Jesper Thilo (born 28 November 1941) is a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

jazz musician This is a list of jazz musicians by instrument based on existing articles on Wikipedia. Do not enter names that lack articles. Do not enter names that lack sources. Accordion * Kamil Běhounek (1916–1983) * Luciano Biondini (born 1971) * A ...

, mainly known as a

tenor saxophonist The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

alto saxophonist The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

and

clarinetist This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet. Classical clarinetists * Laver Bariu * Ernest Ačkun * Luís Afonso * Cristiano Alves * Michel Arrignon * Dimitri Ashkenazy * Kinan Azmeh * Alexander Bader * Carl Baermann * ...

. He is considered to be one of the top European straight-ahead jazz musicians of the post-1970 period.

Ben Webster Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909 – September 20, 1973) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Career Early life and career A native of Kansas City, Missouri, he studied violin, learned how to play blues on the piano from ...

and

Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...

were early influences, while he later developed a highly personal sound reminiscent of

Zoot Sims John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...

. Thilo first recorded as a leader for

Storyville Records Storyville Records is an international record company and label based in Copenhagen, Denmark, specializing in jazz and blues music. Besides its original material, Storyville Records has reissued many vintage jazz recordings that previously appea ...

in 1973 and in the 1980s on Storyville his sidemen at various times included

Kenny Drew Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew (August 28, 1928 – August 4, 1993) was an American-Danish jazz pianist. Biography Drew was born in New York City, United States, and received piano lessons from the age of five.Feather, Leonard, & Ira Gitler (2 ...

Clark Terry Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duke ...

and

Harry "Sweets" Edison Harry "Sweets" Edison (October 10, 1915 – July 27, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. His most important contribution was as a Hollywood studio musician, whose muted trumpet can be heard bac ...

. In the 1980s, he also played in the Ernie Wilkins's Almost Big Band. Thilo also appears on the

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...

album '' Aura'' recorded in 1985. In 1991, he worked with

Hank Jones Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored ...

in a

quintet A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...

Biography

Jesper Thilo was born on

Christianshavn Christianshavn (literally, "ingChristian's Harbour") is a neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Denmark. Part of the Indre By District, it is located on several artificial islands between the islands of Zealand and Amager and separated from the rest of th ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in 1941 to a pianist-actress mother and a father who was an architect. He started to play clarinet at age 11 and from 1955 to 1960 he played clarinet and

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

in various amateur

Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...

jazz bands with occasional paid jobs as a musician. Early he knew that he wanted to become a professional jazz musician but to get an education he chose to study classical clarinet at the

Royal Danish Academy of Music The Royal Danish Academy of Music, or Royal Danish Conservatory of Music ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium), in Copenhagen is the oldest professional institution of musical education in Denmark as well as the largest, with approxima ...

While still a student at the Academy, Thilo joined Arnved Meyer's orchestra where he played from 1960 to 1964 and again from 1967 to 1974 and it was Arnved Meyer who convinced him to shift to

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

. In Meyer's band he played with musicians such as

Benny Carter Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...

Harry Edison Harry "Sweets" Edison (October 10, 1915 – July 27, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. His most important contribution was as a Hollywood studio musician, whose muted trumpet can be heard back ...

Roy Eldridge David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989), nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from t ...

and

. During this part of his career his virile Swing style chiefly inspired by Webster and Hawkins. Besides his engagement in Meyer's orchestra, Thilo also played in his own band, a quintet which he had founded in 1965 and co-lead with Torolf Mølgaard and Bjarne Rostvold. From 1966 to 1989, Thilo was a member of the

DR Big Band The Danish Radio Big Band (aka: DR Big Band), often referred to as the Radioens Big Band is a radio ensemble and big band founded in Copenhagen in 1964 at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). Band history Originally called the New Radio ...

where he under bandleaders such as

Palle Mikkelborg Palle Mikkelborg (born 6 March 1941) is a Danish jazz trumpet player, composer, arranger and record producer. He is self-taught on the trumpet, although he studied conducting at the Royal Music Conservatory in Copenhagen. He became a professio ...

and

Thad Jones Thaddeus Joseph Jones (March 28, 1923 – August 20, 1986) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader who has been called "one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists". Biography Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan, U ...

mainly played

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

but occasionally also tenor saxophone,

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

concert flute The Western concert flute is a family of transverse (side-blown) woodwind instruments made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist (in British English), flutist (in Ame ...

, clarinet or

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

. Through the 1980s, he played in Ernie Wilkins' Almost Big Band. Other collaborators have included

Wild Bill Davison William Edward Davison (January 5, 1906 – November 14, 1989), nicknamed "Wild Bill", was an American jazz cornetist. He emerged in the 1920s through his work playing alongside Muggsy Spanier and Frank Teschemacher in a cover band where they ...

and

Niels Jørgen Steen Niels is a male given name, equivalent to Nicholas, which is common in Denmark, Belgium, Norway (formerly) and the Netherlands. The Norwegian and Swedish variant is Nils. The name is a developed short form of Nicholas or Greek Nicolaos after Sai ...

