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Hot Nights In Copenhagen


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HOT NIGHTS IN COPENHAGEN

Mike Zwerin IHT Wednesday, September 8, 2004

PARIS The pianist Niels Lan Doky - part Vietnamese, part Danish, educated in America, and living in France - conceived, wrote, co-directed and stars in a documentary film, now in post-production, about jazz as a universal language.

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Although he has accompanied such acts as David Sanborn, Al Jarreau, the Brecker Brothers, Joe Henderson and John Scofield, he has never made a film before. But he was inspired by Wim Wenders's "Buena Vista Social Club." Doky liked that it featured people who were all still alive and that you got to know these Cuban musicians as well as their music. Why not do the same thing for jazz?

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Starting about a year ago, carried away by the project, playing less and less piano, getting little sleep, Doky pulled out all the stops to make the movie before it was too late. Musicians were dying, and he wanted to document the living, not the dead. He wrote outlines, drafts, budget estimates and structure charts, and he pitched the project to film producers and money people.

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The Danish-based Ben Webster Foundation and the movie producer Jorgen Bo Behrensdorff of Park Films were interested. The total budget came to E400,000, or $480,000. Filmed in July, it has the working title "Between a Smile and a Tear: A Night at the Montmartre Club in Copenhagen."

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The first part of the name came from veteran harmonica player Toots Thielemans, who likes to say that he lives between a smile and a tear. Along with the singer Lisa Nilsson, Doky co-wrote a song by that name for the documentary, which they hope will be released next spring.

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From 1959 to 1974, the Montmartre in Copenhagen was one of the leading jazz clubs in the world. Johnny Griffin and Dexter Gordon would come in for months at a time, and Stan Getz played there regularly. The house rhythm section was Albert (Tootie) Heath and Kenny Drew (both Americans), and either Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson or Mads Vinding, both Danes, on bass.

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"Thad Jones, Stan Getz, Oscar Pettiford, Don Byas." Just pronouncing the names seemed to give Doky pleasure. "Brew Moore, Ernie Wilkins, Horace Parlan and Ben Webster, among many, many others, all lived and worked in Copenhagen," he says. "Copenhagen was less 'recognized,' but it was just as important a haven for American jazz musicians as Paris."

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Doky went out of his way to avoid saying that the Danish are in general friendlier than the French. But he did point out that Copenhagen is smaller and less of a global crossroads than Paris, and that the people have more time and, perhaps, need for the friendliness of foreigners.

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"Some of the musicians became Danish," he said. "They learned to speak the language. Tootie gave his son the Danish name Jens. Some of them are buried there. Ben Webster and Kenny Drew lie near each other in the Assistents Cemetery, along with national icons like Soren Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen. Thad Jones is in the Vestre Cemetery, where some of our prime ministers are buried.

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"Jazz musicians have so much to offer. But they are not known as people, even by fans of their music. They lead such interesting lives, they are so smart, they have such a good sense of humor. I would like these people and their music to reach an audience outside the music's immediate circle, like the Wenders film did."

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He lined up a core cast of Montmartre veterans - Griffin, Thielemans, Heath, Vinding - to play with him in the band. He would also interview them, and they would talk about the new days and the old days, about the musician's life and the meaning of it all.

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The breakthrough came when Doky discovered that the hairdressing school occupying the premises of the original Montmartre would be closed for vacation in July, that they had not partitioned the space and that even their mirrors were on wheels. He rented it for the month. Art directors, set designers, carpenters, and a work crew turned the empty space into a movie set, including the rebuilt bar.

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The Montmartre opened in July for the first time in 30 years - for two concerts with live audiences filmed by four cameras as part of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, which also invested in the project. The violinist Didier Lockwood and Nilsson completed the band. Lockwood is from Paris and Griffin lives in Limoges. Heath flew in from Los Angeles. Thielemans, now 82, is from Brussels and Nilsson is from Stockholm.

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"Jazz is a form of music with a unique character," Doky said. "People of radically different backgrounds - geographical, cultural, political, racial, religious, age, gender, etc. - can in some strange way acquire an immediate mutual understanding and create a spontaneous common expression, all without any prior rehearsal or prior personal acquaintance. The musicians in the movie each speak English with their own accent. And they speak jazz with their own accent."

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International Herald Tribune

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  • 3 weeks later...

Looking forward to it.

Actually, the Montmartre club existed for many more years, but it wasn't really (only) a jazz venue anymore. It became a folk/Danish Pop club with the occasional jazz concert (plus some World Music) with dj's (or whatever they called themselves end 70s/beginning 80s) spinning discs after midnight on weekends.

