Danish Music Awards Jazz is the annual awards ceremony that celebrates the Danish jazz scene and highlights the past year’s Danish jazz releases. It has been produced by JazzDanmark since 2011. The winners were presented with their awards at a ceremony in Copenhagen today, 6 December 2021. There are some new…and interesting categories…
FULL LIST OF THE WINNERS
Jazz Release of the Year: Makiko Hirabayashi – Weavers (Enja Records)
Jazz Composer of the Year: Jesper Thorn – Boy (Moveable Records)
Vocal Jazz Release of the Year: Astrid Engberg – Tulpa (Creak Inc. Records)
Experimental Release of the Year: Aar og Dag – Tifold af Fri Form og Fælles Motiv (Aar og Dag)
Cross Aesthetical Release of the Year: All Too Human – Because You’re Worth It (ILK Music)
New Jazz Name of the Year: Maraton – Maraton (Barefoot Records)
Children’s Jazz Award 2021: De Onde
The JazzDanmark Prize – Concert of the Year: Meutiviti for Impro Fauna
The P8 Jazz Award – Fiery Jazz Soul of 2021: Niels Overgaard
Jazz Scholarship 2021 – Musician of the Year: Jeppe Gram
Jazz Scholarship 2021 – Orchestra of the Year: Simon Toldam Trio
FULL TEXT OF PRESS RELEASE:
Tonight, Danish jazz was celebrated with a spectacular show of live music, awards, glitter, and glamour. Hosted at
Bremen Theater in Copenhagen and live on TV and Danish radio. Composer and actress Jeanett Albeck was the
host of the evening, leading the audience and viewers at home through a festive night filled with musical surprises
and awards. This year she was supported by her video sidekick, drummer Kresten Osgood, who occasionally
would pop up on screen to help the host dissect the concept of jazz through humorous small videos. Seven
DMA’s, two special prizes, and two scholarships were presented to the absolute best of the year that went in
Danish jazz.
“Sublime music that makes the world a better place”
It was a proud Bjørn Heebøll who received the main prize of the show, Jazz Release of the Year, on behalf of
Makiko Hirabayashi, for her group Weavers’ self-titled debut album. An album with what the jury referred to as
“sublime music that makes the world a better place”. In the category Jazz Composer of the Year, it was Jesper
Thorn who went home with the award for his album ‘Boy’ which, by the jury, was described as “love in the shape
of an album”.
The prize for the Vocal Jazz Release of the Year went to the up-and-coming singer and composer Astrid
Engberg for her debut album ‘Tulpa’ due to its “innovative and powerful jazz-hypnosis” according to the jury. For
the Experimental Album of the Year, the award went to the triple nominee of the night; Aar og Dag and their
album Tifold af Fri Form og Fælles Motiv, for their successful attempt to navigate with “playfulness in the
antithesis of hierarchy and to create humble and superior optimism”.
The debutant prize for New Jazz Name of the Year went to the music collective Maraton and their self-titled debut
album, which the jury called “a manipulated sound of the entire world” and “a breakthrough in danish jazz”
Visuality and fold-yourself animations
The newly founded awards, Cross Aesthetical Release of the Year, which awarded a jazz musician working with
multiple artistic expressions in the release, went to All Too Human ‘Because You’re Worth It’ for “a danceable
and complex universe of music, visuality and fold-yourself animations”.
The winners of the Children’s Jazz Award 2021 were found earlier today at a special Children’s DMA Jazz show,
that took place at BETA in Amager. Here it was De Onde who, after a convincing concert, got the most points
from the children’s jury and was awarded the title.
Special prizes and scholarships
For the second year in a row, together with the William Demant Foundation, two jazz scholarships were awarded
to respectively The Musician of the Year and the Orchestra of the Year. The title for musician of the year was
given to drummer Jeppe Gram who was awarded the title and 20.000 DKK for his open-minded, genre-open, and
curious music. The recipient of the title Orchestra of the Year and 30.000 DKK went to Simon Toldam Trio for
their constant work of exploring the possibilities in the acoustic piano trio.
The JazzDanmark Prize for Concert of the Year went to the collective Meutiviti and their concert series Impro
Fauna where jazz music walks down new sustainable roads, leaving behind a trail of newly planted trees.
Fiery Jazz Soul of 2021 and the winner of the P8 Jazz Award went to Niels Overgaard for his decade-long work
with his blog Jazznyt and his work as an initiator to the Moor Jazz Festival in Herning.
TEXT OF PRESS RELEASE ENDS
