UK Jazz News

Sounds of Denmark, 19-21 March

Pizza Express Jazz Club, London and Turner Sims, Southampton

Lis Wessberg. Photo credit: Kresten Hillerup.

The sixth iteration of the popular Sounds of Denmark series comes to Pizza Express Jazz Club, London and Turner Sims, Southampton from 19-21 March, with a brand new line-up: trombonist and bandleader Lis Wessberg, the group Aberkejser with Karmen Rõivassepp, and the star pianists Carsten Dahl and Nikolaj Hess, who perform together as part of the Steinway 2-Piano Festival. It’s an ingenious, strongly contrasting line-up that begs the question: “So what does Danish jazz sound like?”

It’s a question that could be asked equally of any national grouping of musicians, but there’s a particular relevance to Denmark because, for non-Danes, our perception of the country’s music, and perhaps culture generally, is complicated by the reductive ‘Scandi’ handle. This has traditionally lumped Denmark in with the quite distinct lineage of Sweden, Norway and Finland, conjuring up misty mountain, lake and forest metaphors, whereas cosmopolitan urban centres in Holland and Germany – or even London and New York – might be nearer to the mark.

In the jazz version of popular memory, Denmark is notable for several things. There’s Copenhagen’s Club Montmartre (now Jazzhus Montmartre), once a legendary home from home for U.S. expatriates like Ben Webster and Dexter Gordon, and a venue for numerous great live recordings, many on the Danish Steeplechase label. There’s a long list of international stars such as John Tchicai, Alex Riel, Neils-Henning Orsted Pedersen, the Danish Radio Big Band, Palle Mikkelborg and Marilyn Mazur. And, more relevant to the present, there’s the innovative Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC), also in Copenhagen, famed for ex-teachers such as Django Bates, and ex-students like the superb Norwegian-Swedish drummer Anton Eger, who together with double bass maestro Jasper Hoiby (a Dane who actually studied at London’s Royal Academy of Music) and English pianist Ivo Neame, formed the much-missed international trio Phronesis.

A full account of the historical background, from jazz against the Nazis to hippies and free improv in Christiania and beyond, can be found by listening to the fascinating podcast series ‘Dangerous Sounds,’ available on Spotify and Apple. The fifth episode ‘The Two Phone Calls’ is particularly interesting, with presenter Joan As Police Woman introducing the stories of when John Coltrane called John Tchicai, and Miles Davis called Palle Mikkelborg.

Danish jazz is also not all about Copenhagen. Like Manchester, Birmingham or Bristol in England, Denmark’s second city, Aarhus, is home to a strong, self-determining and close-knit scene, which includes the very versatile (think multi-influence Snarky Puppy or Jaga Jazzist vibe) Abekejser, who will play Pizza Express, Soho, on Wednesday 20 March, in a collaboration with the Estonian singer, composer and arranger Karmen Rõivassepp. Resident in Denmark for the last six years, Rõivassepp won the 2023 Danish Jazz Award for Jazz Composer of the Year.

Asked about the notion of any national jazz style or characteristics, Abekejser’s Jon Dossing Bendixen points to the close proximity of musicians in the Danish and Aarhus scenes. “A lot of new Danish jazz is formed in groups or bands rather than soloists,” he says. “Maybe it’s due to Denmark being such a small country, and everyone inside the jazz scene knowing each other. We don’t have breathtaking nature like Norway with their mountains and Sweden with their huge forests, so we have to get together and find inspiration from each other.” For Aberkejser’s performance at Pizza Express, they will be joined by British horn players Emma Rawicz, Damon Oliver and Freddie Gavita.

For Lis Wessberg – a RMC graduate who plays trombone with a breathy flutter to her sound that recalls the saxophone style of Ben Webster – it’s the variety of influences in the Danish jazz scene that is most distinctive. “When I attended the conservatory in the late 80s and early 90s many of us young musicians were influenced by the American jazz tradition,” she says. “It also made sense historically since Copenhagen was home to great jazz legends such as Ben Webster and Dexter Gordon in the 60s, and this left a huge imprint for years to come. Today, I experience that Danish jazz is characterised by a lot of curiosity across genres and cultures. The music is more liberated and the boundaries of what jazz is are very open, with the desire to be inspired by many different musical directions.”

On what will be her first visit to the UK as a bandleader, Wessberg – who will play at both Pizza Express in London and Turner Sims in Southampton – will be presenting music from her last album, the acclaimed Yellow Map, together with a preview from her forthcoming release, Twain Walking. There will also be a guest appearance by Karmen Rõivassepp.

The two-piano duo of Carsten Dahl and Nikolaj Hess, which closes Sounds of Denmark at London’s Pizza Express on Thursday 21 March (simultaneously launching the Steinway series), looks like a real coup. They have played together since they were teenagers in the Jutland city of Vejle (although Hess began as a drummer), and have long discussed a piano duo performance. Dahl, who is also a visual artist, is one of Denmark’s most acclaimed musicians, winning numerous Danish Grammys together with the world-famous Jazzpar Prize and Django D’Or, while Hess – who also leads an occasional Hammond organ trio at Copenhagen’s Jazzhus – is a sometime New York City resident who has worked with Ambrose Akinmusire and Christian McBride. Playing together, sparks should fly.

Finally, another secret of Danish Jazz might also be the welcome level of state subsidy it continues to receive through initiatives such as Sounds of Denmark, a collaboration between JazzDanmark, PizzaExpress Jazz Club, Turner Sims Southampton and Sue Edwards Management, with support from the Royal Danish Embassy in London.

PP

PP Features are part of marketing packages.

Share this article:

Advertisements

Post a comment...

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Wednesday Morning Headlines

Receive our weekly email newsletter with Jazz updates from London and beyond.

Wednesday Breakfast Headlines

Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter