Pernille Bévort: Curious Explorations

A veteran of the Danish jazz scene since the '90s, saxophonist/reeds player and composer Pernille Bévort has built an impressive discography as a leader. With the moveable feast that is Radio Bévort, she has demonstrated the depth and range of her musical palette, marrying jazz and tango on Perfect Organisation (Gateway Music, 2011) with bandoneon player Marcelo Nisinman. Bévort 3, her chordless trio with bassist Morten Ankarfeldt and drummer Espen Laub von Lillienskjold has produced a string of fine acoustic albums, among them Trio Temptations (2014), On Fire (Self Produced, 2021) and Northbound (Gateway Music, 2024). These albums make a persuasive case for Bévort 3 as one of contemporary jazz' most potent trios.

A regular fixture in prestigious large ensembles such as Ernie Wilkins Almost Big Band, Kroner's Music Orchestra, Danish Radio Big Band and Bohuslän Big Band—working with the likes of Richard Bona, Tim Hagans, John Scofield, Randy Brecker and Maria Schneider along the way—Bévort is also a member of Meluba Orchestra, the 13-piece band co-led by Marilyn Mazur, Fredrik Lundin and Kasper Bai.

Bévort's six selections for Touchstone Album Picks shine a light on some of the qualities she values in music, qualities that permeate her own albums—playfulness, soul, rhythmic vitality, communication and thrills.

Sonny Rollins
Saxophone Colossus
(Prestige)
1957

All About Jazz: Many people consider this to be Sonny Rollins' best album, certainly it is one of his most famous, what is special about this album for you?

Pernille Bévort It was just so impressive. I was very young the first time I heard it, trying to figure out how to play the saxophone (laughs). I was overwhelmed by his sound on the saxophone and the freedom in his playing, the rhythmical freedom. The way he solos on "You Don't Know What Love Is" is so playful. It is like he could pick any rhythm whatsoever, and it flows in a very organic, natural way. There is so much power and storytelling. I was baffled! (laughs)

AAJ: Was listening to Rollins when you were starting out in any way intimidating? Did it seem like you had an impossible mountain to climb, or was it maybe inspiring for you?

PB: No, I was more fascinated, like a curious child who sees something amazing. It was just, 'wow!' I want to touch just a little bit of this! (laughs) That would be great. So it was inspiring.

AAJ A lot of people think that Rollins wrote the calypso "St. Thomas," which became his signature tune, but it is an old Bahamian folk tune that goes by many different names. Rollins told Prestige that it wasn't his tune but they insisted on putting his name to it—one of many facts that surface in Aiden Levy's biography Saxophone Colossus: The Life And Music Of Sonny Rollins (Hachette Books, 2022). Have you read the book?

PB: No, I haven't. I must look for it.

AAJ: It is highly recommended for Rollins' fans. Another surprising fact about this album is that the four musicians, Rollins, bassist Doug Watkins, pianist Tommy Flanagan and drummer Max Roach had never played together as a band before this recording session.

PB: That's amazing, because they sound so attuned—they play like one living organism. Also, on "Strode Rode" at the beginning of Sonny's solo where he is playing only with the bass it just sounds amazing.

AAJ: Another tremendous track is "Blue 7..."

PB: It's a lot of fun...

AAJ: A lot of fun. Gunther Schuller wrote a famous essay on this song, claiming that Rollins had created 'a new style of thematic improvisation, spontaneous composition with linear development which fundamentally changed the language of jazz' —I wonder if that resonates with you? Do you agree that Rollins changed the language of the saxophone?

PB: Yes, he did, very much. With this "Blue 7" it is a very special take on the blues with this sharp 11 that he uses all the time. On the piano it would be an F minor with a sharp seventh. He plays figures around that and develops it on a Bb7 bluesy thing. It has another sound than going straight blues. I like that very much; it is a sort of statement. He definitely explores the theme, and he develops it in the way he 'composes' his solo on the spot as an improvising musician.

AAJ: To my ears, "Blue 7" and Rollins' soloing foreshadows in some way your next pick on the list, which is Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. Can you hear a link there?

PB: Yeah... there is some kind of familiarity between the modes.

AAJ: Did you ever see Sonny Rollins in concert?

