10. - 16. AUG 2025
Jazz at MUNCH

Jazz at MUNCH

Jazz at MUNCH is a series with roots going back to the 1960s, when Karin Krog and Johs Bergh invited artists such as Jan Garbarek, Svein Finnerud, Bill Evans and Egil Kapstad to take part in now-legendary concerts in the museum’s exhibition halls at Tøyen. MUNCH is now carrying on this proud tradition at the new museum in Bjørkvika, with a series of concerts programmed in collaboration with Oslo Jazzfestival.

This fall, you will have the pleasure of experiencing Ellen Andrea Wang Closeness II og Sun Ra Arkestra + film screening in Festsalen på MUNCH.

The band has garnered international recognition for their musical interplay, and since their debut album, released in 2020, they have played around 100 club concerts and festivals in Europe, such as Athens Jazz Festival, Moldejazz and London Jazz Festival.

Ellen Andrea Wang is one of the leading musicians of her generation. She has created her own musical universe, and has emphatically proved that you can write hits and still have both feet firmly planted in jazz. She has received Spellemann awards, composer awards, was "Artist in Residence" at Moldejazz (2021) and has collaborated with musicians such as Sting, Manu Katché, Ben Wendel, Marilyn Mazur and Bugge Wesseltoft. She is also a member of the critically acclaimed group GURLS. With a sound that is both melodious, catchy and vital, composer and songwriter Wang blends styles in a unique way.

The band consisting of the British shooting star Rob Luft on guitar (John Surman, Django Bates) and the Swedish, meritorious drummer Jon Fält (Bobo Stenson trio) who have a special ability to create moods that touch both the heart and the soul.

Ellen Andrea Wang - double bass/vocal, Rob Luft - guitar, Jon Fält - drums

Doors open: 19:00
Event start: 20:00

Foto: Oda Berby

The Sun Ra Arkestra is a legendary institution in jazz history. The ensemble was founded in the mid-fifties in Chicago by composer and keyboardist Sun Ra, often called the father of Afrofuturism. He came, according to himself, from the planet Saturn, and built a complex mythology around his unique avant-garde jazz, in which he combined cosmic visions with the fight for civil rights. This year he would have celebrated his 110th birthday.

Sun Ra's musical spirit and intergalactic perspective lives on in the Arkestra, which today is led by the 100-year-old saxophonist Marshall Allen. He no longer travels outside the US, but tonight we get to meet him in the new film Marshall Allen, 99, Astronaut by Berlin-based artist and composer Ari Benjamin Meyers.

In the film, we follow Allen after he was invited to respond to two works composed by Meyers. The portrait is an intimate conversation about spontaneity, collaboration and the hard work of rehearsing material. We meet Allen at his home in Philadelphia - the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra itself - which for over 50 years has been the band's home, rehearsal space and vanguard of musical experimentation. The film mixes documentary and a more speculative genre, and at one point Allen is teleported from his home to Philadelphia's historic Fels Planetarium, where we see him playing an evocative composition in front of the starry sky in the dome. Spectacular nebulae and symbols from Allen's life float by before he himself disappears into the darkness and becomes a constellation.

Doors open: 19:00

Film screening: 19:30 Screening of Marshall Allen, 99, Astronaut by Ari Benjamin Meyers

Concert: 20.00: Sun Ra Arkestra live

More info and tickets can be found on the MUNCH website.

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