Excerpt from the critics of "Roots": The big band's new work stands up musically (....) If one can even talk about something like a popular contemporary composer, Knut Vaage would probably be a strong candidate for the title here in Western Norway. The cheerful female band is not afraid to cross genre boundaries, and has collaborated with a number of very different players in the music and performing arts fields. The festival premiere of Vaage's work "Røter" is a collaboration with Bergen Big Band, writer Frode Grytten and video artist Anne Marthe Dyvi. According to the program description, the ambition is to "explore what lies at the intersection between the new music genre and modern, experimental jazz music". This is exactly how it sounded during the concert in the Peer Gynt hall, where the composer himself was standing at the conductor's desk. Sometimes Vaage built up long, more traditional parts, laid back and cool with a gum-chewing Dag Arnesen at the grand piano central to the soundscape. At other times, the brass took over the show with violent outbursts where the harmonica was stretched in all directions. Throughout, there was a clear drive in the whole thing, a strange and at times suggestive drive. I interpreted the work partly as an account of Vaage's own musical life journey, where inspiration from many places met and became one personal expression. Frode Grytten's fragments of text were woven into the work and contributed to the musical narrative, with passages about a young boy in development and plenty of references to musical historical sources of inspiration. Certain motifs recurred to Grytten, such as the mantra "become sound, become song, become jazz". I read his contribution as a tribute to the jazz genre. The musical part was brilliantly performed by the steady ensemble, and would probably have been strong enough in itself. Cast: Bergen Big Band/Knut Vaage, composer and conductor/Frode Grytten, text and reading/Anne Marthe Dyvi, video art. Place: Peer Gynt hall.

Maja Slever's Skanding for BT, 1 June 2022