The Great Classical Joint Reunion: Now that it's over, a look back...

By Kate Hammett-Vaughan

Outside The Classical Joint Coffee House
Provided by Andreas Nothiger personal photo album

Friday night, October 8th, 2010. A night I will never forget. The room was packed with jazz fans and musicians, and everyone was happy. Old friends meeting, chatting, looking at old photographs, enjoying a wonderful slide show of Classical Joint memories. Beautiful.

I have been thinking about what made people so excited about the Reunion (it sold out SO quickly!) and why we (Colleen Savage, Mariken van Nimwegan and I) were each so willing to put so many dozens of volunteer hours into making this one evening happen. I am sure that Colleen and Mariken have stories of their own, but here is mine.

Painting with Sound - Kim Myhr “Mural”

By Ken Pickering

I first began to hear about the young Norwegian improvising guitarist / composer Kim Myhr and his various projects (Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and the trio “Mural”) last year. A number of colleagues and musicians had him on their radar; for instance pianist Benoit  Delbecq was collaborating in a project called “Silencers” and the Molde Festival (directed by my great friend Jan Ole Otnaes) awarded him the Jazztipend prize in 2008, which among other things ($) included a commission for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra (a special version that included Sidsel Endresen, Christian Wallumrod, Jim Denley and others) for a one hour piece ultimately titled “Stems and Cages”  that was recently released on disc.