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JAZZ

Norway black jazz band in Trolltunga rock video

Back in June Norwegian black jazz band Shining did a free concert on top of the Trolltunga, one of Norway’s most spectacular tourist sites. They’ve now turned it into an awesome, if vertigo-inducing, rock video.

Published: 13 October 2015 22:03 CEST
Norway black jazz band in Trolltunga rock video
Shining's bassist looks perilously close to the edge. Photo: Shining
Trolltunga juts out over a 700m drop down into the Ringedalsvatnet lake near the town of Odda, some 200km outside Bergen.  
 
“Everyone in the band was obviously afraid of heights, but no one panicked,” Jørgen Munkeby, the band’s frontman and singer told Norway’s NRK channel back in June. “When we started playing, we thought nothing more of the height.” 
 
The video, for the band’s new release, Last Day, starts with drone-shot footage that takes you careering over snow-covered mountains before swooping down on the band thrashing their instruments like maniacs, a 700m drop beneath them. 
 
The band, who are currently on a European tour, were flown up to Trolltunga by helicopter. 
 
“Both financially and technically, the concert was challenging to implement,” said AK Glück-Teigland, the cultural promoter who had the idea for the concert. “But with a lot of positive support, we managed to do the impossible.” 

 
 
 

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JAZZ

Latin jazz great Jerry Gonzalez dies in Madrid house fire

Jerry Gonzalez, a US Latin jazz trumpeter and percussionist who played with The Beach Boys and Dizzy Gillespie among others, has died after a reported fire in his Madrid home.

Published: 2 October 2018 09:08 CEST
Latin jazz great Jerry Gonzalez dies in Madrid house fire
Photo: AFP

“The Sunnyside family is grieving today as we have lost our beloved friend and inspiration, the great Jerry Gonzalez,” Sunnyside Records tweeted.    

“For over three decades, Jerry has been a constant joy in our lives through his music, his friendship and his undeniable spirit. We will miss him dearly.”   

The jazzman, a renowned “conguero” — a player of the tall, narrow conga drum — passed away aged 69 after suffering a cardiac arrest in a fire in his home in Madrid, Spanish media reports said.

A spokesman at Madrid city hall told AFP a 69-year-old man had been transported to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, but was unable to confirm his identity. He reportedly died in hospital.

Gonzalez founded the Fort Apache Band and featured prominently in “Calle 54”, Spanish director Fernando Trueba's documentary on Latin jazz, a genre of jazz with Latin American — notably Cuban — rhythms as played by jazz great Gillespie.

He received several Grammy nominations.   

In a tweet, Spain's SGAE society for intellectual property rights said Gonzalez had collaborated with The Beach Boys and also flamenco singers Diego el Cigala and Enrique Morente.

Gonzalez was raised in a musical household in New York's Bronx, with his father singing in various local Latin bands during the 1950s and his uncle playing guitar, according to Sunnyside Records.

He started playing the trumpet aged 12 and later took to the conga in jam sessions on tenement rooftops, in the streets and in parks, particularly Central Park.

He got a scholarship for the New York College of Music and went on to have a prolific career, said his label, which described him as “one of Latin music's most powerful and innovative congueros.”