Tord Gustavsen

Tord Gustavsen (born 5 October 1970 in Oslo, Norway) is a major jazz pianist and composer.

Career
Before studying music, Gustavsen finished a degree in psychology. He studied jazz at the Conservatory of Music Trondheim and music theory at the University of Oslo. He tours extensively world-wide, and he has been a bandleader of a trio and a later ensemble both of which bore his name. The Tord Gustavsen Trio, with Harald Johnsen on double bass and Jarle Vespestad on drums, released three albums by April 2007 for ECM Records; Changing Places in 2003, The Ground (2004), and Being There (2007). He followed them with an album recorded by an ensemble he assembled in 2009, Restored, Returned - an album which was awarded with Spellemannsprisen (the Norwegian Grammy) in 2008. In addition, he has recorded as a session musician, and guested on friends' albums.

Gustavsen's new Quartet with Tore Brunborg on saxophone, Mats Eilertsen on double bass, and Jarle Vespestad on drums, is highly praised for their album The Well (2012).

Gustavsen continues to be strongly interested in psychology and has written a lengthy thesis on the paradoxes of improvisation drawing on the dialectical psychological theory of Helm Stierlin and Anne-Lise Løvlie Schibbye.

Tord Gustavsen Ensemble

 * Restored, Returned (October 2009)

Tord Gustavsen Trio

 * Changing Places (ECM, 2003)
 * The Ground (ECM, 2004)
 * Being There (ECM, 2007)

Tord Gustavsen Quartet

 * The Well (ECM, 2012)

aire & angels

 * aire & angels (1999)
 * aire & angels II (2002)

Nymark Collective

 * First meeting (2000)
 * Contemporary tradition (2002)
 * Bessie Smith Revisited - Live in concert (2008) - with Kristin Asbjørnsen

Silje Nergaard

 * Port of Call (2000)
 * At First Light (2001)
 * Nightwatch (2003)
 * The Essential + Live in Koln[DVD] (2005)

SKRUK

 * SKRUK / Rim Banna Krybberom (2003)
 * SKRUK / Torun Sævik / Cecilie Jørstad Sommerlandet (2004)
 * SKRUK / Nymark Collective dype stille sterke milde (2006)

Other Projects

 * Indigo-dalen (2001) with Carl Petter Opsahl
 * Love, the Blues (2008) with Carl Petter Opsahl
 * Whoopin (2001)
 * Humans & Places (2006) with Ulrich Drechsler Quartet
 * ID (2007) with Anna Maria Jopek
 * Sorgen og gleden (2008) with various artists
 * Natt i Betlehem (2008) with Solveig Slettahjell