Double concert in the mines: Karin Krog with Morten Gunnar Larsen + Kjell Gunnar Hoff "A Tribute to Hank Mobley"
Information about transport down into the mines: Trains down into the mines depart at 14:00. The train will run two rounds, the last departure at 14:40. There will be a tour of the mines for everyone on the first train. Remember a warm sweater, the mines maintain a constant temperature all year round. The festival has also set up a free bus that departs from 17. mai gata (right behind the Festivalgate stage) at 13:00 on this day and which has a return straight after the concert. Numbered tickets for the bus can be collected from the sales booth in Festivalgata - first come, first served.
It was the two young people Per Ottersen and Kjell Gunnar Hoff who started the Kongsberg Jazz Festival adventure in 1965, and who continued to run the festival for many years. Per Ottersen died in 2003, but Kjell Gunnar Hoff has followed the festival to this day, mostly as a presenter in the later years, but he has also played concerts. Among the musicians who were at the first festival, vocalist Karin Krog is one of the few who is still active and at least as good as in -65.
Both Kjell Gunnar Hoff with "A Tribute to Hank Mobley" and Karin Krog with Morten Gunnar Larsen will be listening to a very special double concert deep in the mountains, 342 meters below daylight, in Kongens Gruve.
Karin Krog has a very special position, not only in Norwegian jazz, but also to a large extent internationally. She was a trailblazer and a pioneer. She was the first Norwegian jazz musician to release her own LP, By myself (1964). She was among the first Norwegian jazz artists to participate in foreign jazz festivals. She gained an impressive international reputation early on, and she toured all over the world. She has won a bunch of prizes, such as Norwegian jazz's most prestigious prize, the Buddy prize and a number of Spellemannsprize, most recently this winter. She received Spellemann's Honorary Award in 2012. She has been particularly innovative and willing to experiment, but has also sung with traditional jazz bands. For this year's anniversary concert, she brings the excellent pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen with her. He is also a Buddy and Spellman award winner. He too has an impressive international track record. He is primarily known as a performer of ragtime and older jazz, but unfolds effortlessly in the styles that are relevant at the moment. The two call their collaboration "From Ragtime to Our Time". This should make it possible for a concert with an attractive jazz-historical scope.
Kjell Gunnar Hoff is not only a festival founder, he is also an excellent saxophonist. For this year's festival, he has put together a band where three of the musicians are among Latvia's most renowned. We also get to hear the fine trumpeter Roy Nikolaisen, who many will remember from Tine Asmundsen's David Murray concert in Kongsberg cinema in 2010, and guitar veteran Halvard Kausland. Hoff calls this project "Tribute to Hank Mobley". Thus, we are guaranteed melodic, rhythmic and swinging jazz with roots in the 1960s.
Karin Krog (vocals) and Morten Gunnar Larsen (piano).
Kjell Gunnar Hoff (tenor sax), Roy Nikolaisen (trumpet), Halvard Kausland (guitar), Madars Kalnins (piano), Andris Grunte (bass), Kaspars Kudeko (drums).
