Rich in activities – in touch with the whole world

By Kjeld Frandsen Jazz is a language that links musicians all over the world; a frame of reference which provides an opportunity to create music here and now, irrespective of the geographical or cultural roots of the people involved. And like most places in the world these days, Denmark is rich in jazz activities. Jazz is very much about personal freedom and communication between people, and more than other genres, it is continually being pronounced dead. As long ago as 1934, there was a Danish revue song called "Jazz Is Dead". Nevertheless, jazz is very much alive and quite unaffected by any such declarations of demise.  Tradition and development If we were to very briefly sum up the history of Danish jazz, we might return for a moment to 1934: this was both the tenth anniversary of the first Danish jazz recording and the year in which the new rising jazz star, 18-year-old violinist Svend Asmussen, made his recording debut. Asmussen himself declared that jazz was dead in 1943, and embarked on a career as a revue actor. But he never abandoned jazz, and today the almost 92-year-old musician is still going strong; in 2007 he performed with his quartet for five evenings in a club in Switzerland, and he is a guest artist on an upcoming CD by his long-standing and 52-year-younger companion, guitarist Jacob Fischer. Naturally, the new generations of jazz musicians are highly aware of everything that stirs in the musical landscape, including beyond the world of jazz. As a result, jazz is continually moving and developing. There are experiments going on everywhere, though if we were to identify one thing that characterises Danish jazz musicians, it is actually tradition. This may sound reactionary, but it's not; it's about retaining some fundamental things, such as the innermost core of bebop, as well as all the so-called standard melodies. This foundation in no way prevents musicians from travelling far and wide in the musical universe, or from communicating and preserving their personal freedom.		Is jazz still alive? - or? Early photo of Svend Asmussen   Svend  Asmussen Quartet  (SA, Jacob Fischer, Jesper Lundgaard and Aage Tanggaard)
From America and to America
In Denmark, we are proud of the fact that such legendary American musicians as Dexter Gordon and Ben Webster settled in Denmark in the 1960s. This brought us experiences and inspiration, but perhaps also a little stagnation. It was at any rate interesting to see a Norwegian jazz magazine remark, a couple of years back, that Danish jazz musicians were now finally emerging from the shadow of Dexter Gordon and Ben Webster and finding their own standpoint. While there is no doubt that Danish jazz musicians continue to garner inspiration from the world at large, the difference now – as opposed to the 1960s – is that they no longer display a subservient and abject admiration for American musicians. All the musicians are now on an equal footing, and jazz musicians travel both ways across the Atlantic, and across every European border. It is just a matter of course. Besides Svend Asmussen, who made his mark on the international scene early on, a number of other Danish musicians have also attracted international attention over the years. During the sixties, the saxophonist John Tchicai helped to create the latest avant-garde jazz in New York, while in the seventies Palle Mikkelborg produced a new sound in electric jazz music; in the eighties he wrote the suite 'Aura', dedicated to his hero, the trumpet-player Miles Davis, who in turn discovered the percussionist Marilyn Mazur while recording in Copenhagen, and hired her for his band. A few Danish bands have moreover toured for many years to every inhabitable corner of the earth, such as the trad band Papa Bue's Viking Jazz Band and world music-inspired Pierre Dørge & the New Jungle Orchestra. And let us not forget the musician who, from the sixties on, gave touring American musicians some very impressive interplay and sparring, and later became one of the international jazz scene's most influential bassists: Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen.		New Jungle Orchestra has toured the US several times, most recently in 2007 (photo: Torben Huss)   Palle Mikkelborg's AURA with Miles Davies (CD cover)
The admired bassists
It is well known that Denmark continues to be admired for its many fine jazz bassists,  but the phenomenon is not a new one. When Niels Foss recorded the first Danish jazz bass solo in 1935 he was well before his time, even in international terms. At one time, he even received an offer from Duke Ellington himself. The now 91-year-old Niels Foss has lived and played for many years in Switzerland. Today, Danish bassists like Mads Vinding, Bo Stief, Hugo Rasmussen, Jesper Lundgaard, Jesper Bodilsen and Chris Minh Doky are much admired on the international scene. The last of these has lived for many years in New York, and has played with innumerable leading musicians, including the saxophonists David Sanborn and Michael Brecker. But in fact it was Chris Minh Doky's older brother, the pianist Niels Lan Doky, who became the first Danish jazz musician to aim for an international career right from the start. Since the middle of the eighties, he has been based in New York and in Paris, where he has continually stood behind projects featuring prominent musicians, including as director of the outstanding jazz film "Between A Smile And A Tear".		Chris Minh Doky (photo from website)
Domestic bases
The alma mater of Niels Lan Doky and numerous other Danish jazz musicians has been the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Nonetheless, the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen has been exerting an ever greater influence on the development of jazz in Denmark. Not only have young musicians been able to train as jazz musicians here and learn theory and tradition at an advanced level, but in the new millennium, a highly creative scene has arisen at and around the Conservatory which has given rise to many interesting activities and musical combinations. Good jazz is also played in the Danish provinces, particularly in Aarhus and Odense, but in recent years Copenhagen has been the principal magnet for jazz musicians with ambition, thereby playing the same role that New York has always done for all creative people in the USA: "If I Can Make It There, I'll Make It Anywhere"! In Copenhagen there are various clubs and music venues where musicians can meet, try out their skills and develop their art, such as the Copenhagen Jazz House, an excellent club which has been hosting new Danish and international jazz since 1991, and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, which for ten days each July presents more than 900 concerts in all jazz genres. Danish recording companies such as Storyville and SteepleChase have been documenting international jazz artists for many years, while companies such as Music Mecca, Calibrated and Stunt Records have performed the same function for the domestic jazz scene.		Jacob Anderskov's first solo piano album, Panta Rhei (2007)
