One of the new ingredients of Trondheim Jazz Festiva this year, was The Jazz Summit, a two days seminar that discussed the state of jazz today, jazz education, the jazz and the new streaming services and other jazz related topics. The attendees were well known names in the jazz world, and among them were the Norwegian saxophonist Petter Wettre.

    Petter Wettre is one of the Norwegian jazz musicians who, together with many other jazz musicians are negative to the digital streaming services, like Spotify and Wimp. He releases his music at his own record label and sells them as digital downloads. He has announced that he will stop making CDs, because there is no money in it anymore.

  Whatever Petter Wettre may think about the future or jazz in the digital age, he is one of the most exciting musicians in Norway, and also in Europe these days. Friday night he demonstrated this in Trondheim. With his band, Next Generation, he did a great concert that demonstrated both Wettre’s virtuoso qualities, as that of his band. The band consists of Kim Johannesen og guitar, Jon Rune Strøm on bass and Dag Erik Knedal Andersen on drums.

  The band’s style is energetic, with some fantastic solos from all of them. Petter Wettre plays with authority as the band’s leader, but gives lots of space for his fellow musicians. His duo runs with Kim Johannesen were precise and fluent, while Jon Rune Strøm showed an unusual and energetic style in his bass playing that I haven’t seen before. All in all, I had a great time, and will definitely see the band again when the chance comes.

All pictures are © Per Ole Hagen and may not be used without written permission.