Although Danish jazz has seen growth in both quantity and quality over the past few decades and has thus never been stronger nationally and internationally than now, the concept of "Danish Golden Age Jazz" is inextricably associated with the period 1940-1945 during World War II, when Denmark was occupied by German troops.
For the ordinary Danish population the German Occupation meant a shortage of goods and energy. Many foodstuffs were rationed, but since at the same time unemployment was low, there was a surplus in the daily household economy that could be spent as people liked. Throughout the period the resistance to the Germans grew stronger, and in the musical area this led to enthusiasm about national Danish song, but also to a keen interest in jazz.
The relative affluence meant that the restaurant scene flourished, even though curfews were imposed; these were dexterously avoided by moving the opening hours forward. At the beginning of the period many restaurants in Copenhagen had jazz bands that played for dancing, such as Scala-Salen, Prater, München, Valencia, Lorry, Adlon and the amusement establishments in Tivoli - Arena, Glassalen, Paafuglen and Kunstnerkælderen. However, the demand for jazz musicians and jazz bands also meant that many other restaurants - for example Skandia - already featured jazz on the programme, and a number of others followed suit - for example Blue Heaven, Hot Spot, Mayfair and Flagermusen, as did many small pubs of the period.
The war years also saw an increase in the number of jazz concerts, and since visits by foreign bands naturally stopped, this meant extra activity for Danish jazz musicians. Imports of foreign jazz records, too, fell to almost nothing, but since the Danish jazz names had become extremely popular, the number of Danish jazz releases rose very substantially. Whereas the total number of Danish jazz records issued in the period 1935-39 was about 180, in 1940-45 over 650 sides were recorded, a number far in excess of what was produced in the subsequent five-year periods.
The jazz that was played was, as before the war, swing music, often spiced up with entertainment music, crooning and the popular repertoire. The isolation of Denmark meant that Danish musicians continued with the style that had dominated the end of the 1930s, the only difference being that the tendency went from big bands towards ensembles with fewer horns, because the smaller restaurants and other venues could not afford to pay the bigger bands.
The best big bands of the period were headed by Kai Ewans, Bruno Henriksen, Niels Foss and Bertel Skjoldborg. The clarinettist and saxophonist Kai Ewans played almost every winter season in the Scala hall, while the summers were spent touring or on long spells at seaside hotels in the provinces. It was only during the first couple of seasons at Scala-Salen that Ewans fronted a regular big band; for the remainder of the period his band had between seven and nine musicians. With a few exceptions, though, his recordings were all made with expanded line-ups in a style that recalled Benny Goodman, Count Basie and to some extent Duke Ellington.
Bruno Henriksen had the biggest, most stable band of the Occupation period. It played every summer in 1941-44 at Arena; for the first few winter periods he toured the provinces with a smaller ensemble, while for the subsequent winters he was at the Ambassadeur with a ten-man band. The band's playing style was at the popular end of the spectrum with the emphasis on Glenn Miller-inspired arrangements.
The bassist and trombonist Niels Foss headed bands of various sizes and worked mostly in the provinces - for example in Esbjerg, Århus, Odense and Ålborg. His Shortwaveband did however play in the summers of 1942 and 1943 at Scala-Salen and in the winter of 1944 he played with his sextet at Mayfair.
The guitarist Bertel Skoldborg's New Yorkers played regularly at Prater during the first few winter seasons, while he toured in the provinces with the band in the summer periods. Although the line-up included several good jazz musicians, the style leaned mostly towards dance music.
Among the smaller groups the most prominent were headed by Svend Asmussen, Børge Roger Henrichsen, Leo Mathisen and Peter Rasmussen, but besides these Harlem Kiddies, Matadorerne and Coster Kvartetten should be mentioned.
The violinist Svend Asmussen led a succession of trios, quartets and quintets until the spring of 1943, when he abandoned jazz to devote himself to the revue and film business for the rest of the Occupation. His band alternated between playing at Skandia and at Arena until the autumn of 1941, then for the remainder of the period it played at Blue Heaven, with the exception of the summer of 1942, when it became the only Danish jazz band to be allowed to travel to Sweden to play in Stockholm and tour in the "people's parks". Asmussen's sense of precision, perfection, elegance and entertainment value is evident from the just under 90 recordings of a chamber-jazz character, inspired by the French Quintette du Hot Club de France he made in this period.
The quintet led by the pianist and trumpeter Børge Roger Henrichsen with a very stable line-up during the war years, had the same sound-ideal as Asmussen, but a wider range of inspirations. His Swingtet played regularly at Skandia until the spring of 1944, alternating with tours in the summer months - in 1943 to Gothenburg in Sweden - or playing in revues. Compared with Asmussen the arrangements have more of an emphasis on jazz, less on entertainment value - just as the inspiration from Duke Ellington is clear in several recordings.
