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Jazzy vibes take over Copenhagen 1-10 July
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Denmark's capital becomes Europe's jazz capital during the 33rd annual Copenhagen Jazz Festival 1-10 July 2011. Tempo and temperatures rise, when every street, space and venue in Copenhagen is filled with great jazzy sounds, while locals and visitors chill out in the sun.
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Why Jazz in Copenhagen?
Copenhagen Jazz Festival is absolutely one of the largest music events of its kind in Europe and serves as a rendezvous for trades people, jazz enthusiasts and culture-minded folks in general. With over 250,000 guests per year, the festival is a great attraction for visitors from near and far. Copenhagen Jazz Festival is about memorable experiences and enjoying the special atmosphere that takes over when jazz literally invades the city. With over 100 venues and approximately 1000 concerts every year, the festival is recognised by leading jazz critics worldwide as a major musical event
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Free, outdoor concerts around town are one of the festival’s special features and help make Copenhagen Jazz Festival the city’s most important public festival. In addition, the festival has made the presentation of jazz in unique surroundings its trademark. Thus the public is able to enjoy concerts in the city’s best concert halls, onboard an old East German trawler, in a disused printing plant and Carlsberg Brewery’s venerable, stately gardens. The Historic Copenhagen Jazz Venue, Jazzhus Montmartre One of the main attractions is the legendary, intimate venue Jazzhus Montmartre, which used to serve as a European base for American jazz musicians. In “the olden days” from 1959-1976, jazz legends Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster, Stan Getz, Kenny Drew and many others were at times Copenhagen residents and regular visitors and good friends of the house. They became mentors who inspired the musicians that were to define the Danish jazz scene in years to come, including Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Mads Vinding, Jesper Lundgaard, Bo Stief, Alex Riel and Palle Mikkelborg. Last year Jazzhus Montmartre re-opened at its original address on Store Regnegade. |
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This Year’s Highlights
Copenhagen Jazz Festival will again this year be a fireworks display of strong principal names, exciting themes, cult legends and a record number of venues, spread throughout town – from JazzCup, La Fontaine and Montmartre to Koncerthuset, Tivoli Gardens and The Royal Opera.
This year the festival’s oldest and most prestigious theme, Giant Jazz, lives up to its name more than ever before. In the space of a few days, it will be possible to experience three of our time’s greatest improvisers: Keith Jarrett, Sonny Rollins and Bobby McFerrin.
Another important theme at this year’s festival is 21st Century Jazz, where one can check out the contemporary jazz scene and its most prominent advocates. These concerts are taking place at Copenhagen JazzHouse (10 evenings) and Skuespilhuset (2 evenings), and involve close contact with names like Charles Lloyd, Gary
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Burton, Gretchen Parlato, Terence Blanchard, Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman. The programme furthermore includes encounters between exciting Danish and international names at Jazzhus Montmartre and Prøvehallen in Valby. At Prøvehallen saxophonist Benjamin Koppel and pianist Kenny Werner are the two recurrent figures who will be paid visits by trumpet player Dave Douglas, guitar phenomenon Ben Monder, and others. Among other acts, Jazzhus Montmartre is presenting a Danish-American group under the leadership of saxophonist Charles McPherson and a Danish-French-American super trio led by bassist Mads Vinding with French pianist Jean-Michel Pilc and drummer Billy Hart. The jazz festival’s electronic theme, Future Sound of Jazz makes a comeback in 2011, offering among other things a late-night concert at Hovedbiblioteket (the main library) with Eskmo, from San Francisco. The Jazz Remixed concept is being repeated this year up on DGI-byen’s red roof, while three of Copenhagen’s smallest record shops declare their love for vinyl in afternoon sessions under the heading, Secret Love. The printed program contains all the festival’s approximately 1,100 concerts and can be obtained for DKK 40 at jazz.dk or at venues and chosen shops in the Copenhagen area. Get the Official App for Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2011 The Official Free Guide to the 2011 Copenhagen Jazz Festival lets you: - Browse the complete program - Find out "What's on" near you during the festival - Plan your trip with Rejseplanen - View venue details and maps - Create your own program using favourites - Use GPS to find concerts near you |
Thursday, November 03 2011
Getting there
Flight time to Copenhagen is just 90 minutes from the UK. SAS Scandinavian Airlines flies direct from London Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham, Aberdeen and Dublin. Getting around Copenhagen is a small city and it is easy to get around either by metro, bus or do as the Danes – by bicycle. Just grab a free Citybike from one of the 110 bike-racks from the centre of the city.
Save money The Copenhagen Card gives you free entry to 65 museums and attractions throughout the Greater Copenhagen Region including free entrance to Tivoli. Furthermore, cOPENhagen CARD gives you free transport by train, bus and Metro.
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