Europe Gets Rhythm.(the new jazz)

In the Pablo Neruda community center in the gritty Paris suburb of Bobigny, about 500 people, mostly under 30, sit quietly on the floor, waiting. Few would call themselves jazz enthusiasts, yet they have come to hear a new kind of jazz that is infiltrating Europe and winning over young fans. Based on traditional American bebop rhythms, the new European jazz is decidedly homegrown, blending ethnic tunes with more modern sounds like techno and rap. At 9 o'clock, Elvind Aarset, a 41- year-old Norwegian with long stringy blond hair and aquamarine eyes, takes the stage. Using his electric guitar, he unleashes an ethereal warble that cuts through the thump of bassist Marius Reksjo, the rattlesnake rhythms of drummer Wetle Holte and the techno zaps of mix master Reidar Skar. Instantly the crowd is on its feet, swaying to the whooshing sound. As it builds into a climactic Hendrixesque squeal that soars beyond the weary public-housing towers into the night sky, the audience erupts into howls and cheers.

For the last 20 years, American jazz has been paralyzed by history. The legends of bebop have almost all died now, leaving the new generation of American jazz artists to keep that sound alive--often at the sacrifice of developing their own. Not so in Europe. In the last decade musicians from Scandinavia to the Black Sea have had the courage to break out of that referential rut. Unlike their American counterparts, who cherish their roots to a fault, the European musicians blend rhythms and melodies from all over the Continent. They also regularly cross borders: Swedes play with French, who play with Hungarians, who play with Italians. The result is a sound that is undeniably European. "Every single country has people who are coming out with something exciting and fresh," says Wulf Mueller, vice president of international marketing for jazz at Universal. "There is a real movement, with a European edge and many different facets."

New European jazz may be grounded in the American jazz of the 1960s and early 1970s--but only in terms of mechanics. After mastering the technique, European artists layer on traditional European melodies. For Yugoslav pianist Bojan Zulfikarpasic, that means the traditional songs of the Balkans. For French trumpeter Erik Truffaz, it's the romantic big-band tunes of Edith Piaf and Yves Montand. For Norwegians Aarset and keyboard player Bugge Wesseltoft, it's Norway's melodic folk songs. "It's this melange of traditional music that comes from Europe, rather than American blues, that makes this music 'European'," says Zulfikarpasic.

Much of Europe's new jazz also draws heavily on the electronic music boom that exploded across the Continent in the 1990s. The leader of this new techno-infused style is Wesseltoft, 38. He calls his sound-- and his group--the New Conception of Jazz. "When I started the project in 1993, I found the music in Norway extremely conformist," says Wesseltoft. "I wanted to work my own way, and decided to play with electronics and textures instead of focusing on endless piano solos."

Wesseltoft's New Conception of Jazz launched a musical movement in Norway that is now sweeping the Continent. Jazzland, the label he founded in 1995 (and now a joint venture with Universal) ...