Copenhagen Jazz Festival

Address:
Sankt Peders Stræde 28C, 2nd fl.
DK-1453 København K, Denmark

Tlf.: +45 33932013
Fax: +45 54932024

Email: info@jazz.dk

Vat no: 75892616

Festival office:
Signe Lopdrup, festival manager - signe@jazz.dk
Kenneth Hansen, music booker - kenneth@jazz.dk
Christian Dalgas, project manager - dalgas@jazz.dk
Niels Offenberg, project manager - no@jazz.dk
Maria Carelse, venue coordinator - maria@jazz.dk
Marianne Pedersen, accountant - marianne@jazz.dk
Ulrik Lassen, coordinator - ulrik@jazz.dk

The festival board:
The festival board:
Anders Laursen (formand)
Bjørn Karsholt
Christian Have
Jan Laybourn
Jan Ole Traasdahl
Jens Lohmann
Jens Erik Sørensen
Ulrik Bülow

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Sponsors, contributors and business partners:

Main sponsor: Nordea Fonden
Brewery sponsor: Tuborg Classic
Contributors: Københavns Kommune, Kulturministeriet, Kunststyrelsen, Udenrigsministeriets Presseenhed
Event sponsor for Jazz for Kids: Phonak
Event sponsor for Gråbrødre Torv: KODA
Other contributors: Augustinus Fonden, DMF, Den Norske Ambassade, Afijma, Institut Français de Copenhague

Business partners: Politiken, Metro, DSB S-tog, Movia, Det Kgl. Teater, Tivoli, Den Sorte Diamant, Borups Højskole, Pressen, Slots- og Ejendomsstyrelsen, Vej og Park, ETP, Moto, Larsen Backline plus all the Copenhagen venues.

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Press room: http://sites.google.com/site/copjazz/

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Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2009 was a tribute to live music.

This year’s edition of Copenhagen Jazz Festival has entered its last day and the public still has a few nighttime hours before the music falls silent, the festival mood is replaced by the familiar Danish late-summer blues, and music fans are scattered to the four winds.

As far as the weather was concerned, the festival began with a virtual Copenhagen heat wave, which - as has often happened before - gave a nice boost to the number of spectators. And even as temperatures returned to normal during the week, more people were in attendance with each day that passed.

In many ways it was a remarkable festival this year, where one dared look over one’s shoulder without getting drowned in nostalgia. Poul Dissing and Nikolaj Nørlund paid homage to Louis Armstrong, Den Sorte Skole praised vinyl recordings, Koncerthuset paid tribute to Nina Simone, Chick Corea gave a nod to Scarlatti, Bill Evans, Monk and Bud Powell, Bajofondo celebrated the tango and the urge to dance and Ibrahim Electric paid homage to Charles Mingus. And when our Danish jazz giant, Palle Mikkelborg, was eulogized Saturday evening in the Royal Theater in conjunction with his 50th anniversary as a musician, it was also a celebration of Miles Davis and of musical spirituality in general. On top of which the evening ended in a mini-tribute to Michael Jackson with a rendition of the Chaplin classic “Smile”.

First and foremost, however, Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2009 functioned as one, long tribute to live music – with all its creativity, originality and, not least of all, its will and ability to improvise. These qualities were to be found in abundance with Chick Corea, who gave one of the festival’s finest concerts. The same was true of the 88-year-old legend Yusef Lateef, whose concert in Glassalen displayed far more energy than the thunderclouds that caused problems at Lisa Ekdahl’s well-attended outdoor concert out on Islands Brygge. It was much more comfortable experiencing the stormy weather inside Skuespilhuset’s fantastic foyer, where the band Er De Sjældne? stole attention from the beautiful view of the harbor. The concert was part of the festival sub-theme “something else”, where jazz’ elasticity was stretched to the limit both in Lille Scene and the foyer, as well as a single concert in Store Scene with imaginative luxury electronica performed by Englishman Jon Hopkins and American Daedelus. Sidsel Endresen lived up to herself and the “something else” theme as she mesmerized an attentive audience all alone with her vocal genius and Swedish Josefine Lindstrand also delivered a beautiful, evocative concert experience in the foyer later the same evening. Hopefully these late-evening foyer concerts in Skuespilhuset will become a regular festival tradition in the future.

In addition this year’s festival offered up the best in European jazz - in Den Sorte Diamant, for example, where especially pianists Enrico Pieranunzi (Italy) and John Taylor (England) drew great praise from both the audience and critics. Borups Højskole, too, enjoyed a European visit in the form of guitarists Fred Frith (England) and Marc Ducret (France), as well as Swedish super-pianist Jakob Karlzon. Karlzon also played a duo concert with Danish Mads Vinding at Vandkunsten, and it was these outdoor concerts in particular that showcased trans-national bands: Klüver’s Big Band brought along Americans Dave Samuels and Dennis Mackrel, Lovedale played with the exceptional German trombonist Nils Wogram, pianist Søren Møller was in good company with American Dick Oats, and Swedish Bohuslän Big Band presented its collaboration with American bass player Steve Swallow. Swallow was also featured out in Frederiksberg’s Haveselskabets Have, where American guitarist John Scofield and Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca put in fine performances. Larger crowds found their way to Tivoli Gardens’ outdoor concerts-on-the-plane, where especially Rick Astley drew a large audience.

The underground scene reported great audience attendance as well. Stubnitz and V.A.E.R.K, among others, had plenty of well-attended concerts with exciting artists like Tim Exile, Ethio Eskeusta, Charles Hayward and Andrew Cyrille. One of the festival’s most sensational features took place at V.A.E.R.K on Saturday afternoon where Japanese action-painter Yoshio Nakajima really gave his all, mixed with the musicianship of Kim Kristensen and Thomas Agergaard.

“Jazz For Kids” was right at home in its new setting in Østre Anlæg, next to the Danish National Gallery. There were lots of hybrid artistic encounters where thousands of children and their grown-ups enthusiastically attended Master Fatman’s jazz school, broke into improvised group singing, played with clay and built flamingo sculptures to the accompaniment of memorable live-music experiences. This year’s festival also saw the premiere of a totally new initiative where 30 talented music school students from all over Zealand were at JazzCamp, with its particular focus on improvisation. In the course of three days the students were inspired and guided through an intensive course that concluded with five, fine concerts at Charlotte Ammundsens Plads, one of the festival’s new outdoor scenes.

This 31st edition of Copenhagen Jazz Festival can happily report on sold-out concert halls, overflowing venues and clubs, overwhelming crowds at outdoor concerts and Danish summer weather that – aside from a single evening with cloudbursts – could almost not have been more ideal.

So thank you for yet another fantastic festival – thanks to the public, our volunteers and to the musicians for the multitude of magic moments.

Last, but not least, a huge thank-you to all our collaborators, contributors and sponsors for their support, without which it would have been impossible to present such a comprehensive, multitudinous and artistically distinctive music event in Copenhagen.