Pernille Bevort

Pernille Bévort
 - Tenor, soprano and alto saxophone, flutes, clarinets, band leader and composer. 

Danish saxophone player Pernille Bévort has always been a unique person on the Danish jazz scene.
She sets her own marks and stands proudly for her musical conviction. She is known for her intense and creative saxophone playing with everything from duos to big bands. In her music you constantly sense a clear and distinct direction; beautiful sonic timbres, exciting rhythmic and melodic progress and – above all – excellent solos.

Pernille Bévort is a graduate of the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, Denmark (1989-1993). After completing her degree, she has become increasingly in-demand as a member of various jazz ensembles in Denmark and Sweden.Apart from working with small ensembles, Bévort has performed with several professional Big Bands in Denmark during the last decades: The Ernie Wilkins Almost Big Band, Kroner's New Music Orchestra, The Danish Radio Big Band and the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra (Klüver's Big Band) among others.
As a member of The Ernie Wilkins Almost Big Band and as a frequent substitute with other professional big bands, she has performed with many international artists.
Among these are: Randy Brecker, Tony Coe, Putte Wickman, Tim Hagans, John Scofield and Richard Bona.Since 2015 Pernille has been a regular member of the Swedish Monday Night Big Band in Malmö and from 2016 she has been playing several projects with another Swedish Big Band: the Bohuslän Big Band in Gothenburg. (One of the tours with BBB was in oct. 2017 with Maria Schneider).
She is also part of the new Danish 13-piece ensemble MALUBA with Marilyn Mazur, Fredrik Lundin and Kasper Bai as the 3 co-leaders and composers. This group had its debut during the Jazz festival in Copenhagen 2017.Since 1995 she has been leader of several diverse ensembles.
At present these include her trio, Bévort 3, and the septet Radio Bévort.

Four years in a row (2020-2023) Pernille has been nominated for a Danish Music Awards Jazz within different categories (Composer of the Year, Album of the Year, Cross-aesthetic Album of the Year).
 

She and her trio Bévort 3 were awarded a grant as 'Band of the Year' (Danish Music Awards Jazz dec. 2022) and Nov. 21st, 2023 she received an honorary award from the Danish Conductor Association as an acknowledgement of her work.

Awards

Pernille Bévort has been awarded the prestigious Ben Webster Prize, the JASA prize and the LO’s Kunstnerlegat in acknowledgement of her work. Furthermore, Pernille has received several composer grants from The Danish Arts Foundation within the last decade. From 2011 untill 2013 she was a part of the committii for composer grants in the Danish Arts Foundation (the jury concerning rhythmic composers). She was nominated for at Danish Music Awards Jazz 2020 (as composer of the year) with the release 'BLIK' with the septet Radio Bévort 'BLIK'. An album that was also chosen to be among the 10 best jazz album in 2020 according to the Jazzmagazine 'Jazzspecial' in Denmark. Her release 'On Fire' with her trio Bévort 3 was nominated for a Danish Music Awards Jazz as album of the year 2021.
She and her trio Bévort 3 were awarded a grant as 'Band of the Year' (Danish Music Awards Jazz dec. 2022) and Nov. 21st, 2023 she received an honorary award from the Danish Conductor Association as an acknowledgement of her work.
Sept. 4th 2024 Pernille received an honorary award from the composer association 'Autor'  for her creative compositional work in jazz over the years.
Among other things, the justification stated:
"Your compositions, your ensembles and your inimitable saxophone playing manage to fuse genres, tones and emotions into a sound that entertains, challenges and enchants the listener, and your ability to gather the finest musicians around you and create unique and elaborate compositions is nothing short of impressive."

Gear

Selmer M6 tenorsaxophone from around 1962
Morgan mouthpiece (New York Model - earlier called the jazz model)

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