Kornstad Solo
“Live in Sarajevo” (2015)

Captured live on stage at the 17th jazz festival at Sarajevo Music Festival in November 2014, Live in Sarajevo is a document on a highly innovative musician at his very best.

Håkon Kornstad released his first solo album Single Engine on Jazzland in 2007, to acclaim from critics all over, stating that he had found his distinctive saxophone sound. The studio album featured one of Kornstad’s own compositions “Sweden”, which has evolved into a little showstopper since then. No wonder he had the Bosnia-Herzegovinian audience from the very beginning of the concert. Kornstad’s spontaneous compositions are always evolving, intertwined with improvisation as they are. In 2009 he released Dwell Time, his first all solo outing, recorded in the Sofienberg church in Oslo. “Oslo” is one of the titles from that album,  which was on many “best of 2009”-lists, and even featured in a “Fifty best Norwegian jazz albums of all time” cannon in the Norwegian magazine Jazznytt. Then came Kornstad’s second solo album Symphonies in my head in 2011 and included the hauntingly beautiful “Pearlfisher”, hinting towards the saxophonist’s newfound interest in opera. The live version has grown into a powerful, almost hypnotic live version. His very own flutonette—a flute paired with a clarinet mouthpiece, is combined with whistling on the beautiful track amply named “Whistler”.

The audience was probably already satisfied by the five first instrumental tracks. Then Håkon Kornstad launches into a baroque opera aria “O del mio dolce ardor” by Gluck, followed by a Neapolitan song “Ideale” by Tosti. Almost a legendary story of personal change already — Kornstad discovered opera in New York at age 32, and started taking singing lessons with a retired Met soprano just weeks after. Now six years later he has a masters degree in opera and is hired for full operatic roles. In his own concerts he keeps combining classical singing with his very own saxophone jazz looping.

A full length studio album with the Kornstad Ensemble is scheduled for a long awaited release on Jazzland in October. However, Kornstad can deliver on his own, too. Listening to Live in Sarajevo certainly shortens the wait!

Press quotes

That such an incredible talent has not reached the ears of a wider audience is truly astonishing. To anyone with even the slightest interest in jazz and opera, Kornstad is a musician who simply must be heard, for there is no one else like him! A modern legend in jazz? No doubt about it!
— William Brown, The Journal Newcastle UK, 13/04/2015 Read full review
It could have been a virtuosic circus act, but in Kornstad’s hands was a musical tour de force. ★★★★✩
— John Fordham, The Guardian UK, 03/26/2015 Read full review
By all rights, no one person should possess as many musical talents at Håkon Kornstad. It isn’t fair to artists who devote their entire lives to a single instrument to see Kornstad picking up instruments and setting them down, producing tones and ideas that aren’t half-baked, but fully formed. Surely a few artists in the audience left the room either stewing with envy or brimming with inspiration. Masterfully trained in all of his disparate disciplines, Kornstad treated each element of his show with utter seriousness — and yet the result didn’t seem like a struggle, but a joy.
— Paul Bowers, Charleston City paper (Charleston, SC), June 2014
Kornstad sings beautifully, with a clear and open sound. It is remarkable that he should have achieved this level of vocal proficiency in less than five years. (...) Kornstad is on a journey that will take him who-knows-where. But I would not be surprised if Kornstad further insinuates himself in the world of opera and classical music, eventually throwing himself all in. Apparently, he's got the goods.
— Adam Parker, Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), June 2014
Personnel
Håkon Kornstad –tenor saxophone, voice, flutonette, whistle and live looping

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