SFJAZZ presents Tord Gustavsen Trio
Robert M. Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
7:30 PM, Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:31 PM] {lights down; introduction; band out!}

1. [7:33 PM] Fløytelåt »
2. [7:39 PM] (unidentified tune #1) »
3. [7:43 PM] (unidentified tune #2) »
4. [7:48 PM] Vicar Street
   [7:55 PM] {Greetings from TG}
5. [7:58 PM] the Old Church »
6. [8:04 PM] Dance Me to the End of Love »
7. [8:11 PM] (unidentified tune #3) »
8. [8:22 PM] (unidentified tune #4) »
9. [8:29 PM] (unidentified tune #5) »
10. [8:33 PM] (unidentified tune #6)
11. [8:38 PM] (unidentified tune #7) »
12. [8:46 PM] (unidentified tune #8)
    [8:52 PM] {set ends; brief encore break}
    
    Encore
    [8:53 PM] {TG thanks and tune ID}
13. [8:54 PM] Helensburgh Tango
    [8:59 PM] {final applause}
    [9:00 PM] {lights up!}

Tord Gustavsen Trio

• Tord Gustavsen: piano, keyboard, synthesizer;
• Steinar Raknes: contrabass, effects, whistling;
• Jarle Vespestad: drums.

TG doesn't make it to California all that often, so I was quite psyched to attend tonight's show. Happily, it seems as if the other folks in attendance felt the same way: for the most part, they were very quiet listeners – my kind of people! My assessment is that loudmouth yahoos don't “get” the vibe that TG and his compatriots put into their music, so they self-select out and leave us alone. Makes a great experience for fans of this terrific music!

A couple of moments stand out. In one case, early in the show (maybe at the end of Fløytelåt?), I opened my eyes upon hearing strange ghostly air sounds to see Steinar crouched and whistling into the microphone placed below the bridge of his contrabass. Ah-hah! Very cool!

TG introduced the fifth tune as something brand new that they cooked up together last night in Portland, naming the tune the Old Church after the venue they'd played, the Old Church Concert Hall. Seems like a place I should check out the next time I'm up there in Beertopia. That one was followed with what sounded to me like an instrumental take on Leonard Cohen's Dance Me to the End of Love, nifty!

Later in that sequence of tunes the band got into a killer jam, with raging wah-wah contrabass complemented by very psychedelic flower projections in cyan, purple, green and gold on a deep blue-black background. Three cheers for the guy running the light show tonight: that one was perfect!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Today's photo gallery comes from ol' squinty!

About to quaff a hearty winter nitro at Beer Hall before the show

Venus hanging below the brand new crescent Moon

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!