American Jazz Singer Kurt Elling and Denmark’s Kluvers Big Band
Kurt Elling performing with the Kluvers Big Band (Photo: Courtesy of Kurt Elling)
Sometimes, an American jazz musician may need a little help from foreign friends – or foreign governments – to lead a successful international career.
Jazz singer Kurt Elling met Jens Klüver, leader of the Klüvers Big Band, in Denmark in the 1990s and they have been working on projects ever since.
Right now, they are enjoying the result of an inspired collaboration to bring the Danish jazz band to the United States.
Elling has nine Grammy award nominations to his name. He won one in 2010 for his album “Dedicated to You.” His classically trained baritone voice, which can be smooth or metallic at times, has received much praise, and he’s become a star vocalist over the past decade.
But he’s not just an American phenomenon. Elling has a huge audience all over the world, especially in Europe, from Spain to Denmark. One of his favorite spots is the Danish city of Aarhus.
“It’s one of the loveliest places I’ve been able to visit,” he said. “I do about 200 nights a year on the road, and I’ve been welcomed in Aarhus maybe as many as six or seven times now.”
There’s a rich jazz culture in Aarhus, and all over Denmark. It started in the 1950s when American musicians moved to Copenhagen and began recording there.
The trumpeter and big band leader Thad Jones performed with his band in Soborg, Denmark, in 1969. He had enormous influence on Jens Klüver, whose big band has been going strong in Aarhus for 30 years. Klüver still channels Jones’s energy to this day. He said Jones’s presence in Denmark gave his band a “kind of spirit he represented,” because “he had a fantastic personality.”
What’s unique about the Klüvers Big Band is that it is the only state-funded jazz ensemble in Denmark. Jens Klüver said that gives him a chance to help American artists like Kurt Elling, who have given so much to Denmark.
“What I’ve tried to do with my big band was give something back,” he said. “Being funded in Denmark, I could hire these people and sometimes I could make new arrangements for them in the big band, arrangements that they can take back home and perform with other big bands.”
Klüver said he feels his contribution helps fund not only American jazz artists in Denmark, but the jazz industry back in the US as well.
“It’s definitely helped me pay my rent on a number of occasions,” adding Elling
Klüver said it also helps that many jazz venues in Denmark receive state funding as well.
Danish television journalist Kim Bildsoe Lassen said it makes sense in a small country for the government to finance the arts.
“The challenge for a country of our size,” he said, “with only 5.5 million people who speak Danish in the world, is that a lot of cultural institutions and people who work the arts in our society have a very hard time succeeding commercially because of the size of our country. And that demands that the government support them in some way.”
He added that people in Denmark think it’s critical to have locally produced arts, “so that we are not dependent entirely on music, or books, and arts in general, that come from the US, the UK or some of the largest countries in Europe.”
Bildsoe said he expects that the government that came into office earlier this month in Denmark will continue the tradition of funding the arts.
But even with the government sponsorship, Danish jazz bands have never toured in the United States – until now.
“It’s very difficult for a Danish band to come to the United States if they just come and play their own music, “said Klüver. He said nobody knows the Danish bands in the US; no one would show up. “So I thought to ask Kurt to do this together.”
Kurt Elling called up a few of his contacts, and pitched a tour, featuring himself and the Klüvers Band.
He told them, “you’re gonna love these guys. Let’s bring them in, and you can put my name on the headliner thing if that helps.”
Now that the tour is under way, Elling said he’s especially grateful to the Danish government and the Danish Crown Prince, the sponor of the tour.
Ladies and gentlemen, Kurt Elling and the Klüvers Big Band brought to you by His Royal Highness, Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark.
Klüver said touring in the U.S. is a thrilling experience for his band.
“Almost half of them have never been to the United States before.”
Kurt Elling and the Klüvers Big Band are performing in New York the last week of October, before heading to Washington DC and Boston.
Tour Dates
October 26-30, 2011
Kurt Elling Quintet featuring the Klüvers Big Band, with special guests: Miguel Zenón, Lew Tabackin, Ravi Coltrane (2 nights), Robin Eubanks, and Stefon Harris — 2 sets each night.
Birdland
New York, NYNovember 1, 2011
Kurt Elling Quartet featuring the Klüvers Big Band
Blues Alley – Two Shows
Washington, DCNovember 2, 2011
Kurt Elling Quartet featuring the Klüvers Big Band
The Wilbur Theatre
Boston, MA
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