Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer one of the first European jazz musicians to successfully harness jazz with dance music in the 1990s and in the process managed to take jazz to an audience it had never reached: the club generation. This month he embarks on a major UK tour for the first time as he supports the release of new album Hamada. Stuart Nicholson catches up with him in Berlin ahead of his UK visit.

Trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer has redeye. He’s about to play the Fritzclub in what was the former east Berlin and then he’s on an early morning flight to Budapest, the last leg of a 22-date European tour that’s taken in 10 countries. It has been an exhausting schedule. “We’ve covered a lot of ground. Much as I like playing it’s too long,” he says gazing into the middle distance, and then turning with a smile adding, “It’s so long I can’t remember how I travelled from home to the airport. Did I take the car? Did I travel by train? I don’t remember!”

Tired he may be, but Molvaer is a true road warrior. One of a handful of European jazz musicians able to tour through Europe twice and three times a year with an entourage that includes band members, a road manager and his own sound and lighting engineers, he readily acknowledges that “It’s a privilege.” Ever since his 1997 album Khmer (ECM) became a bestseller notching-up six-figure sales, he has steadily built an audience for his music by taking it to the people. It’s a strategy that has served him well in today’s music scene.

This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #137 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE copy of the latest Portico Quartet CD 'Isla'.