Home » Jazz Musicians » Frode Kjekstad
Frode Kjekstad
Frode Kjekstad is a Norwegian jazz guitarist, married to jazz singer Aina Fridén, and known from collaboration and recordings with jazz musicians Lonnie Smith, Eric Alexander, Mike LeDonne, Joe Farnsworth, Byron Landham, Alberto Marsico, Frank Foster, Johnny Griffin, Don Menza, Jim Morrison, Mark Nightingale, Claire Martin, Deborah Brown, and Wendell Brunious.
He has performed at clubs like Ronnie Scott´s in London and Smoke in New York.
Kjekstad is known for a virtuoso way of playing the guitar, and has done many projects in the guitar/organ/drums trio concept, but also solo, duo, trio and all kind of combos. His style is influenced by different hornplayers and pianoplayers, exemplified by counterpoint chord melodies, and swinging basslines in his solo and duo work with singers and hornplayers.
His own projects can be seen as “post-bop”, “hard-bop” or “neo-bop”, based in the American Blue Note tradition, but also heavy influenced by Italian and European music. He has also composed and arranged several tunes and “jazz suites” for big band.
Tags
Frode Kjekstad Qrt: Stars Aligned
by Glenn Astarita
Talented Norwegian guitarist Frode Kjekstad discovered jazz in his early teens through the bebop genius of Charlie Parker and the refined touch of Joe Pass. He started formal jazz guitar studies at fifteen and moved to Oslo in 1994, where he immersed himself in the local scene and performed with legends like Johnny Griffin, Frank Foster, and Diane Schuur as part of the acclaimed Sandvika Big Band. Today, he balances freelancing, composing, and teaching, releasing albums that fuse hard bop ...
Continue ReadingFrode Kjekstad: A Piece of the Apple
by Geno Thackara
There's no telling just when or why a certain place will sink its hooks into you. However active Frode Kjekstad remains in his native Norway, he's clearly left his heart in jny: New York City. The bustling personality of the metropolis can be felt all over his bop-and-blues compositions and fleet fretwork. With a classy full-bodied tone and innate feel for that most snazzy kind of swing, he honors the lineage of jazz guitar from Grant Green to Kurt Rosenwinkel ...
Continue ReadingFrode Kjekstad: The Italian Job
by Ian Patterson
The sound of a Hammond organ has the knack of automatically resetting your watch to 1960-something, just as wah-wah guitar unfailingly conjures the 1970s and the dreaded synthesizer, the 1980s. And whilst Norwegian guitarist Frode Kjekstad's organ trio unequivocally revives the spirit of organists Jack McDuff and Jimmy Smith on The Italian Job, his trio--with organist Marisco Alberto and drummer Enzi Zirilli--swings with a bluesy delight that's hard to resist. Kjekstad previously recorded with organist Dr. Lonnie Smith and drummer ...
Continue ReadingFrode Kjekstad Italian Job Trio: London, UK, November 19, 2012
by Ian Patterson
Frode Kjekstad Italian Job TrioRonnie Scott's Jazz ClubSoho, London, EnglandNovember 19, 2012The London Jazz Festival may have ended for another year the day before, after 10 exhilarating days, but jazz never rests at 47 Frith Street Soho, home to Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. Monday night was business as usual, as it has been pretty much every night--bar a three-month closure for refurbishment in 2006-- since 1959. Following singer Mario Biondi's sold-our early show, it fell ...
Continue ReadingFrode Kjekstad: New York Time
by Jack Bowers
Guitarist Frode Kjekstad is a Norwegian who makes himself at home in the Big Apple on this splendid album with New York companions Dr. Lonnie Smith, Byron Landham, and special guest Eric Alexander. To me, there are few musical alliances more pleasing than a guitar/organ/drums trio that sounds terrific and swings like a metronome, as this one does. If there's anything that could enrich the partnership, that would certainly include inviting an eloquent and powerful tenor saxophonist such as Alexander ...
Continue Reading
