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Hayden Powell

Hayden Powell is a trumpet player and composer based in Oslo, Norway. Originally English, Powell moved to Norway as a child and grew up in Molde. He works in a variety of styles with an emphasis on jazz and improvised music, and released his debut album as a bandleader, The Attic, in September 2011.

Hayden Powell started his career as a 13-year-old member of the traditional jazz band Dixi from Molde. Tours of Norway and England and four CD releases by this band gave Powell a blistering start to his musical life. In addition, Powell often performed with his father, who is a church organist. From 2002-2006 he studied at NTNU in Trondheim, earning a bachelor's degree in jazz performance. During these years, Powell co-founded the band Magic Pocket with Erik Johannessen (trombone), Daniel Herskedal (tuba) and Erik Nylander (drums). He also started his first band in his own name, and had great success in 2008 when Hayden Powell Quartet played at the Trondheim Jazz Festival with trumpeter Kenny Wheeler as a guest. During this period, Powell also participated in several versions of the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, including those led by Terje Rypdal, Vigleik Storaas and Eirik Hegdal. He received Molde Jazz Festival and Sparebank 1's Jazz Scholarship in 2006 and Trondheim Jazz Festival's talent prize in 2009.

In 2008, Hayden Powell moved to Oslo where he earned a master's degree in jazz performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music (2009-2011). As a part of this degree, Powell worked with musicians such as Tore Brunborg, Jon Balke, Per Oddvar Johansen and Mats Eilertsen, and he also played his first solo concert, in Tøyen Church in February 2011. During this period he took part in more projects with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, such as those with Øyvind Brække and Erlend Skomsvoll. As a member of the band Magic Pocket, he was awarded the prize "JazZtipendiat" in 2009/2010. This grant, which was presented by Midt-Norsk Jazzsenter, Molde Jazz Festival and Sparebank 1, gave the band the opportunity to write a commissioned work for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra at the Molde Jazz Festival the following year. The result of this commissioned work can be heard on the album Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & Magic Pocket - Kinetic Music (MNJ Records, 2011). In April 2011 Hayden Powell represented Norway as part of the European Jazz Orchestra 2011, led by Jere Laukannen.

As a composer, Powell has written music for big bands, wind bands, and a number of smaller ensembles. He has also written string and horn-arrangements for a number of pop acts, among them the critically acclaimed album The Architect by Jens Carelius (Jansen recordings, 2011). He contributes compositions to Magic Pocket, his own trio, and several other bands. Hayden Powell also has extensive experience as a conductor and instructor, and has been a leader/composer for Midtnorsk Ungdomsstorband, conductor of Big Boss Band, worked as an instructor at Østnorsk Jazzsenter's summer camp and many other courses and seminars.

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Album Review

Espen Berg: Water Fabric

Read "Water Fabric" reviewed by Chris May


The Norwegian pianist and composer Espen Berg has already carved out a formidable reputation with his trio. Earlier in 2023 he began a parallel strand with The Trondheim Concert (NXN), the recording of a wholly in-the-moment improvised solo concert, in the Keith Jarrett tradition, which he gave in 2019. Berg has since released two more albums in the same vein: The Nidaros Concert and The Hamar Concert (both NXN, 2023). Berg is also heard to advantage in ...

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Album Review

Anders Lønne Grønseth & Multiverse: Inner View

Read "Inner View" reviewed by Chris May


Since George Russell published his influential Lydian Chromatic Concept Of Tonal Organization in 1953, other jazz musicians have attempted to reforge the theoretical construct of their music--with varying degrees of success and including some egregiously posturing examples of b.s. which bring to mind Hans Christian Andersen's salutary story The Emperor's New Clothes. One twenty-first century venture which authentically hits the mark is Israeli-born, New York-based tenor saxophonist Oded Tzur's Middle Path, his deft recalibration of microtonal Indian ...

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Album Review

Hayden Powell: Roots and Stems

Read "Roots and Stems" reviewed by John Kelman


For those who think the Norwegian jazz scene is all about electronics, sampling and processing (not that there's anything wrong with that), one look at Hayden Powell, born in England but relocated to Norway as a young child, and any such accusations and generalizations are quickly put to rest. A trumpeter on the ascendance with Magic Pocket and the esteemed Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Powell recently replaced Mathias Eick in Finish pianist/harpist Iro Haarla's quintet, and so it's only a matter ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Inner View

NXN Recordings
2023

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Water Fabric

Odin Records
2023

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Roots and Stems

Periskop
2014

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Roots And Stems

Periskop
2013

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The Attic

Periskop
2011

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