This week’s edition of JazzFacts at the Deutschlandfunk Radio (thursday evening, 21.05) will contain a lot of „Norwegian Food“, Karsten Mützelfeld’s review of a Trondheim Showcase, my feature about the 9.th Punkt Festival – and a bunch of new Norwegian albums by the usual suspects Jan Bang, Arve Henriksen and Nils Petter Molvaer. All this will be framed by the excellent new ECM-albums by Ralph Towner (and his guitar trio) and Carla Bley (with her long-time trio). I talked with Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel about „Travel Guide“ and the producer’s Manfred Eicher contribution. I hope, too, to still speak with English sax player Andy Sheppard about the magic of Carla’s „Trios“. For everyone who followed the story of ECM from the early days (my first record was SART, my second RUTA & DAITYA), realizing the age of the persons involved might be a lesson in time slipping away. Manfred turned 70 this year, Ralph Towner is 73 or 74, and Carla and Steve, well, they aged well, too.