Håkon Kornstad Trio

The venue is new to the festival and it is of course too small considering the interest in this group. To give a very special experience for the group and those who do get a place in the room with them, the performance is set in a very intimate venue with remarkable acoustic conditions. It will be a bit like when Moldejazz booked Tommy Flanagan trio in the small HotHat-basement where a limited group of the audience got to experience a legendary jazz-pianist up close.

Kornstad had his debut as a tenor singer in the Mozart-opera «La finta giardiniera» in 2012, only a little more than a month after he was nominated for Spellemannprisen (the Norwegian Grammy Awards) for jazz record of the year. He's developed a genre he's likely a sole-performer; where the jazz-saxophone with its unique tune and control, meets a warm, beautiful and liberal lyrical tenor – alternating between Italian audacity and Nordic restraint.

Avantgarde-minstrel, Frode Haltli, and rock solid, Mats Eilertsen, are both masters of their instruments. They are integrated parts of a unique ensemble where opera arias and beautiful ballads are replaced by improvised stretches. This will be a concert for classical- and opera-lovers, as well as the jazz crowd, and for those who didn’t think they liked any of the two. Experience bliss in the Cathedral and leave for the summer day after it, whistling a familiar tune.

Kornstad has been to Molde, both before and after his song/sax breakthrough with his album Tenor battle, but on establishing a new trio and their album last year, Im Treibhaus, loved by the international critics – we just had to have him back again.

Håkon Kornstad - vocals, tenor sax / Frode Haltli - accordion / Mats Eilertsen – double bass.