Copenhagen's Jazzhus Montmartre To Open Anew

Via Peter Hum:

The legendary Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen is re-opening in May. It looks like some impressive people are involved, including the pianist Niels Lan Doky as musical director.

From the late 1950s until the mid-1970s, the original Jazzhus Montmartre was one of Europe's leading jazz venues, a favourite of visiting and expatriate U.S. musicians such as Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster and Kenny Drew. From the mid-1970s until its closure in 1990s, the Montmartre offered more pop and rock, and eventually house and techno. Those must have been sad days, given the timeless sounds that used to emanate from the Montmartre.

It will be fascinating to see how Doky, a 46-year-old musician who has played with everyone from Tom Harrell to Joe Henderson to John Scofield to Ray Brown, steers the revivified club, which will operate as a non-profit. I look forward to seeing the club's schedule, even if it does give Stuart Nicholson cause for saying "I told you so."

Here's the Web site dedicated to the club reopening.

I've had cause to visit the Montmartre's successor, Copenhagen Jazzhouse, and found it a good place to hear music. It's the club where big-time international bands play if they aren't hitting major concert halls, and certainly the "big room" in town for Danish acts. A bit expensive, even by New York standards, but nothing in Denmark isn't. However:

 

I might also point out the business model for Copenhagen Jazzhouse, and the post-1976 version of Jazzhus Montmartre, relies/d on an after-hours discotheque to help finance the jazz operations. Declining interest for jazz helped to close Montmartre in its first go-rounds. The new club's non-profit status, backed by an organic restaurant with Michelin-awarded chefs and (presumably) state funding, will help it become financially viable.

Additionally, it'll be impossible to replicate the atmosphere where Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Kenny Drew and Alex Riel were the house rhythm section, and where Dexter Gordon and Ben Webster were locals who made frequent appearances. (And "Tootie" Heath, and Johnny Griffin from Paris ...) Erik Wiedemann's historical sketch (PDF file here) lays out some of those details. Not that the music isn't still happening in CPH these days, but the scene has changed, for better or worse. The recent passing of drummer Ed Thigpen, a Copenhagen transplant who once frequented the Montmartre, is a reminder of this.

So I wouldn't expect 19 Store Regnegade to be the legendary room of yore in quite the same way that, say, the Village Vanguard is. Fortunately, it still looks to be a cozy ("hyggelig," as Danes would say) 100-seat venue to hear good jazz, as curated by an actual working musician. And that's plenty cool by me.