Terje Gewelt
Terje Gewelt (born June 8, 1960 in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz bassist.
He grew up in Larvik, a small town on the southeastern coast. He started playing guitar at the age of 10, switched to electric bass at 14 and added acoustic bass at 17.
From 1979-81, he studied privately with the internationally recognized Norwegian bassist, Arild Andersen, and played in local jazz and fusion groups with, among others, the great Norwegian keyboardist Atle Bakken. In 1981, Terje went to the USA to study bass at the Bass Institute of Technology in Los Angeles. He studied electric bass with Jeff Berlin and acoustic bass with Bob Magnuson and played in jazz clubs around LA with guitarist Les Wise.
In 1982, he moved back to Oslo and spent a year playing with many of the best Norwegian jazz musicians. In 1983, Terje returned to the States, enrolling at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. While at Berklee, he met and played with many young and talented musicians from around the world, including saxophonists Tommy Smith and Donny McCaslin and pianists Christian Jacob, Danilo Perez and Laszlo Gardony. He also took private lessons with the legendary bassist Jaco Pastorius in New York.
Terje co-founded the acoustic jazz quartet Forward Motion with saxophonist Tommy Smith and released the recording "Progressions". He was also a member of the American jazz / world music group Full Circle, playing on their first two recordings for (CBS Sony).
In 1988, Terje was invited to California to work with Santana drummer Michael Shrieve, resulting in the recording Stiletto on RCA Novus which also featured Mark Isham on trumpet and Andy Summers and David Torn on guitars.
After 7 years in the USA, Terje moved back to Norway in 1989, soon becoming a first call bassist on the creative Norwegian jazz scene.
In 1995, he got a call to join Billy Cobham's group. Terje played acoustic bass on two Cobham CDs, Nordic and Off Color on Eagle Records.
In 1997, he started playing with Russian pianist Misha Alperin, recording two CDs, North Story and First Impression (featuring John Surman) on ECM.
In 1998, he started the record label Resonant Music. Terje has released eight CDs as a leader, all on Resonant Music. As a sideman, he has played bass on more than 100 jazz recordings, including recordings by Billy Cobham, Michael Shrieve, Misha Alperin, Dag Arnesen, Roy Powell, Staffan William-Olsson and Ahmad Mansour.
[edit] Selected discography
Hide and Seek (Resonant Music, 1999)
Small World (Resonant Music, 2004)
If Time Stood Still (Resonant Music, 2007)
With Christian Jacob
Duality (Resonant Music, 2002)
Interplay (Resonant Music, 2003)
Hope (Resonant Music, 2005)
With Dag Arnesen
Norwegian Song (Resonant Music 2007)
Norwegian Song 2 (Resonant Music 2008)
With Enrico Pieranunzi and Anders Kjellberg
Oslo (Resonant Music 2009)
Azure (Resonant Music 2010)
With Misha Alperin
- North Story (ECM, 1996)
