in Bergen by John Hegre+Yan Jun

John Hegre piano frame
Yan Jun feedback


in Bergen

Each time I went to Bergen there were catastrophic travel delays.
To meet John this time, I missed the connecting flight in Copenhagen because of some ice on the wings of an earlier airplane. Six hours later, they sent me somewhere else - I have no idea of its name or its location. Another few hours later I was sent to Oslo. I was ready to go to Bergen, but my luggage was stuck somewhere. They decided to keep me in a nice hotel nearby and eventually it turned out that my luggage went to Bergen alone. The next day, my luggage was there in the corner of the arrivals hall, waiting for me like a silent friend.
John picked me up and offered to let me stay on his boat. I had missed the concert and the hotel accommodation, so we had fun at his studio instead. It was recorded, but I don't remember any detail until I re-listened to it now. My memories are about John's boat, which was small, and his pu'er tea, which was strong. The weather, for me, was cold. The atmosphere of the city was dry and quiet. The pace we took was calm. The water in the night was still and the ice was thin. As a fan of Jazzkammer, I almost completed my collection by the time I left his studio. I enjoyed everything. I even enjoyed a kind of local food which John warned me in advance that it is supposed to be salty. It was salty. Maybe very salty. I knew it would be salty but I decided to order it, and I got it. I can confirm that it was really salty. It's true that John said it would be salty, and it's true that he spoke in a calm way. I may have spent a little while feeling and thinking why this dish wasn't developed to fit today's general tastes, and I later agreed that there might be no such thing as today's general tastes. Soon I had no words about it in my mind. It tasted salty, and that was not the only thing to remember. But I don't think it's necessary to find words about the rest.

Yan Jun
18 September 2023

since 1994

pay what you can afford

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