Three Storyville Albums of Jazzpar Winners

A little over a week ago, the Copenhagen-based Storyville Records released three CDs, each of which presented a live performance associated with the awarding of the Jazzpar Prize. This Danish prize was founded by trumpeter Arnvid Meyer in 1990. The award consisted of 200,000 Danish crowns, a bronze statue, a Jazzpar Prize Concert at the SAS Falconer Center in Copenhagen, and the release of the Storyville album.

Of the three awardees whose concerts were released by Storyville, only one is still alive, Roy Haynes, the 1994 winner. Tommy Flanagan, winner of the 1993 award, died on November 16, 2001; and Geri Allen, who won the 1996 award, died on June 27, 2017. I feel fortunate to have listened to all three of these leading jazz figures in performance, even if my experience with Flanagan was the only satisfying one, having taken place at Birdland in New York. Suffice it to say that my encounters with both Haynes and Allen arose through SFJAZZ.

Both pianists, Flanagan and Allen, led a trio. Flanagan was joined by Jesper Lundgaard on bass and Lewis Nash on drums. On two of the tracks, the trio was joined by the “Windtet,” consisting of Henrik Bolberg Pedersen (trumpet), Vincent Nilsson and Steen Hansen (baritone horn), Jan Zum Vohrde (also saxophone and flute), Uffe Markussen (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, and bass clarinet), and Flemming Madsen (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet). The group as a whole played Ole Kock Hansen’s arrangements of two Flanagan originals, “Beyond the Bluebird” and “Minor Mishap.”

Allen’s trio consisted of Palle Danielson on bass and Lenny White on drums. They were joined by Johnny Coles on flugelhorn for a performance of the standard, “Old Folks.” Both Coles and the trio also performed as members of the Jazzpar 1996 Nonet. This saw the return of Markussen and Pedersen (this time alternating between trumpet ands flugelhorn), along with Kjeld Ipsen (trombone), Axel Windfeld (trombone), and Michael Hove (alto saxophone, flute, and drums). The Haynes album saw him leading a quartet whose other members were Tomas Franck on tenor saxophone, Thomas Clausen on piano, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass.

All tracks were recorded live by the Danish Broadcast Corporation. Only the Flanagan album was recorded entirely at the Prize Concert. The albums for both Haynes and Allen were supplemented with tracks recorded at other Danish cities.

I have no problem admitting that each of these albums is a satisfying package of jazz as I like to listen to it. I have been promising myself for some time to pay more attention to Allen’s compositions, and there was more than enough to enjoy in the three tracks of her own work on her album. I was more familiar with the Flanagan repertoire, but was quickly drawn into Hansen’s arrangements. The Haynes album, on the other hand, had a generous share of “classics,” presenting not only works by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk but also more traditional offerings from Harold Arlen and Jule Styne.

It is also worth noting that the Prize itself casts a rather wide web where styles and genres are concerned. The very first award went to Muhal Richard Abrams, while in the current century awards were given to Chris Potter in 2000 and Andrew Hill in 2003. The only real downside is that the final prize was awarded in 2004 due to loss of sponsorship.