Jazz Unlimited for June 11, 2117 will be “The Career of Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen.” Also known as “the great Dane with the never ending name,” Ørsted Pedersen was born in 1946. His father was a church organist. He took piano lessons as a child, switched to bass at age 13 and made his first recordings at 14. By 15 he was working regularly at Copenhagen’s famed Montmartre Jazzhus and by 16, toured Scandinavia with Bud Powell. He recorded with Albert Ayler at age 17 and had a career accompanying Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Dexter Gordon, Joe Pass, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, “Rahsaan” Roland Kirk, Kenny Drew, Miles Davis, Zoot Sims, Johnny Griffin and Archie Shepp. Unfortunately, he died at age 58 of heart failure.
The Slide Show has my photographs of some of the musicians heard on this show.
The Archive of this show will be available until the morning of June 18, 2017.
This is a duet between Joe Pass (g) and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen playing Oscar Pettiford's "Tricotism" at Umbria in 1991.
