Terje Gewelt’s continuing journey to explore new colours in his playing and composing continue to bring forth some wonderful music.
Resonant Music RM35-2
Terje Gewelt (bass); Tommy Smith (tenor saxophone & penny whistle); Erlend Slettevoll (piano & keyboard); Erik Smith (drums)
Recorded 8-11 June 2026
Norwegian bassist Terje Gewelt has been a force on the international scene since the late 1970s having spent time in the United States as well as studying in his home country. He has toured and recorded Billy Cobham, Misha Alperin and Michael Shrieve among others.
Gewelt is now settled back in Norway and has spent the last few years releasing his music on how own Resonant Music label, which now boasts a significant and varied body of work. For this latest release, Gewelt is reunited with his old sparring partner and fellow Berklee graduate Tommy Smith with whom he co-founded Forward Motion; a superb quartet of Berklee students who went on to tour internationally and released two albums.
The connection between saxophonist and bassist can be heard in the easy way in which the two combine on a set of nine original compositions by Gewelt, with Smith negotiating the music as if playing familiar standards. This empathy has quickly extended into a fine quartet with pianist Erlend Slettevoll and Erik Smith on drums.
The music presents a diverse programme from the hard-edged title track with its powerful tenor solo and contrasting piano solo to the relaxed but telling ‘Landmark’ that features a fine solo from the leader playing an upright electric bass giving the music a distinctly different feel from Gewelt’s usual acoustic bass.
This new colour with the electric bass along with subtle use of keyboards in the introduction to ‘Woodland’ sets things up nicely for Smith’s stately tenor sound, and the saxophonist is perhaps at his most lyrical on the lovely ‘Sentinel’ that feature another excellent solo from pianist Slettevoll over a gently propulsive feel from Gewelt and drummer Erik Smith.
Terje’s interest in colour extends beyond the use of his electric upright bass with Tommy Smith’s use of penny whistle, apparently a first for the saxophonist on record, on the exceptional ‘Last Leaf Falling’ with its keyboards and ethereal bass introduction conjuring forth the spirit of Eberhard Weber in this most effective and affecting composition. The sound of the bass and penny whistle combine once again in the ‘Cycle of Life’ with Tommy’s penny whistle playing over the bass ostinato which may have prompted the bassist to wonder if he had missed a trick in not asking Tommy to bring his shakuhachi to the session.
Gewelt’s compositional prowess is on display once again on ‘Ogham’ with its pensive theme that again highlights the saxophonist’s individual tone and expressive delivery and brings to a close a compelling album that suggest that Terje Gewelt’s continuing journey to explore new colours in his playing and composing continue to bring forth some wonderful music.
