and challenges with schizophrenia and psychosis.
It is often the case in the media world that such personal stories tend to become the dominant narrative about musicians and other artists, at the expense of the creative and artistic.
So we shift the spotlight back to the musician and composer with a simple method: We have talked to three Norwegian pianists, two of them local Kongsberg heroes, about their relationship with Maria Kannegaard.
Morten Qvenild
Kongsberg's ubiquitous keyboard magician and pro-rector at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.
– Maria Kannegaard and the trio actually practice in my office! On that Rhodes piano over here, explains Morten Qvenild.
– Her Rhodes sound is completely unique. It's the archetype of a good Rhodes sound. She brought a distortion box from the "TINGeLING" project with Eldbjørg Raknes, I think that pedal was custom made from the Trondheim era, I got goosebumps when she plugged it in here and started playing. And from meeting her in person, for that matter.
– Tell us a little about how you discovered Kannegaard's music.
– I remember that she was a hot topic in the jazz community when I came to Oslo in the 90s. I listened to the “TINGeLING” album a lot, so I saw the connection to this particular Rhodes sound. As a musician, she has a special quality that I generally like, namely that it is almost impossible to identify her references. She incorporates her sources of inspiration into herself and her own sound in a very seamless, personal and fragile way.
– Are you allowed to stay in the office when the Maria Kaanegaard trio is rehearsing?
– No, unfortunately. But it's good to think that they are here. I would gladly take a bucket seat or home office to make room for such a great figure in Norwegian music.
– You could install recording equipment in the office, a bit like Richard Nixon?
– Haha, NMH-gate! That could have been tempting, I mean, it would have probably made a nice "The Lost NMH Tapes".
Read more and buy tickets to Maria Kannegaard's opening concert here.
Life Andrea Hauge
One of the most promising pianists in Norwegian young jazz, from Mosjøen, known from his own trio and ensemble, Vinterhagen, Kongle Trio, Bye Lila and Lady Bird Orchestra.
– Before I started at the Norwegian Academy of Music, I had listened to very little jazz. In one of the first lessons I had with Helge Lien, he listed a number of Norwegian jazz musicians. I had hardly heard of any of them. “Then you have a job to do, you have to go home and listen to music,” he said and gave me a Spotify playlist called "My Favourite Norwegians". There was the song "Nå" by Maria Kannegaard, I still remember how it made me sick to my stomach the first time I heard it. Her music has, perhaps more than anyone else's, shaped me as a musician and songwriter.
– What do you think characterizes Kannegaard's musical expression and approach compared to other jazz pianists?
– I find her approach to be very listening. There is extremely little distance between her and the music, in a way. It seems like she does exactly what the music, the moment and the interaction require there and then. It is incredibly fascinating and inspiring.
– What is the most fascinating thing about her playing style?
– Fantastic compositions that hit me very hard, and in a way that is difficult to explain by pointing to musical characteristics. She plays extremely well melodically when she improvises, she really composes in the moment, and she has incredibly cool timing. I could list more, but that still doesn't explain why it is SO good. There's something magical about Maria that I can't put my finger on, but that I feel every time I hear her music.
– If you were to introduce someone who has never heard Maria Kannegaard to her music, which composition or album would you choose? And why?
– It has to be “Maria Kannegaard – Live at Kongsberg & Trondheim Jazzfestival”, both because it was the first one I heard and the album I have listened to the most. But all the trio albums are fantastic, and the album with Billy Fy is among my top ten albums I have listened to the most in the last eight years. I struggle to recommend just one album.
Read more and buy tickets to Maria Kannegaard's opening concert here.
Håvard Aufles
After many years in the "young and promising" category, we can almost say that Kongsberg's Håvard Aufles is safely and well established among the leading adult keyboard players in the expanded Norwegian jazz concept, both alone and in various bands and projects.
– I was lucky enough to have Maria Kannegaard as a teacher for a while while I was doing my master's degree in Trondheim, on the jazz course. Together with Ståle Storløkken, Bjørn Marius Hegge and Lars Ove Fossheim, we played compositions we had written. To experience that music together with the top team there, it was great!
– Was it in Trondheim that you also became acquainted with her music?
– Yes, I think it was Oscar Grönberg who showed me the music in a piano lesson. I was immediately captivated by the expression of her trio. It sounded so complete and engaging. This was at a time when it was mostly Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, so it was refreshing to dive into something that was rawer, and not least local.
– Her playing style is widely admired, do you have any thoughts on why?
– There is a clarity in the way she plays that is very moving. I don't want to make any analysis, but there is something almost obvious about her melodies, they are so strong. It is as if the melodies have already existed for a hundred years, and now they are played as an everyday gesture, as if it is the most natural thing in the world, even though they are improvised there and then. There is a credibility in her playing that really moves me.
– Which composition or album would you choose as a gateway if you were to help someone get into Maria Kannegaard's music for the first time?
– It's hard to choose just one thing. I would probably have played something from one of the trio albums and some of the stuff she's done solo. I really like that. The title track from "Nådeslås" has to be some of the finest synth playing I've ever heard, I think.
Read more and buy tickets to Maria Kannegaard's opening concert here.
