Back in Copenhagen after running around Malmo for the day. The Copenhagen Jazz Festival was taking place at the time so I thought I would see if there were any concerts I would be interested in. One name jumped out at me – the American/Danish percussionist Marilyn Mazur. I recognized her name from a number of recordings I have, most notably Jan Garbarek’s recent ECM albums. Playing with her that night were a couple of musicians I recognized from ECM recordings - John Taylor (an English pianist who I first heard as part of the group Azimuth) and Anders Jormin (a Swedish bass player who I knew from his playing with the Bobo Stenson Trio). The group was rounded out with Josefine Cronholm, a Swedish vocalist I didn’t recognize. The concert was in The Queen's Hall of the Royal Library (Det Kongelige Bibliotek)and with a little checking we discovered it was within walking distance of our hotel. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so we decided to take it in.
We had a little time for shopping before the concert so we wandered around the city streets near our hotel. It was a lovely evening and many people were out and about. I was specifically looking for a Danish vimpel, but also any other Danish souvenirs to bring home. We grabbed some food from a street vendor - the Scandinavian equivalent of a hot dog – a thin long sausage in a baguette. When you ordered one of these the vendor asked what condiments you wanted, these then were squirted into the hollowed out baguette and finally the sausage was stuffed in - well not all the sausage, a good 4 or 5 inches stuck out the top! A little unusual looking but they tasted good.
Being a beautiful summer day there were also buskers about including a couple of guys in full North American Indian outfits, complete with huge feather headdresses. They looked like they could be of aboriginal descent, they certainly advertised themselves that way – but rather than the drum circle music we are familiar with from the plains tribes, these fellows were playing their version of Native American music: Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” played on pan pipes! Beth and I laughed at this ‘authentic music’ of the North American first nations peoples – but the Danes were eating it up!
The Queen's Hall in the Royal Library sounds like it should be an old ornate space, but it turned out to be a very cool looking new facility (it is also known as 'The Black Diamond'), and the theatre inside was modern and comfortable. When we took our seats the first thing I noticed on the stage was what looked like a cage made out of all kinds of percussion instruments; cymbals and chimes, bells and drums. This was going to be interesting!
Shortly after settling into our seats the lights dimmed, and Marilyn Mazur’s Celestial Circle (as the group was called) took the stage. For the next 90 minutes we were treated to a display of focussed energy and percussive precision that was truly captivating - this from a woman in her 60’s! It was not all banging and crashing either, much of her playing was subtle yet intense – supporting the musical expression of her band mates. I found myself thinking “This is like listening to an ECM recording – but live!” I was really pleased at this happy musical discovery, and Beth was very patient.
After the concert (and buying a couple of CDs of course!) we walked back to our hotel with thunderstorms threatening in the distance, but we never got wet. A pleasant end to day that, in spite of being pretty spontaneous, was filled with wonderful sights and sounds.
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