PB: I saw him at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, I think it was 1990, or '91. He was just playing and playing and playing—he was so powerful. Long solos with a lot of storytelling. (laughs)

AAJ: That sounds like Sonny Rollins alright! (laughs).



Miles Davis
Kind of Blue
(Columbia)
1959

All About Jazz: For many people Kind of Blue is their gateway into jazz. Can you remember when you first heard it, the impact it had on you?

Pernille Bévort: I don't remember when I heard it, but I was young, definitely. I hadn't heard anything like it before, this modal music. I was very impressed by the whole mood... sometimes a little twist of darkness, pensative, but also so much heart, in a way. The reason I chose this album is we hear both John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley as well and they both had these amazing voices in jazz. I love their playing, combined with the mood of the music.

AAJ: It is a fascinating mixture of musical personalities. Bill Evans obviously has a huge role in the shape and sound of the music, but so does Jimmy Cobb—just some of his cymbal work... that splash at 1:30 into on "So What?" is somehow perfect, real magic dust. And Paul Chambers bass playing is so soulful. How important are musicians' personalities in dictating who you work with?

PB: It is of course important, and I like to work with musicians for longer periods of time, because we get to know each other. The line-up in my own trio, we have worked together for maybe ten years. We get to know each other and when we play we can take chances. Bob Rockwell, the American tenor saxophonist, he lives in Copenhagen and he visited one of our trio concerts at a little café in Copenhagen recently. At the break he came up to me and said, 'You sound like a band. And you sound like you know what you're playing and that you know each other.' He could also hear that we had developed over the years. So, it means a lot actually. I also think of the musicians when writing music, what would fit their sound and personality, definitely.

AAJ: Kind of Blue was recorded in two days, a month or so apart, and Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus in one day; how long does it typically take you to record an album?

PB: On Fire was recorded in one day. Northbound was recorded in two days—I felt like having a little more time. The album I did with Radio Bévort in 2020, Blik, that was recorded in two days. I have never taken longer. One or two days.

AAJ: So not too many takes, keep it fresh?

PB: Yes, actually I really think a lot like that. I think something nice happens when we play live, in the moment, when it is now or never. It gives freshness and I try to stay in contact with that sort of freshness and approach—also in the studio. I am not thinking in total perfection, then it can become too stiff, so it's more like trying to relax your shoulders and try to communicate this in the music. That's more my take on it.

AAJ: You mentioned Coltrane and Adderley; what do you hear in their playing?

PB: I love the way they play. Cannonball has this quite dark sound on the alto saxophone, you can really feel his body behind the instrument. His breathing was just marvelous. Coltrane as well, of course. There was some spirit around them.

AAJ: Their playing is very soulful on this album.

PB: Yes, very soulful. It is not to minimize Miles' big hand in this album, but I am a saxophonist, so it's just oh wow! (laughs)



Joni Mitchell
Shadows and Light
(Asylum)
1980

All About Jazz: You have gone for Joni Mitchell's second live album, recorded during her 1979 American tour. Pat Metheny on guitar, Michael Brecker on tenor saxophone, Jaco Pastorius on electric bass, Lyle Mays on keys and Don Alias on drums. Not a bad line-up at all.

Pernille Bévort: I was so touched when I heard it for the first time. This live energy... and the whole band sounds just amazing the way they are playing. Metheny, Michael Brecker, Jaco Pastorius, Don Alias (laughs), I mean, they are just flying! I felt like dancing. It's so convincing, so expressive. Yeah, full of life.

AAJ: On video of that tour, you can see that Mitchell is dancing as she sings and plays. There is so much rhythm in the music.

PB: I can understand. (laughs)

AAJ: I know Joni Mitchell fans who adore her studio albums like The Hissing of Summer Lawns (Asylum, 1975) and Hejira (Asylum, 1976), who know every note and every sound, finding perfection in them, and by comparison they find the inevitably altered and less-than-perfect live records somehow lesser. Do you know where I'm coming from?

PB: Isn't it because we like to recognize what we know, where we feel at home. She was such a creative force. The way she creates lines... compared to more flat, poppy stuff where there is not too much experiment. She has so many colors on her palette.

AAJ: She was a risk taker, wasn't she?

PB: Yeah, and she tried not to put her music in a little box; she was much more explosive and exploratory, and that is something I miss sometimes when I hear modern singers. In a way, I think she has a lot of personality. She is more like an instrument to listen to. Her voice is an instrument—limitless in a fantastic way.

