Frode Gjerstad Trio @ Space 12

As a kickoff performance for the 2010 Epistrophy Arts concert series, promoter/curator Pedro Moreno brings Norwegian reedman Frode Gjerstad to Austin on Tuesday night. Gjerstad bills himself as "the other Norwegian saxophonist," in reference to the looming figure of Jan Garbarek, an internationally renowned tenor and soprano player whose name is synonymous with Norwegian jazz. They're only separated by a year and two weeks in age, but while Garbarek showed early promise in the "free" realm, it's Gjerstad who long ago stepped up to the plate. His wide, braying alto sound has snatches of Albert Ayler and Charles Tyler, but with affection for the wide intervallic leaps favored by such players as Eric Dolphy and Michel Portal.

Gjerstad began recording in the early 1980s in Detail, a multi-national group featuring English drummer John Stevens and South African bassist Johnny Dyani. Taking a very open-ended approach to improvisation, the group was both telepathic and characterized by a strong sense of swing. It took almost fifteen years for the Norwegian music press to catch up to Gjerstad's work, awarding him the prize of Jazz Musician of the Year in 1997. A frequent border-crossing improviser, Gjerstad has regularly worked with American musicians as well as those of his home country, building on the universality of the free improvisation language. Since the late 1980s, Gjerstad has convened the cross-cultural and pan-stylistic Circulasione Totale Orchestra, which makes its first US tour in 2010, stopping in Houston. For this Austin performance, Gjerstad will be joined by longtime collaborator Paal Nilssen-Love on drums and the English bassist Nick Stephens.

The show starts at 8 PM; tickets are available at the door, $10-$15 sliding scale.

Frode Gjerstad
Space 12, 312 E. 12th St.
Epistrophy Arts