TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Norwegian free jazz saxophonist Heidi Kvelvane made a one-off stop in Taipei on Wednesday, performing with local musicians at Vinyl Decision after concluding her Japan tour.
Kvelvane arrived at the venue about an hour before the show after difficulty locating the space, which is tucked inside Huashan Cultural and Creative Park’s Red Brick area. The delay left her little time to rehearse with musicians Brian Alexander on bass, Hans Lin (林加恩) on drums, and Wu Yu-chen (吳昱辰) on piano, musicians she had coordinated with online but had never met in person.
“Free jazz takes a lot of rehearsal and understanding, so tonight is more about the standards,” Kvelvane said. She added that she lives in a small town on Norway’s west coast, where audiences also tend to prefer jazz standards.
She described free jazz, or free improvisation, as a demanding form of expression in which “everything happens at once.”
“It can feel like life or death on stage,” she said. “When it works, it’s the best thing ever. You can’t make it happen again. It feels like leaving your body and just letting the music happen.”
Free jazz emerged in the late 1950s in the US as a reaction against more commercially popular jazz styles, placing less emphasis on fixed chord progressions and steady rhythms. Early pioneers included Ornette Coleman, followed by figures such as Sun Ra and others.
Kvelvane likened free jazz to a real-time exchange, in which musicians pose musical questions and respond instinctively.
“Free jazz can be overwhelming if you’re not used to it,” she said. “It’s kind of the frontier.”
She agreed that drumming plays a central role in shaping free jazz, particularly through the absence of a fixed tempo. Rather than keeping time, percussion may create textures or atmospheres, resembling wind chimes or conch shells, that leave space for spontaneous interaction among players.
“I once played with a very famous drummer, Han Bennink, and thought it would be the best concert ever,” she said. “But it was just boring. There was no real conversation. It happens, even with great musicians.”
Kvelvane, who has spent years touring with minimal possessions and has lived part of the year out of a van, also shared stories from the road. She recalled a chaotic tour in Ethiopia during which a fellow musician fell ill mid-run.
“He was shaking hands with many people using the same hand he used for eating; I think it was injera,” she said. “He got sick, and we still had three shows that day. I remember him throwing up and then going back to the keyboard.”
Local keyboardist and longtime ICRT DJ Tony Taylor, who attended the performance, said jazz’s complexity can be intimidating compared with the simpler chord progressions of blues.
Kvelvane acknowledged that audiences unfamiliar with free jazz may initially feel overwhelmed but often respond positively once they sense the musicians’ engagement.
“They can see the joy,” she said. “They might think they won’t like it, but in the end they often do.”
Given the logistical challenges of the evening and her first time performing with Taipei-based players, Kvelvane said she was comfortable leaning on familiar material.
“The best moments are when nothing is planned, and everything clicks,” she said. “It feels like you’re outside yourself, just observing the music from above. That’s the ideal state, just letting it happen.”