AAJ: Metheny said in an interview some years ago that he felt the musicians could have played much more adventurously with Joni Mitchel. He gave the impression that their playing was a little constrained.

PB: On "The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines" from this live album where Michael Brecker takes it out, it doesn't sound to me as though they are holding back.

AAJ: No, Brecker is really going for it. There is that great line in "Shadows and Light" where Mitchel sings "compelled by prescribed standards or some idea we fight wrong or right." She was a real independent, artistically; how difficult is it for you to follow exactly what you want to do musically without having to compromise for other people, whoever they may be?

PB: I am the one who needs to take care of money and to organize my life. And I need moments to just let the creativity flow. It's a dance, it's a live dance for all of us who work in this field. To make everything fit and work out, it is not easy, but you cannot expect others to take care of things, so you need to be quite organized and not have too many expenses... or expensive habits. (laughs). To think and create freely I need a feeling of mental freedom, and I don't feel that if I have a lot of bills to pay and I am behind all the time and must work all the time. It creates no new interesting ideas in my head. I have to be very aware of that all the time, actually.



Joe Henderson
So Near, So Far: Musings for Miles
(Verve)
1993

All About Jazz: Joe Henderson played on dozens of Blue Note Records dates, including half a dozen as leader, and those are arguably his best known and most celebrated works. However, you have gone for one of his latter albums. This album was dedicated to Miles Davis, inspired by Miles Davis and features three Davis alumni in Dave Holland, Al Foster and John Scofield. What draws you to this album?

Pernille Bévort: Maybe it's just coincidence, but I woke up to Joe Henderson suddenly and just got this album which I love and listened to a lot at a certain point in my life. It's an important part of my life and of my music listening. That's why I chose this album and not one of the others. He is a saxophonist that I really like. He plays amazing stuff. (laughs)

AAJ: What do you like about Henderson's playing?

PB: He is a saxophonist with a sound that is very different from the others we have talked about. I like his sound and I like his playfulness. Like Rollins, he also plays around with the rhythmic stuff, all the subdivisions and creative ideas. Sometimes these cascades of notes and then moving the line a little and tweaking it around.

AAJ: And this album in particular?

PB: It is a combination; it is both powerful and relaxed. It's a good match, Henderson with John Scofield's sound on guitar. They fit together so nicely.

AAJ: You have played with Scofield, haven't you?

PB: I have played a couple of concerts with him and the Danish Radio Big Band. It was a big project with symphony orchestra and Vince Mendoza conducting. It was some years ago. Three concerts I think, in Czechoslovakia and Denmark. They were very nice concerts and John Scofield was a very kind guy, totally relaxed.

AAJ: Joe Henderson was perhaps a more eclectic musician than he is given credit for. There is quite a lot of variation if you compare his albums. I guess it's also true to an extent of yourself over your career. You lead a chordless trio, you play in several different big bands, there was the tango-inspired Perfect Organisation (Gateway Music, 2011); Is it important for you to play in different set-ups and in different projects? Are you always looking to do something new and fresh?

PB: I guess I like all these different inspirations. I played for more than a decade with a trombone player called Erling Kroner and he had this inspiration from both Argentina and (Charles) Mingus, that heavy power jazz —all these inspirations that you meet in a life and then you make your own melting pot. I like doing a lot of different things musically.

AAJ: In the '80s with the Wynton Marsalis-led jazz revival and with the backing of major labels, jazz enjoyed a commercial revival; Joe Henderson had a couple of albums that each sold over 100,000 copies. Can you ever see jazz becoming popular again? What would jazz have to do to thrive again?

PB: Well, that's a big question—I guess we'll run out of time. (laughs).

AAJ In Denmark, then, to narrow the field.

PB: There are so many influences in jazz now, so many directions that it can go. In Denmark there are a lot of younger jazz musicians playing 'smooth' jazz which is well produced and not provocative. They have quite a big audience. If you are more experimental it can be more problematic. (laughs)

In Copenhagen, in Denmark, we have a lack of professional concert venues. We once had the Copenhagen Jazz House, which was sort of a national jazz scene where both Danish and international musicians could perform, also big ensembles. There was some sort of economy and a well-equipped and professional big stage. We miss that sort of scene, that sort of stage. Now we are a group of professional jazz musicians with Marilyn Mazur and Fredrik Lundin too, saying we need to re-establish a national jazz scene like that again. We really miss that right now.