The ILK collective Small independent labels also turn up, and one of the concrete fruits of the activities of the young and innovative musicians on the Copenhagen jazz scene has been the foundation of the musicians' collective and recording company, ILK. Central to this collective are two outstanding and ubiquitous drummers, Stefan Pasborg and Kresten Osgood. Both have worked with musicians from far and near, and the latter, in particular, has shown himself to be extremely enterprising in organising tours and recordings with leading American musicians, including organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, saxophonist Sam Rivers and pianist Paul Bley. Kresten Osgood, pianist Søren Kjærgaard and bassist Jonas Westergaard often play together in New York, where the trio has a permanent collaborator in the Canadian tenor saxophonist Michael Blake. This has led to bookings on both sides of the Atlantic as well as several recordings, including, most recently, an album dedicated to the memory of the American tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson. A Danish tenor saxophonist who was of immeasurable importance to the Danish jazz scene died in the summer of 2004; bebop veteran Bent Jædig. Young musicians flocked around him, learning from his style and his indomitable approach to the music, and it was widely held that an evening on stage with Bent Jædig was worth more than a whole semester at the Conservatory. In 2006 Kresten Osgood set up a session in New York and recorded a number of compositions by Bent Jædig, together with several American musicians, including tenor saxophonist Charles Davis, with a view to a CD release.		Paul Bley and Kresten Osgood's FLORIDA was released in 2007 (CD-cover)
Various groups
Many Danish musicians naturally and frequently find European – and often Nordic – partners. These include saxophonist and composer Fredrik Lundin, who has attracted attention with his large band, Fredrik Lundin Overdrive. Other musicians who frequently tour with interesting partners include the well-established tenor saxophonist Jesper Thilo and the self-taught, highly versatile, and very personal pianist Carsten Dahl. The latter is also the first jazz musician to have signed a contract with the reputable German classical music label, Deutsche Grammophon. The distinctive musicians in the ILK collective include the guitarist Mark Solborg and the pianist Jacob Anderskov. Both have made a considerable impact with their creative playing and unorthodox styles, and Jacob Anderskov, with his group Anderskov Accident, has been chosen by the Danish Jazz Federation to spearhead an officially-supported cultural project to promote Danish jazz internationally. The same status has been awarded to saxophonist Lotte Anker, and in 2007 a young Danish-Norwegian band, Jazz Kamikaze, was also selected to front the campaign. This group, with an aggressive and rock musician-like image, has achieved colossal popularity in South-East Asia as a kind of "boy band".		In the beginning of 2008 Jazz Kamikaze is touring Brazil, China and Thailand. Travelling at the speed of sound is their 2007 album
Female profiles
Jazz is not merely a boys' world, as recent decades have confirmed time and again. Marilyn Mazur and Lotte Anker have made major contributions to musical equality, and both have frequently performed in more open musical formats together with other remarkable female musicians. Within the established mainstream/bebop style, we can enjoy the work of strong saxophonists such as Pernille Bévort, Christina Dahl and Christina von Bülow, as well as the trio Sophisticated Ladies, with pianist Marie Louise Schmidt, bassist Helle Marstrand and drummer Benita Haastrup. And just like in the rest of the world, there are also women on the Danish jazz scene who set the agenda when it comes to jazz singing. Since the middle of the 1990s, Cæcilie Norby, amongst others, has established a strong position and has sold well on the European market. She has a versatile musical background, including as a rock singer, and it is never any problem for her to conquer a stage or a hall. Another singer with a background in rock is Caroline Henderson, who just a few years ago – with great authority and personality – entered the jazz world and recorded several fine CDs.		Christina Dahl (photo from website)
Over the last decade, the singer, pianist, accordion player and composer Susi Hyldgaard has released a series of very exciting recordings. Here there is always something special going on, and she manages to create a unique atmosphere. On her latest CD, she interprets a range of standard jazz melodies in a very intimate universe of sound.  Sensitive voices We should also mention Helle Hansen, an excellent vocalist and a fine composer, lyricist and arranger, who in recent years has won numerous prestigious songwriting competitions in the USA. In the slightly more conventional corner of jazz we find Katrine Madsen, who has made an impact throughout all of Scandinavia as well as Australia with her dark, sensitive voice. A brand new talent on the scene is Sinne Eeg, who with eminent musical clarity and confident phrasing – as well as on-stage authority and charisma – performs her own well-honed songs as well as works from the great American songbook. She has amongst other things attracted a great deal of attention in Japan, and on her latest CD she is accompanied by leading musicians such as bassist Mads Vinding, drummer Morten Lund and pianist Lars Jansson. The latter is a fantastic Swedish musician who has enriched the Danish scene for many years. Another Swede who has become permanent feature of the Danish scene is the powerful tenor saxophonist Tomas Franck. Two Americans resident in Denmark, tenor saxophonist Bob Rockwell and guitarist Doug Raney, have been of great importance to the jazz scene, and we should not forget that two other legendary American musicians, pianist Horace Parlan and drummer Ed Thigpen, are still among us. Kjeld Frandsen The article has been written for DanishMusic.info Published in January 2008.		Magic Words to Steal Your Heart Away is the title of Susi Hyldgaard's 2007 CD   Sinne Eeg's debut album was released in 2003