Featured Jazz Artist: Haftor Medboe Group
Vote for Haftor Medboe Group in our Top "Fuse This Jazz" Artists

About

Haftor Medboe
Originally from Norway, Haftor has made his home in Edinburgh where he is Jazz Musician in Residence at the city’s Napier University. His compositional techniques were honed writing numerous film and TV scores and producing jazz and contemporary classical commissions for theatre, dance and concert performance. As a guitarist he has toured European and American jazz clubs and festivals both as band leader and side-man.

Susan McKenzie
Susan is one of those rare musicians that is equally at home with classical and improvised disciplines. After training at the Royal College of Music, London, where she was 3 times winner of the Jane Melber Memorial Prize she went on to win the Clarinet and Saxophone Society of Great Britain Young Performers Competition in 1994. Since then she has become much sought after on both classical and jazz circuits playing regularly with Salsa Celtica and pianist Ingrid Sawyers.

 

 

 
About

Chris Greive
Having swapped his surf-board for a trombone and after a successful music career in his native Australia, Chris moved to Edinburgh in 2000. Since his arrival he has been in high demand, playing with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Salsa Celtica and hip-hop outfit Live Sciences to name but three. As every band leader and musical directors trombonist of choice, Chris has toured the globe many times over playing in all genres.

Signy Jakobsdottir
Born in Iceland, Signy is now based in Glasgow where she works with extensively with Scottish Ballet. With roots in Gamelan, African and Indian drumming she brings a global approach to her performances. Her unique sound palette has led to sessions with amongst others Fred Frith, Trilok Gurtu, James Grant, Capercaillie, Gamalan Pacifica, Joko Susilo, and Zeitgeist Percussion Ensemble.

Reviews

'envelope pushing'
pick of the week in the Guardian

'bold and strident' - 'one to watch'
Glasgow Herald

'contemporary and beautiful'
Noise magazine

'vivid musical soundscapes'
List magazine

'...and yes, the hairs on the back of my neck moved'
the Islay Directory

'... the perfect contemporary jazz'
The Skinny

'A dazzling venture into contemporary jazz!' www.jazzreview.com

Haftor Medboe writes...

This album is the realisation of a dream for me.

The music was written in Edinburgh in the autumn of 2004 as a development of ideas that had evolved through collaboration with fellow musicians and friends Signy Jakobsdottir, Sue McKenzie and Chris Greive.

The four of us had already made one album together and I was keen to keep the winning formula for this one. As the melodies took shape it became clear that strings would work well with the material and I invited the Edinburgh Quartet to work with us on the recording.

Having secured their services the challenge was then to fuse the Quartet’s classical discipline with our more improvisatory approaches in a meaningful way. The result is this album, which,

I hope you agree, shows that genre definition doesn’t have to be a barrier and that melody and performance are what really count.

I sincerely thank everybody involved for their efforts and understanding in bringing this music to life and hope that you enjoy the fruits of our labours.
Listen to the music

Tracks from "In Perpetuity " are featured on  the  "Fuse This Jazz" program

Featured CD

Haftor Medboe Group
In Perpetuity
Linn Records
Buy it at Linn Records

1 Little Auk
2 Spor Spor
3 Teetotum
4 In Perpetuity
5 Hop Skip
6 Charivari
7 Maikro

Produced by Calum Malcolm & Haftor Medboe The Haftor Medboe

Musicians:
Haftor Medboe
electric and acoustic guitars
Susan McKenzie
soprano sax and melodica
Chris Greive
trombone
Signy Jakobsdottir
percussion

with The Edinburgh Quartet
strings

Kenny MacDonald programming

Produced by Calum Malcolm and haftor medboe group

Engineered by Paul Ferguson and David Hook

Recorded in various locations in the Spring of 2005 Mixed and mastered in North Berwick, Scotland on the 27th May, 2005


Websites:
haftormedboegroup.net
myspace.com/haftormedboegroup