It’s the 34th annual Copenhagen Jazz Festival. MAGNET’s Mitch Myers translates the action.
Why does a nice Jewish guy like me keep ending up in church whenever I leave the country? Music. Here in Copenhagen there are more than a hundred venues participating with the jazz festival, including the beautiful Christians Kirke, an old church with a lovely outdoor garden. It was there I caught an afternoon performance by singer Kurt Elling, guitarist Charlie Hunter and drummer Derek Phillips. This unlikely trio worked together quite well, as Elling charmed the crowd with a number of jazzified pop songs while Hunter filled out the sound playing lead, rhythm and bass parts on his eight-string guitar—simultaneously. Opening with Cheap Trick’s “I Want You To Want Me,” the band twisted the rock tune into a swinging jazz anthem. Elling occasionally used a phase-shifter on his voice, giving a trippy, futuristic bent to the proceedings. He was in really fine form, segueing easily from Del Shannon’s “Runaway,” into the mournful Hank Williams tune “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” Hunter was funky as hell on the strings, and he somehow made the three-piece band sound like a party of five. Elling traded percussive scat vocals with Phillips before closing with a mind-blowing version of “Fly Like An Eagle.” This gig was completely weird but still made perfect sense. And it was fun.
From there it was off to catch an early evening set by veteran guitarist Jim Hall with bassist Scott Colley. Playing vintage tunes like the bluesy “Bag’s Groove,” “My Funny Valentine” and “All The Things You Are,” Hall and Colley displayed great intimacy, possessing an internal rhythm and momentum, which made their interplay quite compelling. For a guy in his 80s, Hall can still play out of the box, and his occasionally strange chord choices helped to keep these old tunes sounding as fresh as ever. For the latter part of the show pianist Kenny Werner, saxophonist Benjamin Koppel and drummer Jonathan Blake joined the talented twosome. But for me, it was off to see the Wayne Shorter Quartet, one more time.
With drummer Jorge Rossy substituting for Brian Blade, the Quartet was great, but missing that intangible something that comes from playing together for 14 years. Shorter seemed content, though, and the whole band was playful in its very spontaneous interactions. Pianist Danilo Perez was energized, and bassist John Patitucci was on fire, pushing the group and prodding newcomer Rossy into the fray. Shorter also had a very good night, playing confidently on both tenor and soprano saxophone, not to mention whistling over and over until Danilo encouraged the audience to do the same by shouting, howling and whistling from the bandstand.
Once again, I have no idea what tunes they played, except for “Orbits,” which can be found on the Miles Davis Quintet’s 1967 album (with Shorter) Miles Smiles and again on Shorter’s own magnificent 2003 album Alegría. He didn’t say one word onstage, directing the band with facial expressions and hand signals. They played two encores to standing ovations, and once again proved to be a phenomenal working unit. Shorter is a genius bandleader and saxophone star, and it should be understood and remembered that he is one of the world’s most brilliant living composers—and that goes beyond jazz. He’s steadily getting accolades but always underestimated. Catch up with him while he’s still around.
One reply on “Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Day 5”
Last sentence from above article is what brought me to that concert from Poland even being sick. I felt like I ‘got high’ seeing and hearing my dream-musician after years of just playing back CD’s where he appeared on . I only remember that gender of my “brain product” was simply the same as always while listening to Shorter – doesn’t metter from which decade. He will be always my top. Many thanks for that event!