Krog and Kuhn are Together Again.
Karin Krog
First lady of Norwegian jazz Karin Krog can look back on nearly 50 albums under her own name, and some 30 on which she has contributed. She released her first singles in 1963, and in 1964 made her first LP, entitled By Myself. Karin Krog is renowned internationally and has worked with such luminaries of the jazz scene as Dexter Gordon, Don Ellis, John Surman, Archie Shepp, Palle Mikkelborg, Matthew Herbert, as well as Norway’s Arild Andersen, Bjarne Nerem, Jacob Young, Egil Kapstad and Jon Christensen, to name but a few. Throughout her fifty year-long career Karin Krog has stood out as one of Norway’s leading innovators and ambassadors of jazz music, nationally and internationally.
Steve Kuhn
Steve Kuhn, born in Brooklyn, became fascinated by jazz at an early age; in his early teens he began studying with the legendary Margaret Chaloff. Her son Serge Chaloff, the renowned baritone saxophonist, took him into his group when Kuhn was only thirteen. In the years that followed Kuhn continued to play the jazz clubs in Boston, often together with famous musicians including Coleman Hawkins, Chet Baker and Vic Dickenson. When he graduated from Harvard College, he was the first pianist to be offered a place in John Coltrane’s newly-formed quartet. Steve Kuhn subsequently joined Stan Getz’ band and soon formed his own trio, beginning his long collaboration with the prestigious ECM label. Throughout the 80s and 90s Kuhn recorded many discs for labels such as ECM, Venus, Reservoir and Sunnyside. He also toured all over the world with the Steve Kuhn Trio – which was continually developing – and with many other great names in jazz.
Together Again
In October 2005 Karin Krog and Steve Kuhn paid a visit to Oslo’s Rainbow Studio, resulting in the appropriately named recording Together Again. There’s a sense of fairy-tale magic when these two giants of jazz come together once again to produce an album of beautiful music. Two distinct and individual styles combine to form a musical landscape, ensnaring and light as cloud, with a hint of historical overtones. It seems just right that Karin Krog together with the Steve Kuhn Trio and the legendary Toots Thielemans take the stage of the Oslo Concert Hall to open this year’s Oslo Jazz Festival in its twentieth season.
