From: traff@diku.dk (Jesper Larsson Traff)
Subject: Copenhagen Jazz Festival '92
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 16:50:49 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen

Copenhagen Jazz Festival, 3-12.7.1992
-------------------------------------

Last weekend the yearly Copenhagen Jazz Festival ended and this is
usally a good opportunity to sum up on what's going on in Copenhagen.
Despite a good number of local musicians around (some very fine ones
among, indeed) and quite a lot of interest in jazz (probably you can
insert your favoured kind of music here) Copenhagen aka "Jazz center
of Europe" (ever heard of this??? or is it just us unfortunate locals
who has to bear with such commercial bullshit?) is a place in deep
crisis. Most perspicous was this years almost total lack of
"interesting"/"experimental" american "artists" or even big names in
JAZZ -- oh yes, there was this big outdoor EVENT with the Brecker Bros
and the New Music Orchestra feat. Scofield, Haden and others -- but
more serious is the tendency to treat jazz (or just about any kind
music) as just some other form of entertaintment (witnessed by the
large number of concerts at trendy cafe's unsuited for hearing/seeing)
which seems to be sneaking in.  A more concrete problem is that the
jazz-house "Montmartre" which usually attracted some of the good stuff
and also occasionally found room for the more unusual has officialy
terminated (inofficially, the decline started some 3 years ago) and
the newly opened "Copenhagen Jazz House" hasn't quite established
itself as a successor, which means that there isn't a place to
really work.

The Jazz Festival is still, however, a good opportunity to check up on
what the residents are doing, since a) a lot of concerts are free b)
the people can be heard in interesting and unusual combinations, often
playing up to their best.

Below is a brief summary of what I heard this year (among the misses
was Derek baily (solo guitar), Jack DeJohnette special edition, Thomas
Clausen (piano) Trio, Picnic (Danish Beefheart inspired jazz/rock group),...):

*Erling Kroner "Dark Side Orchestra" with Gustavo toker.

Medium sized big band (10 piece). Somewhat loose (insufficient time for
practice?), partly latin inspired (tangos). The comparison to Mingus
is a slight exageration. The accordeon (Toker) doesn't give me much

* Kaspersen S.O.B

The composer/arranger/pianist Jan Kaspersen's special occasion band in
11 pieces.  Competent arrangements (all written out, executed with
precision and a certain stiff kind of humor which always makes these
orchestras very enjoyable) of many Kaspersen standards, although his
Monk influence (extending even to hat and shoes, not to say anything
of the playing) is no longer so prominent. Surprise this year was the
slight latin influence (percussionist added) combined with blues/rock
guitar (Aske Jacoby); and new was also the Ellington pieces (Caravan;
too tedious tb solo by Erling Kroner). The line-up is rythm + perc. +
guitar, 4 saxes, 2 trombones, trumpet - nasty! Heard them on
two occasions, too sloppy on the second (which was a late nighter the
very last day).

* Doerge/Becker/Carlsen

Trio with Pierre Doerge from New Jungle Orchestra. Small scale
arrangements of the jungle stuff. Morten Carlsen on tenor and taragot
(some eastern clarinet derivative, beautiful sound of
oboe/soprano/clarinet) really showed off, and there was a lot more
guitar playing (this classical, clean undistorted sound) by Doerge than
when he's leading the Jungle Orchestra. Funny, too.

* Organizers

Standards (mostly unknown to me) from the 60ties (forgot the names)
dominated by the Hammond organ including the Leslie speaker, amazing but 
easily tiring instrument (here it became). Bob Rockwell (ts) was there too. 
Not very interesting

* Chick Corea and some friends

In Tivoli, big event, open air concert, lotsa people. Jazz???  I was
there with my brother and before it started, we were joking about "the
mad hatter" and Coreas stuff from the 70ties. Aaarrgh - the opener was
the very mad hatter and the show continued in that style. Bob Berg had
replaced Joe Farrell from the old days and didn't fit. An
uninteresting guy, very hard sound. Steve Gadd is extremely fast and
agile, but more of a rock drummer and what Eddie Gomez is doing there
year after year I don't understand. Why is Corea doing this? The encore
was a Monk-rip off (Locomotive or Hackensack or sth.) - they shouldn't
have done that.

*Fun Horns

Some funny horns (as, ts, tb, tp) from Berlin. Competent and stringent
playing, good, but only occasionally funny. Two of the guys (tb, as?) later
joined up with (below)

*New Jungle Orchestra

Jungle big band led by Pierre Doerge. Spans a very wide range of
styles, from Ellington (jungle, mood), swing, Danish children's songs,
folk tunes, Sun Ra, free form playing, traditional hard core - all
executed with a very dry, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and almost
always very skilled. Ex: Doerge announces a gift to the person who can
guess what they are going to play; orch. plays "mood indigo" (or
sth.); Doerge: "gift has already been give to this person. He said it
was `When the saints' - I thought we played `Mood Indigo' but probably
I was wrong". Lacking only some of the spiritual overtones, this
orchestra is comparable to what Sun Ra does/did.
Has fortunately done quite a few records ("Different Places, Different
Bananas", "Live in Chicago", ...), but probably they are only available in
Denmark(?)

*Thomas Frank Quartet

Sweedish tenor (Danish resident) plays 50-60 rooted stuff. Coltrane
inspired sound and playing. Frank is a good sax-player, but this day
it didn't really come off (outdoor, problems with the sound system)

*Thomas Frank/Roupe/Stief/Danemo

As above. Mostly original composition but in the same vein. Roupe (gui)
at his best; and Stief playes the double bass like an electric one which 
adds a playful tone to the music. Danemo(dr) was slightly weak in comparison

*Lounge Lizards

Hot and horny, 8(?) piece funk band (two gui, drums, perc., cello,
trumpet and saxes) extremely loud and dance inspiring, slightly
boring.  Very different from the (early) LL records I've heard. John
Lurie isn't much of a sax player and not much of an entertainer
either. Does he try? I'm afraid so

*Peter Bro:tzman/Peter Friis Nielsen/Pere Oliver Ju:rgens + 
 (later) Pierre Doerge

Probably the highlight of the festival although the concert was very
short.  Bro:tzman on saxes, bass clarinet, taragot (or some instrument
of that kind).  Played 5 "pieces", starting off totally brutal. When
one instrument was wrecked, Bro:tzman went on to the next. The two
Danish musicians (bass and drums) managed to follow the going-ons,
very impressive.  Doerge joined in from the second piece and added a
certain lyricism to Bro:tzman's frenzy, mellowing down the music
somewhat. Very beautiful.

-- 
Jesper Larsson Tra:ff --- *everything* ... at (currently): 

DIKU - the Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
..... and elsewhere
Xref: sparky rec.music.bluenote:5892 rec.music.funky:1180 alt.rap:3893