Django Bates
Quiet Nights
(Screwgun)
1998

All About Jazz: Another great choice. This is a special album of mostly covers by a one-off musician, a real maverick, who came up through Loose Tubes and Bill Bruford's Earthworks in the '80s. A great band too, with Iain Ballamy on saxophone, Mark Mondesir on drums, Martin France on drums and Josefine Cronholm on vocals. What is special about the music on this album?

Pernille Bévort: It is like no-one can tell him what he can do with the music, what jazz is, what you're supposed to do. He takes these standards (laughs) and he creates a whole new world around each of these tunes. It is really crazy, some of it (laughs), but also really powerful with a lot of layers. There is a lot of explosive and creative stuff going on. There is also heart, soulfulness and a lot of humour.

AAJ: You have a link with Bates through the Rhythmic Music Conservatory, where you studied don't you?

PB: Django was a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen for some years about twenty years ago, after I graduated. But both Django Bates and Iain Ballamy have been teachers at Summer Session, which is a week-long course in Denmark where professional jazz musicians meet, create combos and play. He is an amazing musician. It just flows from him.

AAJ: Doesn't it? Bates makes the standard "Like Someone in Love" sound like a deconstruction by a Frank Zappa big band. Then you listen to "Hi Liii, Hi Lo" and it could almost be Tom Waits turning it inside out. All these colors! We should talk about the singer Josefine Cronholm, who leaves an indelible mark on the music.

PB: She has been living in Denmark for many years now. She's from Sweden originally. The story goes that he found her in a little jazz club at a jam session. She's just a singing natural with this wonderful sound.

AAJ: Yes, she doesn't embellish or elaborate much. She just has a very pure sound. She has a beautiful voice. I like a lot her group that interprets the music of Milton Nascimento. She is a great fit on this Bates album. Have you ever played with Bates?

PB: He was in Denmark some years ago with his tribute to the Beatles. It was also a great project. I was a substitute for one of the rehearsals dates. I was reading all these crazy rhythms. (laughs) It was with the Danish Radio Big Band. One thing that is also wonderful about Django Bates is that he is just such a nice guy. He is like Brian Blade, such warmth.



Fredrik Lundin Overdrive
Choose Your Boots
Stunt Records/Sundance Music
2001

All About Jazz: This album is a real discovery. Thank you for this. You would travel a long way to find a stronger opening track to an album than "On The Road to Anywhere"—such incredible groove! But the entire album is very strong, multi-layered. You play with Lundin in Maluba Orchestra; have you known him for a long time?

Pernille Bévort: Yes, definitely. He is a very distinct voice on the Danish jazz scene. He has been active since the mid-'80s, and always with this very personal sound. I love his saxophone playing and also his composing. And sometimes it's really kind of dark. (laughs)

AAJ: How would you describe the music on this album to someone who is unfamiliar with it?

PB: It is a very special line-up with these four trombones—three tenor and one bass trombone—trumpet, and he is the only saxophonist. There are two drummers, guitar, bass and piano or electric piano. So, there is a special sound to it with this brass section.

AAJ: And all kinds of sounds and textures ...

PB: Yes, there is some sort of rhythm and blues influence, he says it is inspired by Lead Belly and Mingus among others. I also find some melancholy, and it has a special ambiance that I like. It's very grooving, bluesy...

AAJ: On "Ladies in Distress" there is a kind of Balkan influence, like something Emir Kusturica might do, and then it morphs into a Latin or Afro-Cuban feel. But the transitions and contrasts sound very organic. I also like the way he frames the soloists. The arrangements are striking.

PB: I totally agree. He likes to integrate the soloing in the composition, so that they become a natural part of the composition, and not just some add-on. He created two albums with this ensemble and managed to tour internationally, in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Canada. That is quite amazing because there were 11 musicians. That's quite a lot of obstacles to overcome.



AAJ: If the second Overdrive album is half as good as the first one it will be worth tracking down. In closing, is there a common denominator to these six albums? Is there some quality that they share?

PB: Intensity. Creative forces. But very, very different. They are all explorers, I would say. Curious explorers.

Comments