Ketil Bjornstad

Although not too well-known in the United States, Ketil Bjornstad has been active in improvised jazz-oriented music for 30 years. Classically trained (studying in Oslo, London and Paris), Bjornstad performed as a soloist with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969. However when he heard Miles Davis' In A Silent Way, the pianist decided to switch careers and head towards jazz. In 1973 he led his first session (a quartet outing with Jon Christensen and Arild Andersen) which was one of several that he would cut for Philips. Bjornstad's spacey piano playing (icy cool but full of inner heat) was a natural to be featured on ECM yet surprisingly he would not debut for that label for two more decades. In the meantime he appeared on thirty recordings which ranged from borderline New Age to rock, and he also wrote 18 books (including 14 novels) in Norway. Finally in 1993 Ketil Bjornstad recorded Water Stories (a 12-piece work) for ECM, featuring a quartet that co-stars guitarist Terje Rypdal.