The Perfect Harmony: Exploring Jazz & Fly Fishing

With : jazznflyfishing

I recently had the chance to catch up with Håvard Stubø who blends two of the greatest passions in life: fly fishing and jazz. From fishing trips with his father in Northern Norway to sharing the stage and casting lines at the same time, this guy’s journey is a true symphony. He’s the genius behind Jazz & Fly Fishing, and his ability to find the rhythm in both music and casting a fly rod is something I couldn't wait to dive into.

How did your love for fly fishing and jazz come together to create Jazz & Fly Fishing?

For as long as I can remember, fly fishing has been a big part of my life. My father, Thorgeir Stubø, was a legendary jazz musician and a passionate fly fisher. Some of my first memories are from fishing trips with him in the mountains areas around Narvik, Northern Norway, where I was born and raised, and currently live with my wife and two sons. My father passed away from cancer just before my tenth birthday, and I guess a psychiatrist could have a lot to say about the path I´ve chosen in life. I picked up the guitar around the age of twelve, and played in various local bands in my teens. Mostly alternative rock, influenced by bands such as Nirvana, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Jane´s Addiction and so on. When I got really interested in music in my late teens and wanted to do something more, it was a very natural step for me to get into jazz. It was the freedom of jazz music that really drew me in. 

One evening back in 2008, the award-winning Finnish piano player Joona Toivanen called me and asked if I wanted to do a two month tour in Scandinavia with him, his younger brother Tapani on bass and Fredrik Hamrå from Sweden on drums. Play concerts and go fly fishing, and make a TV documentary about the whole thing. Needless to say, I was more than up for it, and Jazz & Fly Fishing was born. Since then, we´ve toured quite a bit, released three albums and a DVD, and posted many short films online. 

Jazz & Fly Fishing quickly became an important platform for me, eventually also for my solo films, music and fishing trips, and through social media I got in contact with the Swedish film maker Rolf Nylinder. He is a true kindred spirit who has become a dear friend, and I´ve been a part of several of his films. The whole thing is about sharing the wonderful experiences that I find in nature and in music. 

Do you find any similarities between the rhythm of casting a fly rod and the flow of playing jazz?

Definitely. For me, there are many common denominators between fly fishing and playing jazz. The fundamental freedom they both offer is one. And they are the only two activities that can put me in a state of flow - which to me means total, wordless concentration, escaping self-reflection and being 100% present in the moment. Both are also activities that you can never fully master. You can work hard at your skills, rehearse. You get better at anticipating what´s going to happen. But you never get it quite right, because there are just too many variables. At best, you get these short glimpses of magic - ten seconds here, five seconds there. And that´s the beauty of it. 

Has fly fishing influenced your music in any way, whether through inspiration or even the places you play?

Yeah, it has. Nature sounds, the ambience of the arctic tundra, I think it´s there in a lot of my music. There´s also a Sapmi influence in some of my music. The Sapmi are the indigenous people of arctic Scandinavia, and in the mountain areas, most names of rivers, lakes and mountains are in Sapmi. Such as "Lahppoluobbal", which is a song I named after a tundra lake in Finnmark, northernmost Norway. It translates something like "Large lake-like pool in a stream, with a lost island in it". That song is heavily influenced by Sapmi music, you can hear the typical pentatonic sound so common in indigenous music all over the world. But it´s also influenced by American music - it has a sort of New Orleans-type groove, and a bluesy vibe as well.

If you could pick the perfect fly fishing setting to perform a live jazz session, where would it be and why?

The perfect setting would be somewhere by the bank of a world class river, in front of an enthusiastic audience. Come to think of it, maybeI´ve already done it: In June 2023, Jazz & Fly Fishing performed at the Trouthunter Lodge in in Island Park, Idaho, with the legendary Ranch stretch of the Henry´s Fork less than 100 yards from the stage. We fished the Ranch the whole day, did a very short sound check at the lodge and started playing our stuff. Our set really clicked with the audience - a full house - and the music seemed to just flow out of us. We were cheered on for several encores, and the legendary fly fisher Marc Crapo sat in on harmonica on "Lahppoluobbal". It doesn´t get much better than that.