Bugge Wesseltoft
It’s still snowing on my piano
It is still snowing on Bugge Wesseltoft's piano, and it is still amazing just how much warmth this snow produces. When his first solo album with wonderful, quiet improvisations inspired by international Christmas carols was released in 1997, the composer, band leader and pianist had already had an impressive career that included nothing less than the reinvention of contemporary European, and especially Scandinavian, jazz. Brimming with confidence, he called his band New Conception of Jazz Group, and this claim was not exaggerated. Bugge Wesseltoft considerably contributed to that with which Sidsel Endresen, Terje Rypdal, Nils Petter Molvær and the Esbjörn Svensson Trio, amongst others from the Nordic countries, conquered concert halls and clubs all over the continent and established a new understanding of jazz. Whilst the many band projects on this path often used a wide range of instruments and plenty of electronic equipment, It's snowing on my piano was the complete opposite: an artist and his instrument, simple and heartwarming melodies and improvisation lines. A live album has now been released that combines the songs from back then with the follow-up project Everybody Loves Angels, and when Bugge Wesseltoft plays his Christmas-themed solo programme these days, the angels and the warming snow on his piano are still guaranteed to be there, even after 30 years.
