Ditlef Eckhoff Quintet - Live at Sogn Jazzclub 1968 (Live) (2025) Hi-Res

Jazzaggression, the Norwegian jazz label based in Finland has issued a fascinating historical set by Norwegian trumpeter Ditlef Eckhoff. It was recorded at Sogn student campus, Oslo in 1968 by the then recently formed Sogn Jazz Society; recorded by uncredited tech students it has been skillfully restored and mastered for Jazzaggression by Strype Audio, Oslo. The technical challenge was to make the raw audio from 1968 sound good when it reaches the ears of a contemporary audience. Strype’s insight and understanding of the genre have made a recording which was rough around the edges sound highly satisfying to modern ears. Even the original recording’s clipping when bassist Tore Nordlie reaches low frequencies adds to the record’s sense of excitement and authenticity.

Eckhoff was a key figure in the burgeoning 1960s Norwegian jazz scene, skilled at bringing musicians together; he was an important figure in Oslo’s live scene. He is however under-represented on record, with only a smattering of solo albums released in the 80s and late 90s. In 1968 however, he was in the right place at the right time and appeared on Terge Rypdal’s auspicious debut Bleak House. Now in his 80s Eckhoff is based in the warmer climes of Nice, France.

On this date at Sogn, Eckhoff’s quintet was Knut Riisnæs (tenor sax) Christian Reim (piano) along with the fabulous rhythm section of Tore Nordlie (bass) and Svein Christiansen (drums). The Sogn Jazz Society made impressive bookings of international artists in those days, including Don Cherry, Art Farmer, Jimmy Heath, Clifford Jordan and Keith Jarrett, visiting musicians tended to be accompanied by musicians active on the Oslo scene.

This live date pulls in two directions and perhaps captures Norwegian jazz at a transitional moment. The musicians are deeply inspired by American jazz but are also forging their own identities with a northern European sound. Eckhoff’s quintet open their set with a rendition of the Ornette Coleman piece ‘Ramblin’, they really swing, there’s an elastic expressiveness to their playing as the rhythm section drives the whole thing forwards. It’s energised and wild, emphasised by the remarkably powerful and husky tone of saxophonist Knut Riisnæs; he opens a space with the rhythm section and Reim’s piano creating a template for the future.

The mood mellows on ‘I Remember Clifford’, Benny Golson’s threnody for Clifford Brown. Following Eckhoff’s lead, Tore Nordlie’s bass positively glows with warmth; his relationship with Christiansen’s drum punctuates Eckhoff phrases fabulously.

‘Improvisasjoner over et tema av Miriam Makeba’ is pianist Christian Reim’s composition, it’s quite a change of direction but as convincing as the rest of the performance. Riisnæs shines in particular, his sumptuous sheets of sound have a mesmerising quality and an authority which stopped me in my tracks. There’s a film of him playing ‘Land of America’ ten years later at the Kongsberg jazz festival in 1978 with Lars Janson and what we hear of him here in 1968 is a fascinating precursor to the indefinable sound he developed in later years, especially on his 1982 record Flukt. Following Riisnæs, Reim’s airy piano floats above the rhythm section adding further atmospherics.

The closing ‘Blues’ is an Eckhoff composition, it pushes a sound more reminiscent of 1950s hard bop with its angular forms and sharp changes. There’s satisfying tension on the record between these stylings and the development of a home grown sound which was to bear so much fruit in the coming decades.