Ask Øyvind Skjerven Larsen what lies behind the creative diversity of the Norwegian jazz scene – due to be showcased at the forthcoming Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival – and the director of the Oslo Jazz Festival cites encounters decades ago between American jazz and Nordic folk music, as well as an enlightened education system. These developments, he reckons, “opened us up to think ‘What is jazz? How can we approach this music which is not so much a genre as a method of listening and playing?’”

Edinburgh audiences will have a chance to experience the latest wave of Norwegian jazz when the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival celebrates its 45th anniversary from 14-23 July with its international programme centred on a SPARK showcase of some of Norway’s most acclaimed young artists.

Larsen, who has curated the SPARK programme for Edinburgh, harks back to the Nineteen-Sixties and a famous meeting between the now revered Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek and American trumpeter and “world music” pioneer Don Cherry.

Arild Andersen with Thomas Stronen and Tommy Smith

“In the Fifties and Sixties there was a big influence of American jazz here," says Larsen, “but what Jan Garbarek did was to open a new path after a conversation he had with Don Cherry, who asked him why he was looking to Coltrane and American jazz; instead he should look at the music around him. That was a kind of starting point, to look into your own traditional music and create something out of that.”

Larsen further cites the emergence of influential guitarist Terje Rypdal, who came from a rock background but played with Garbarek among others before pursuing a solo career, and also the pioneering role of Trondheim Conservatoire, “which changed the model of how we view jazz education. The most important part was finding your own voice and being free as to who your influences are, and of course this creates something which is less traditional and more exploratory.”

While the likes of Garbarek and other Nordic luminaries are no strangers to Scottish platforms, the SPARK programme will introduce some less familiar but highly impressive emerging talent, some of whom have already established connections with Scottish counterparts through European exchanges. Pianist Liv Hauge, for instance, rejoins rising saxophone star Matt Carmichael, whom she met through his Dancing with Embers Project, while outstanding trumpeter Kristina Fransson returns to link up with guitarist Graeme Stephen’s quartet.

Making her Edinburgh debut is the acclaimed young saxophonist Mona Krogstad, while also making their debut is the grungy jazz-rock of the trio Elephant9 , as well as the Amund Stenøien Quartet (ASQ), led by an outstanding young vibraphonist.

Renowned veteran bassist Arild Andersen returns for his celebrated collaboration with Scots saxophonist Tommy Smith, with Thomas Strønen taking the place of their previous drummer, Paulo Vinaccia, who passed away in 2019.

Quite apart from its Nordic element, this year’s festival marks its 45th birthday with an impressively cosmopolitan bill, covering more than 110 concerts, ten live-streamed performances, curated programmes and free and educational events, its international guest list featuring alongside its Scottish Jazz EXPO showcase for our own creatively simmering jazz scene.

Perennial favourites include Jools Holland, the Pasadena Roof Orchestra and former Average White Band singer-guitarist Hamish Stuart, while from the US come the funk and soul-inflected tenor sax of the festival’s poster artist, Lakecia Benjamin, blues merchant Popa Chubby and New Orleans’s only female brass band, The Original Pinettes. The programme’s diversity further embraces the Ibibio Sound Machine’s blend of high-life and electronic dance grooves, Sons of Kemet’s tuba maestro Theon Cross, as well as gypsy jazz violinist Tcha Limberger.

The festival also continues its i-Jazz partnership, bringing four bands from Italy, as well as others from Belgium and France. A host of notable Scots includes saxophonist Laura Macdonald, singer Georgia Cécile, trumpeter Colin Steele (including his Stramash folk-jazz extravaganza), pianist Fergus McCreadie, drummer Chun-Wei Kang and prog-jazz outfits Strata, Aku! and bassist David Bowden’s European Quartet.

For full details, see www.edinburghjazzfestival.com

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival: The Norwegians are coming!