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I had been cooling my heels (and my cycling legs) in Oslo for almost a week following the Øya Festival and it was getting expensive. Luckily (or not) I had pre-purchased tickets to two events at the Oslo Jazz Festival before embarking on the trip. It was lucky because I was able to sell my Meshell Ndegeocello ticket and recoup the 65 euro ticket price, but not lucky because it was the purchase of these tickets that was keeping me in the city in the first place. After arriving in the city sooner than expected in order to catch the Øya fest I had no choice but to wait around the city for the jazz fest shows, otherwise I would have pointed my bicycle east toward Sweden days before.
No matter, my repose in the beautiful Nordic capital was at it’s end and I had a (pre-purchased and thus free) ticket to see the legendary Toots Thielemans at the Oslo Konserthus on August 14th, 2006.
I dressed in the finest duds I could pull out of my saddlebags and cycled down the massive hill to the city centre, passing countless jaw-dropping statues along the way. Oslo really is the city of sculpture; there are amazing examples around every corner.
The concert house was beautiful, the seats raked up from the floor to the ceiling; there was no second level, just stairs that led up and up. In the foyer I afforded myself a radically overpriced drink and mingled until the concert-call, which was signalled by a beautiful, spine-tingling motif on the tubular bells.
Before the concert started the room stood up as one. I stumbled to my feet and asked the person beside me what was happening.
“Our Queen in arriving,” she told me, matter-of-factly.
And sure enough a door opened and a queen walked out and mounted the stage, welcoming us all to the show. I guess. It was all in Norwegian, of which I speak none. Eventually she took her seat in the seventh row (it has the most legroom) and the show started.
Up first was a local singer named Karin Krog backed up by the Steve Kuhn piano trio. It was very old-school jazz, but a bit cheesy to my ears. Apparently Ms. Krog is a bit of a legend ‘round here and the crowd loved it, clapping loudly in the first few bars of every tune.
It killed me to endure the setbreak without buying another drink, but Oslo is just so incredibly expensive. A small jar of spaghetti sauce in the grocery store cost $8, my campsite (just a tent and a bike) was $46 a night. I don’t remember what drinks were going for at the konserthus but it was probably in the $15 range.
Finally Toots came on and played beautifully. One of the most distinctive harmonica players in the world, he treated us with standard after standard. I don’t remember exactly but think Body and Soul, Autumn Leaves, Satin Doll, that sort of thing. The show was short but the man was very, very advanced in age so I forgive him for that. And he plays so wonderfully I also found it in myself to forgive him for not playing even the briefest snippet of possibly his best-known work, the Sesame Street Theme.
Ah well, that gives me an excuse to go see him again.*
*Unfortunately, shortly after I wrote this the great Toots Thielemans (1922-2016) passed away.
Todd Man Out 