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Ingebrigt Håker Flaten

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (b. 1971, Oppdal) – studied Jazz at the Music Consevatory in Trondheim, Norway (1992-1995) under the tutelage of bassplayer Odd Magne Gridseth. When one listens to the great bassists in modern jazz history, a striking thing (though it may not be immediately arrived at) is that greatness is reached through open-mindedness and diversity. William Parker, Malachi Favors Maghostut, Peter Kowald, Wilbur Ware, Bertram Turetsky, Buell Neidlinger – all of these bass players have embraced a lifestyle of playing all sorts of music and the breadth of each musicians’ technique is a testament to those experiences. Norwegian bassist and composer Ingebrigt Håker Flaten is also a musician whose experience is both geographical and aesthetic. While the fertile Scandinavian new jazz scene offered a vast amount of opportunities to work in different bands with musicians whose concepts are as individual as the grains in a reed, Flaten has found home and on-the-bandstand education in places as far flung as Chicago and his current residence Austin, Texas. A muscular player whose tone and attack run the gamut from Paul Chambers to Buschi Niebergall, his sense of both openness and control serves ensembles as diverse as The Thing, Free Fall, Atomic, Scorch Trio and the Kornstad/Håker Flaten Duo. In addition to his own Chicago Sextet and Austin-centric Young Mothers, Flaten has also recorded and performed with Frode Gjerstad, Dave Rempis, Bobby Bradford, the AALY Trio, Ken Vandermark, Stephen Gauci, Tony Malaby, Daniel Levin, Dennis Gonzalez and numerous others. Flaten studied at the Conservatory in Trondheim (1992-1995), turning professional shortly afterward, yet his hunger to play in new situations with new musicians – schooled or amateur, frequently recorded or just starting out – puts him in a rare class, that of a truly broad-minded artist. That mettle has served him well, living and developing the music under his own steam and drawing from influences as diverse as Derek Bailey, George Russell, Chris McGregor, filmmakers Ingmar Bergman, contemporary pop melody and gritty punk music as well as everyday sights and sounds. There is a calmness and self-assuredness that imbues all great artists, in that the diversity of their work comes with very little ego. Flaten’s artistry is often in collective, leaderless ensembles and in fact, following a decade of professional musicianship it wasn’t until 2004 that his leader-debut was released – Quintet (Jazzland, followed in 2008 by The Year of the Boar, and a Sextet recording is upcoming).

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Album Review

Rodrigo Amado The Bridge: Beyond The Margins

Read "Beyond The Margins" reviewed by John Sharpe


The Bridge may be one of the most potent all round units assembled by Portuguese tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado. That is saying something considering his previous alliances with collaborators as varied as multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee, trumpeter Peter Evans, trombonist Jeb Bishop and drummer Chris Corsano. This time out his partners read like an extract from an international free jazz who's who: German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, American drummer Gerry Hemingway and Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. Beyond ...

10
Album Review

Rodrigo Amado: Beyond The Margins

Read "Beyond The Margins" reviewed by Troy Dostert


The aptly titled Beyond the Margins is just the latest entry in tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado's burgeoning catalog, and it is certainly further proof that Amado is among the most exciting and accomplished practitioners of free music in the jazz world. Each new release seems to allow him to hone his craft with ever-greater precision, and with an even wider range of emotional resonances. And with a line-up of free jazz veterans that includes pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Ingebrigt ...

17
Album Review

Rodrigo Amado / The Bridge: Beyond The Margins

Read "Beyond The Margins" reviewed by Mark Corroto


You might think saxophonist Rodrigo Amado's quartet The Bridge is an allusion to Sonny Rollins' performing and recording hiatus between 1959 and 1961. One spent practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge which links Manhattan and Brooklyn. Besides the name, Amado's previous release, Refraction Solo Live At Church Of The Holy Ghost (Trost, 2022), his first unaccompanied recording, draws inspiration from Rollins' sound and references some of the great man's music. More likely, Amado's bridge is the span linking the ...

3
Album Review

Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra: Family

Read "Family" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Why can't all music be supersonic? That does not mean supersonic as in a speed exceeding that of sound, but sound that is sonically superlative. Drummer, composer, and bandleader Gard Nilssen's music is seemingly always sonically superb. His 17-piece Supersonic Orchestra was captured in 2022 at the Mondriaan Jazz Festival in Den Haag, Netherlands, for Family, his follow-up to If You Listen Carefully The Music Is Yours (Odin 2020). The Supersonic Orchestra is made up of seven saxophones ...

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Album Review

Rempis Percussion Quartet: Harvesters

Read "Harvesters" reviewed by Mark Corroto


A couple quotes from the 1980s' film The Blues Brothers starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd seem appropriate for Harvesters, the double album by The Rempis Percussion Quartet. Elwood Blues: “It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses." Jake Blues: “Hit It...we're on a mission from God... we're getting the band back together." In all actuality, the Chicago residents, saxophonist Dave Rempis and ...

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Album Review

Nick Mazzarella / Ingebrigt Håker Flaten / Avreeayl Ra: What You Seek Is Seeking You

Read "What You Seek Is Seeking You" reviewed by Mark Corroto


In a trio format, listeners have come to expect alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella to lead and write all the compositions. He introduced himself to the world with Aviary (Thought To Sound Records, 2010), and followed up with three more trio releases with bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Frank Rosaly, four if we count Triangulum (Clean Feed, 2017) from his Meridian Trio (Jeremy Cunningham and Matt Ulery). These albums highlight Mazzarella's ability to compose, perform and, maybe of greater significance, organize ...

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Album Review

Dave Rempis' Percussion Quartet: Sud Des Alpes

Read "Sud Des Alpes" reviewed by John Sharpe


Recorded live in Geneva during the group's 15th Anniversary tour, Sud Des Alpes is the tenth outing from Chicago-based saxophonist Dave Rempis' Percussion Quartet. The band is one of his longest established outlets, boasting a consistent membership, with the drum stools occupied by Tim Daisy and Frank Rosaly since the first album in 2005, and just one bassist prior to current incumbent Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. More to the point, they continue to find new avenues to explore within their preferred ...

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Performance / Tour

Bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten Experimental Jazz with a Norwegian Accent

Bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten Experimental Jazz with a Norwegian Accent

Source: Michael Ricci

Avant-garde jazz has almost always had its sacramental side. Theres a reason for the devotion that some listeners bring to the mid-1960s music of John Coltrane.

Or to the output of his fellow saxophonist Albert Ayler. The spirituality in these performances wasn't subtext or suggestion; it radiated out from a fervent core.

Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, an astute Norwegian bassist, has experience with the fiery side of free improvisation: hes among the most prolific figures on the European experimental scene. His ...

“With the deep, aggresive double bass of Ingebrigt Håker Flaten opening up the album with a sound that makes some bassists sound positively puny by comparison……” – Jazzwise Magazine “The Nordic bassist, exiled for a while in Austin, shows with this LP that in addition to being one of the best with the four strings at present, he is also a remarkable composer and arranger.” – Tomajazz “Delivered with a punk intensity you rarely hear any more, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten held this rollercoaster of a band together, impressing even more later in the set when he switched to electric bass.” – Jazzwise Magazine “…appreciate the sheer breadth of Mr

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Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Harvesters

Aerophonic Records
2024

buy

Family

We Jazz Records
2023

buy

Beyond The Margins

Trost Records
2023

buy

Sud Des Alpes

Aerophonic Records
2021

buy

What You Seek Is...

Astral Spirits
2021

buy

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