Poetry meets Jazz

Easterine Kire, Nagaland (Gedichte), Ola Asdhal Rokkones, Norwegen (Saxophon) Jon-Eirik Boska, Norwegen (drums)

Jazzpoetry – What do you get when you play untamed jazz to a poet? Brutally raw poetry! Combining poetry and jazz in a delightful way, these artists give a performance that crosses barriers. The ingredients are one poet and two jazzcats, who together transcend the conventions of jazz and poetry. The ensuing result is innovative: an experience that at the same time is fresh, fragile, light-hearted and soulful.

Poet Easterine Kire sees northern Norway through Naga eyes, coming as she does from faraway and misty, mountain-topped Nagaland, a region in the North-East of India. In 2005 she was appointed Tromsø’s first ICORN Guest Writer. Perhaps it's her cultural background that helps her detect the irregular and subtle nuances in everyday life?

Her Jazzpoetry is delivered in English, peppered with Norwegian words, and is inspired by jazz moods. Some of the poems have their roots in northern Norway, while others could be taken from anywhere. In her basement lives jazz saxophonist Ola Asdahl Rokkones who with drummer Jon-Eirik Boska form the “Cats vs Kitchen Utensils” duo. They relentlessly counterpoint the poems, creating unexpected contexts and sounds - like cats playing with a ball of yarn, or perhaps the other way around.

Easterine (b.1959) was the first writer from Nagaland to be published in English, and during the pauses in the performance she narrates stories about her background.

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