The most popular band of the period was headed by the pianist Leo Mathisen. Until the spring of 1942 he led ensembles of various sizes, but with the sextet he formed after this he played almost uninterruptedly at München until the Liberation. Mathisen's model was Fats Waller and His Rhythm, as reflected both in the instrumentation and the playing style.
The trombonist Peter Rasmussen started late as a bandleader, for it was not until the spring of 1943 that he formed his own quintet, which played for the next year or so at among other places München, Skandia and in the provinces. Then the band was expanded into a sextet which played at Glassalen in Tivoli until the premises were "counter-sabotaged" in June 1944. For the remainder of the Occupation he stuck to Skandia, where the band became almost as popular as Asmussen's and Leo Mathisen's.
At the end of 1940, with the brothers Jonny and Jimmy Campbell, the drummer Kaj Timmermann formed the Black and White Swing Quartet, which later took the name Harlem Kiddies. The regular venue for the band was München, but it also toured the provinces and played in the winter of 1941-42 at St. Thomas, in the autumn of 1943 at Mayfair and in the winter of 1944-45 at Gold Digger. The band, whose dominant soloist was the alto saxophonist Jonny Campbell, was inspired by Louis Jordan's Tympany Five and Fats Waller's small groups.
Matadorerne was formed in the summer of 1940 as a breakaway group from Kai Ewans's band, but had a lifetime of only about six months. It continued however as a recording band for the next couple of years, and in the autumn of 1944 the group gathered again to give concerts, and for an engagement at Hot Spot.
Coster Kvartetten was led by the pianist and vibraphonist Svend Coster. The group was based in Helsingør, but in the autumn of 1942 had an engagement at Blue Heaven and two years later at Den Kvikke Kanin. The band's recordings became very popular, but its jazz qualities are not particularly conspicuous.
Among soloists - apart from the leaders themselves - the pianist Kjeld Bonfils was in a class by himself. Other significant instrumental soloists worth mentioning include the Coleman Hawkins-influenced tenor saxophonist Henry Hagemann, who played with Kai Ewans in 1939-41 and then with Leo Mathisen until 1944, after which he had his own ensembles. Another fine tenor saxophonist was Egon Esbensen, whose career was launched with Niels Foss 1941-42, and who later played with Kai Ewans in 1943-45, then with Peter Rasmussen. Among Leo Mathisen's soloists, besides Henry Hagemann, we should first and foremost mention the trumpeter and singer Erik Parker, who played with him throughout the war. The violinist Poul Olsen was the period's most serious rival to Svend Asmussen, but he was more down-to-earth and hardly as imaginative in his playing. He had his o wn band, both before and after he was a member of Børge Roger Henrichsen's in 1941-44. The guitarist Helge Jacobsen was one of the first in Europe to use the electric guitar, playing first with Svend Asmussen and from 1941 with Børge Roger Henrichsen. Among the singers Freddy Albeck, Ingelise Rune and Raquel Rastenni were the most prominent, and common to them all was the fact that they had to escape to Sweden - Albeck and Rastenni in 1943, and Rune i 1944.
Sources
- Sven Møller Kristensen, John Jørgensen, Erik Wiedemann. Jazzens Hvem - Hvad - Hvor. Politikens Forlag 1953
- Wiedemann, Erik. Jazz i Danmark - i tyverne, trediverne og fyrrerne. Bind 1-3. Gyldendal 1982
- Frandsen, Kjeld. Politikens Jazzleksikon. Politikens Forlag 1987.
Representative discography
- Dansk Guldalder Jazz. Vol.2, 1940-41. Odeon MOCK 1007. Issued on cd: EMI 7489742
- Dansk Guldalder Jazz. Vol.3, 1942-43. Odeon MOCK 1008 Issue on cd: EMI 7489752
- Dansk Guldalder Jazz. Vol.4, 1943-49. Odeon MOCK 1009. Issue on cd: EMI 7489762
- Den Gyldne Swingtid. Tono LPM 30007. Not issued on cd.
Biographies of musicians
All the information in this section is selective and focuses on the period 1940-45. Information on all the musicians - except Ingelise Rune and Raquel Rastenni - can be found in Erik Wiedemann's work Jazzens Hvem - Hvad - Hvor and in Politikens Jazzleksikon (see above); the references included should thus be regarded as supplementary literature. In the discographies only the original 78" recordings are listed, and only the recording venue is cited for foreign recordings. In the filmographies only those titles are included where one sees and hears the musicians play. Børge Roger Henriksen, for example, has written much film music - also in the period in question - but only the films in which he himself appears with his band are included in his filmography.