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Nils Petter Molvær

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Nils Petter Molvær, also known as NPM, was born on 18 September 1960 and grew up on the island of Sula in Møre og Romsdal in Norway. He is a jazz trumpeter, composer and producer. At nineteen he left for Trondheim to study jazz at the conservatory. He then played in the groups Jazzpunkensemblet with Jon Eberson and Masqualero, together with Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen and Tore Brunborg. Masqualero, named after a composition by Wayne Shorter that Miles Davis recorded, made several albums for ECM Records.

Music and breakthrough

His debut album Khmer, in 1997, became his most commercially successful record. It blends jazz, rock, electronic soundscapes and hip hop rhythms and sounds very different from the delicate chamber jazz with which ECM was usually associated. Solid Ether followed in 2000, NP3 in 2002, Hamada in 2009 and Switch in 2014, among others. He often works with the guitarist Eivind Aarset and also played with Tabla Beat Science, the group of Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell. He received the Kongsberg Jazz Award in 1996, the Spellemannprisen in 1997 and the Gammleng-prisen in the jazz category in 1998.

Influence

Molvær is regarded as a pioneer of future jazz, a genre that brings jazz and electronics together. His muted trumpet takes on a new role in that music, between beats and digital space. In doing so he showed that jazz can connect with the electronic music of the 1990s.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a track from Khmer and notice the trumpet set against the electronic sounds and the beats. Ask yourself what you hear as jazz and what as electronics.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Categories: ArtistsNu jazzECM sound