Ola Kvernberg

Born: 1981

Ola Kvernberg had his official breakthrough with the band Hot Club de Norvege at the Django-festival in Oslo, winter 2000 - a spontaneous jam session which led to several recordings and full-time touring schedule since then. Finished his 4-year study in jazz at the Music Conservatory of Trondheim, Norway in may 2005.

At the present time he is working on regular basis with projects such as Ingebrigt Haker Flaten Quintet, the baroque/contemporary-orchestra The Scarlatti Ensemble, Night Driver - Ola Kvernberg Trio and the bluegrass/Norwegian folk-trio Gammalgrass, together with multi-instrumentalist Stian Carstensen and bassist Ole Morten V?gan.

Kvernberg has played legends such as Svend Asmussen, Didier Lockwood, Philip Catherine, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Les Paul, Doug Raney, Ed Thigpen, Toots Thielemanns, James Carter, Pat Metheny, Jeff Parker and Joshua Redman, to name a few.

The Ola Kvernberg Trio was established in 2000

A Single Sunbeam

By Daniel Herskedal

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2024
Track listing: To Render in Paint; Eclipse Cycles; Two Shades; Light a Candle; A Single Sunbeam; Tunnel; Between Science and Superstition; Your Inner Shadow.

Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & Espen Berg: Maetrix

by Chris May
August 17, 2024

Lana and Lilly Wachowski's The Matrix (1999)--an inspiration for Norwegian pianist and composer Espen Berg's Maetrix--divides opinion. The movie is regarded by some, including one assumes Berg, as a prescient masterpiece addressing the existential threat posed to humanity by digital technology. Others say it is pretentious twaddle. No worries. Discord is unlikely to ...

Johanna Burnheart: B?r

by Chris May
June 7, 2024

German-born London-based violinist, singer and composer Johanna Burnheart made a big impact fast on the Britain's underground jazz scene. After graduating from Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2018, and before the pandemic shut things down, she played on three significant albums: spiritual-jazz band Maisha's There Is A Place (Brownswood, 2018), trombonist Rosie Turton's 5ive ...

Daniel Herskedal: A Single Sunbeam

by Geno Thackara
March 13, 2024

What Del Close did for the art of improv comedy or Jacques Torres for the art of chocolate, Daniel Herskedal does for the tuba. An occasional star such as Bob Stewart has taken the instrument somewhere fresh outside the time-honored contexts of orchestra or marching band, but it is another thing to make the entire tradition ...

Steamdome II The Hypogean

By Ola Kvernberg

Label: Grappa
Released: 2023
Track listing: Disc One: Arpy; The Vault; Get Down; Carbonado. Disc Two: Hypogean; Devil Worm; Diamondiferous; Misty Light (bonus track).

Ola Kvernberg & The Trondheim Soloists: The Mechanical Fair Live

by Chris May
February 24, 2023

Ola Kvernberg's Steamdown (Grappa) was perhaps the most sensationally visceral album to come our way during 2018. Part future-jazz, part EDM, part avant-rock, part contemporary-classical and 100% wrap-around shamanistic. It was Kvernberg's follow-up to The Mechanical Fair (Jazzland, 2014), which is here in an extensively recalibrated version recorded live at the Molde International Jazz Festival in ...

Ola Kvernberg: Steamdome II The Hypogean

by Chris May
January 24, 2023

Violinist and multi-instrumentalist Ola Kvernberg was born into a line of Norwegian folk musicians which includes the distinguished fiddler and composer Peter Larrson Rypdal. Kvernberg cut his teeth playing in traditional bands led by his parents and began studying classical violin when he was nine. In his early twenties, after discovering jazz, he spent a few ...

Emily Francis Trio: Luma

by Chris May
April 28, 2022

Luma is the second album from Britain's Emily Francis, following 2015's Absent (Self Produced). Luma appears to have been ready to roll in 2020 and the delay has, presumably, been occasioned by you-know-what. The group's lineup has changed since the debut album, with new drummer Jamie Murray joining keyboard player Francis and bassist Trevor Boxall.

The Mechanical Fair Live

By Ola Kvernberg

Label: Grappa
Released: 2020
Track listing: Side One: Mechanical Fair; Alarums & Excursions. Side Two: Dualist; Jaja. Side Three: Metamechanics. Side Four: Harlot��s House; Chasing The Wind; Encore.