Kongsberg Jazz Festival
Kongsberg, Norway
July 6-9, 2011
By now, it's a self-evident truth that Norway has become something of a hot spot on the global jazz map... again. This is hardly a late-breaking news sensation, given the long arc of jazz lore and fanaticism and support systems in place in this Scandinavian corner, not only in the care and feeding of its own jazz musicians but also the strength of the Norwegian festival scene. Molde celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, a formidable number in the still relatively-young shelf life of jazz festival culture, and the mighty mid-sized Kongsberg Jazz Festival—widely considered just behind Molde in terms of importance among Norway's jazz fests, and one with a sturdy reputation for its avant-garde leanings—isn't far behind, closing in on its own 50th in 2014.

Like Molde, the Kongsberg festival heeds the bold, workable festival model of annually taking over its humble small hosting city, in the most benign, cooperative and mutually beneficial way. Kongsberg, a ninety-minute journey east of Oslo, is a town born of silver, discovered in 1623 and mined through the 1950s, and currently is known for its industrial strengths in weaponry and technology, not to mention the long-time host of one of Norway's great jazz festivals.

And then there is the river, a powerful and poetic force rushing through the middle of the city and helping to define its character. The Numedalsl?gen river roars beneath a central bridge separating two sides of town, and becomes an inherent part of the spirit and the cartography (to borrow