Jasper Høiby is a busy musician playing in nearly a dozen bands and is getting some great press among the modern jazz community.  He first got my attention via a comment by a favorite here at Obnoxious Listeners, Avishai Cohen, saying:

When I heard Jasper’s music I felt the simplicity that is most important as well as the challenging moments. Jasper is on his way to being a great band leader as he is already a good composer and bassist. I know im going to keep listening.
     - Avishai Cohen

I first heard Jasper on his album Organic Warfare (2007) released under his own trio, Phronesis.  I was hooked immediately and promptly published a review. Jasper is releasing his trio’s second album this May entitled Green Delay (2009).  We’ll have a review of Green Delay shortly before it’s official release, but in the mean time we have an exclusive clip from the upcoming album not found anywhere else and an interview with Jasper Høiby!  Enjoy!

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For someone who has never heard Phronesis, how would you describe the band? What do you feel is most unique about the band?

I’d describe Phronesis as a modern and relevant acoustic jazz trio with an energy similar to that of a young rock band. The unique thing about Phronesis is the way that we emphasise equally on each instrument and it’s all about creating one strong sound as opposed to taking endless solos in turn.

Organic Warfare has received a lot of great reviews. Did you anticipate the album to do as well as it has? 

Obviously I did what I could with the resources I had to get it out to anyone I thought might listen to it, like it and more importantly write about it! 

But no, I was happily surprised to receive all the good feedback that we did. 

I hear an abundance of influences on Organic Warfare. What music has influenced your compositions that we don’t hear or might not expect?

I think anyone who decides to play music on a serious level will find that musical influences probably starts from when you are very young. In my teens I was mostly inspired by hip hop. Groups like Sugar Hill Gang and Tribe Called Quest has had a big impact on me and later Red Hot Chili Peppers, Weather Report, Headhunters, Sly and the Family Stone, Drori Hansen Furniture,and Prince were eye(ear)openers on a musical level from early on and I guess that bands like these showed me a way into jazz.

Your current pianist, Ivo Neame, has his own band and you play bass in that project as well. Aside from having separate composers, what do you feel distinguishes the two bands? Do you currently have any other musical projects?

The difference between Ivo’s 4tet and Phronesis is quite big but obviously also has similarities. I still feel like there’s an instant comunication between the bass and piano, but in general I probably stick to a more traditional role of the bass, and leave more space for the vibes, piano and drums. 

Ivo’s 4tet strives to make music on a really open level. The point is getting to know the material well enough for everyone to be able to suggest a new place to go in the music, from anywhere within all the different material in a similar way that Wayne Shorter’s new quartet might approach things.

In Phronesis we all know the material inside out too, but we tend to present most tunes in whichever way they were written and then have places to go to where we can totally break stuff up. In a way its about making a coherent statement first and then leaping into the abstract later.

While I have future plans to re-awaken my old band Qualia, apart from Phronesis my other current musical projects is currently as a sideman. I play in London based Loop Collective bands like Ivo Neame 4tet, Gemini and Fringe Magnetic and also AHR, Kairos Quartet, Compassionate Dictatorship, Triptych, Mark Lockheart Group, Jonathan Braetoff trio and Julia Biels band.

As the bands composer you likely play piano, do you compose on the piano or on the double bass? Do you play any other instruments?

I would never go as far as saying I play the piano. I write from a variety of instruments but the bass is obviously a foundation for most of my writing. 

For the rest I use the piano, singing or notation as my compositional tools. 

The tune Rue Cinq Diamant on the coming album started on a coconut mbira, that I discovered in Paris, and then finished on the piano. 

I started out as an electric bass player and still play it, mostly with Julia Biel.

I see that you have a European tour coming this summer. Do you have any plans or intentions to tour the U.S.?

It’s definitely a dream to tour the U.S. and with the amount of interest coming from there it will hopefully be possible one day. I am currently looking for some sort of management in Europe as well as in the States so lets see what happens with that.

Any suggestions are welcome!

If you could play along any band or group in a concert series, who would they be and why? 

I’d love to warm up for Wayne Shorter’s Quartet. I think those guys are absolutely amazing and playing with an openess and maturity that’s just incredible and deep on so many levels.

Phronesis is releasing a new album, Green Delay, this May. You’ve given us a 1 minute clip from the clip Abrahams New Gift on the myspace page. Do you feel this track set’s the tone and mood of the album, or should we expect the new album to sound as diverse as Organic Warfare?

When you put together an album of material there’s many factors to pay attention to. I chose Abrahams New Gift as the first track because its starts with an energy that hopefully will make you stop whatever you are doing and listen more carefully to the music. (If you are a reviewer this might mean that you’ll make it through the rest of the album!) Then, once you are drawn in, there’s a variety of moods waiting.

I definitely think that Green Delay is as diverse as Organic Warfare. The writing has matured and we are all getting better all the time.

What are some of your passions outside of music? What sort of life would you pursue if a career in music was not an option?

My passions outside music are music really but if not possible I’d probably turn my attention to something to do with politics. I feel like most politicians are caught in their own web and politics seem to be more about personal agendas then doing good things for everyone. When did this happen? 

In the past seven years or so Denmark has been in a real state politically and this has, in my opinion, changed things in the country dramatically. It’s time for a more human agenda and time to realise that we need to start working together if we want to survive. 

Otherwise I’d like to do something pro-active about the health care system in Denmark. Everyone seems to think that its one of the best functioning in the world, meanwhile people are receiving a terrible service, waiting lists are growing and people are dying as a result.

On a more cheerful and superficial level I’d just love to try skiing and surfing again. Just tried surfing for the first time the other day and it was absolutely amazing, great for both body and brain!

Did you design the artwork for Organic Warfare? Could you give us some insight about its meaning?

My friend Daniel Milan designed the artwork for the album. We brainstormed on the influences I had while writing the material and talked about what really matered to me personally. Afterwards he came up with the suggestion of the sun, penquin and bass, and then we took it from there.

I wrote the tune Organic Warfare just after 9/11 and I remember finding it utterly bizarre that people in western europe where buying organic food, while people in Afghanistan and Iraq where busy avoiding being hit by bombs from the West.

The three symbols (the sun, the bass and the penquin) refers to the trio itself. 

The conflict between the sun, and the penquin symbolises global warmning which is obviously a reality we all have to face up to on a serious level. (Politicians wake up!)