Still, some of the finest musicians of the time could be seen at the club. And lots used to hang around there a lot later than '74.

Today, one can consider the "Copenhagen JazzHouse" an adequate replacement.

From their website:

(Copenhagen JazzHouse:) Through the years we have presented: Milton Nascimento, Super Silent, Richard Galliano, Gianluigi Trovesi, Andy Sheppard, Django Bates, Bill Frisell, Jack DeJohnette, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Steve Coleman, Joe Henderson, Bugge Wesseltoft, Ray Brown, Bill Evans, John Abercrombie, Marilyn Crisspell, Marc Johnson, The Yellowjackets, Dianne Reeves, Michel Camilo, Kenny Barron, Toots Thielemans, Michel Petrucciani, Elvin Jones, Krøyt, Henry Threadgill, Joe Lovano, Egberto Gismonti, Tom Harrell, Jon Balke, Enrico Pierranunzi, Pat Metheny, Jim Hall, Abbey Lincoln and many many more.

And from Denmark: Niels Henning Ørsted Petersen, Palle Mikkelborg, Pierre Dørge & New Jungle Orchestra, Cæcilie Norby, Marilyn Mazur, Lars Møller, Jakob Bro, Morten Lund, Thomas Clausen, Alex Riel, Josefine Cronholm, Kresten Osgood, Carsten Dahl, Anders Christensen, Jakob Dinesen, The Danish Radio Orchestra and the list could go on.

Other good ones are the one in Christiania (that infamous free state which has been an in-spot for quite a number of years now, "Christiania Jazz-Club", and, especially, "La Fontaine" (smack dab in the center of town, in one of the nicest streets, Kompagnistræde 11, not far from the town hall square), a tiny club with some of the hottest jam sessions if a) you can get in and b) you study the programme (and c] you don't mind standing squeezed up next to the piano/organ or trying not to knock the cymbal stand(s) over) . The latter is THE place to go if you know any of the people playing there.

There are many other really small venues ... you can find a list of them here: Copenhagen Jazz Festival (venues) (pretty much all the places in the greater Copenhagen area that offer jazz on a more or less regular basis [plus some venues which usually just have jazz for the festival]).

Cheers!

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The "Montmartre Jazz Hus" was more or less my home outside my home for about 10 years in the sixties, I was there 3-4 times a week. It went bankroupt in 1974 because the owner Herluf Kamp Larsen could not cope with the bills anymore.

I have heard in that club, Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon. Johnny Griffin, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Don Byas, Archie Shepp, Don Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Tete Monteilou, Sonny Boy Williamson, Ben Webster, Stuff Smith, Kenny Drew (who was the housepianist for years), Art Taylor, Tootie Heath and so many more. It was an incredible club, and it was very small, it housed at the most 75 people. I could go on and on about it. The ten best years of my jazzlife.

The house trio was more or less Kenny Drew, NHOP, Art Taylor or "Tootie" Heath, tremendous rhythm section.

Vic

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Yes, same here, but my years were spent at the new Montmartre in Nørregade (Jazz-Kay ran that one, if memory doesn't fail me, from '76 until 1989/90, or so. Just checked. He did close in '90, that's at least what my photo album tells me). There was still lots of great jazz there, although, as far as I recall, Jazz-Kay didn't really like the music ... he just loved the people who played it. Getz, Webster, Thad Jones, and and and. They were all there, and I spent far too much time at the club. Often until I was swept out by the janitor.

A great time.

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Today, one can consider the "Copenhagen JazzHouse" an adequate replacement.

There are many other really small venues ... you can find a list of them here: Copenhagen Jazz Festival (venues) (pretty much all the places in the greater Copenhagen area that offer jazz on a more or less regular basis [plus some venues which usually just have jazz for the festival]).

Thanks for that information. I'm considering a few days in Copenhagen next summer.

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Today, one can consider the "Copenhagen JazzHouse" an adequate replacement.

There are many other really small venues ... you can find a list of them here: Copenhagen Jazz Festival (venues) (pretty much all the places in the greater Copenhagen area that offer jazz on a more or less regular basis [plus some venues which usually just have jazz for the festival]).

Thanks for that information. I'm considering a few days in Copenhagen next summer.

Before you go, if you like, send me a PM and I can maybe give you some advice on some Danish musicians to check out who are playing when you're there (all that info is available on various Danish sites) plus directions on how to get to the various venues. Don't forget to let me know as well what kind of music you would like to see.

Cheers!

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