We had dinner at a really pleasant traditional Norwegian restaurant called the Engebret Café. We ate outside, and the food was quite good. It is said that the great Norwegian writers Bjornstjerne Bjørnson, Henrik Ibsen, and Knut Hamsun all had regular tables at the Engebret, as did the composer Edvard Grieg — listen here to “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and the wonderful “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen” (written, if I recall correctly, for his own bride on their wedding day) — and the painter Edvard Munch.
Afterwards, we attended a program at the Chat Noir theater with the great American songwriter Jimmy Webb, whose pieces have been performed by such figures as The Supremes, Linda Ronstadt, Frank Sinatra, Art Garfunkel, Dionne Warwick, Elvis Presley, Nina Simone, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, James Taylor, Richard Harris, Isaac Hayes, and Carly Simon. He performed several of his songs, interspersed with often very funny accounts of his interactions with the singers. It was an unexpected privilege to be there.
We wrapped up the evening by walking over again to the Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, where the ad hoc Oslo Jazz Festival Orchestra (Matthias Eick on trumpet, Jon Balke on piano, Ellen Andrea Wang on bass and vocals, Gard Nilssen on drums, and Trygve Seim on saxophone [whose appearance suggests that Wotan simply took up the saxophone after retiring from presiding over Asgard]) gave a really stunning performance for a packed house.
Posted from Oslo, Norway
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