. In 1989, he left the DR Big Band and Ernie Wilkins's orchestra to lead his own bands with members such as Søren Kristiansen, Olivier Antunes, Hugo Rasmussen og Svend-Erik Nørregaard.

Discography

As a leader

*1980: ''Tribute to Frog'' with

Richard Boone Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns, including his starring role in the television series ''Have Gun – Will Travel''. Early lif ...

Jesper Lundgaard Jesper Lundgaard (born 12 June 1954) is a Danish jazz bassist, bandleader, composer and record producer. Since his debut in the mid-1970s, he has been among the most prominent bassists in Danish jazz and as a sideman he has appeared on more tha ...

, Svend-Erik Nørregaard,

, (

) *1980: ''Copenhagen 1980'' (live) with

Billy Hart Billy Hart (born November 29, 1940) is an American jazz drummer and educator. He is known internationally for his work with Herbie Hancock's "Mwandishi" band in the early 1970s, as well with Shirley Horn, Stan Getz, and Quest, among others. Bi ...

, Svend-Erik Nørregaard,

, Mads Vinding (Storyville Records) *1980: ''Swingin' Friends'' with Jesper Thilo Quintet (

) *1986: ''Featuring Harry Edison'' with

and Jesper Thilo Quintet(

) *1990: ''Shufflin' '' ( Music Mecca) *1994: ''Don't Count Him Out'' (

Pablo Records Pablo Records was a jazz record company and label founded by Norman Granz in 1973, more than a decade after he had sold his earlier catalog (including Verve Records) to MGM Records. Pablo initially featured recordings by acts that Granz managed: ...

) *1994: ''Jesper Thilo Quintet: With Hank Jones'' with

, Svend-Erik Nørregaard,

Doug Raney Doug Raney (August 29, 1956 – May 1, 2016) was an American jazz guitarist. He was the son of jazz guitarist Jimmy Raney. Career Raney was born in New York City. He began to play the guitar when he was 14, beginning with rock and blues. He was ...

Hugo Rasmussen Hugo Rasmussen (22 March 1941 – 30 August 2015) was a Danish bassist. Rasmussen is best known for his album ''Sweets to the Sweet'' (1978). ''Sweets To the Sweet'' was re-released in 2001 on Danish label Music Mecca. Biography He worked with, ...

(

) *2000: ''Strike Up the Band'' with Bob Barnard, Romano Cavicchiolo,

Henri Chaix Henri François Chaix (February 21, 1925 in Geneva – June 11, 1999 in Geneva) was a French jazz pianist and bandleader. Early life and career Chaix was born in Geneva, but both of his parents were French citizens; he studied at the Conservatoir ...

, Stephan Kurmann (

Sackville Records Sackville Records was a Canadian record company and label that specialized in jazz.Gardner/Kernfeld, "Sackville". '' Grove Jazz'' online. In 2011, with Sackville defunct, Delmark Records acquired its catalogue. Sackville was founded in 1968 in T ...

) *2004: ''Snap Your Fingers'' ( Music Mecca) *2009: ''Remembering Those Who Were'' ( Stunt Records) *2010: ''Plays Duke Ellington'' (Ambia) *2014: ''Stardust'' with Olivier Antunes,

Bo Stief Bo Stief (born 15 October 1946) is a Danish jazz and rock bassist, composer, and arranger born in Copenhagen. He has worked or recorded with Don Cherry, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Jackie McLean, G ...

, Frands Rifbjerg ( Music Mecca) Compilations: *1994: ''Copenhagen 1980'' (

) *2005: ''Jesper Thilo and the American Stars, Vol. 1'' (

) *2005: ''Jesper Thilo and the American Stars, Vol. 2'' (

)

As a sideman

With

Tommy Flanagan Thomas Lee Flanagan (March 16, 1930 – November 16, 2001) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He grew up in Detroit, initially influenced by such pianists as Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and Nat King Cole, and then by bebop musicians. ...

*''

Flanagan's Shenanigans ''Flanagan's Shenanigans'' is a live album by pianist Tommy Flanagan recorded at a concert celebrating his award of the 1993 Jazzpar Prize and released on the Danish Storyville label.Thad Jones Thaddeus Joseph Jones (March 28, 1923 – August 20, 1986) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader who has been called "one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists". Biography Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan, U ...

*1978: ''Live at Montmartre'' with

Idrees Sulieman Idrees Sulieman (August 7, 1923 – July 23, 2002) was an American bop and hard bop trumpeter. Biography He was born Leonard Graham in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, later changing his name to Idrees Sulieman, after converting to Isl ...

Allan Botschinsky Allan Botschinsky (29 March 1940 – 26 November 2020) was a Danish jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist, composer, arranger, conductor, producer, and record label owner. Biography Botschinsky was born in Copenhagen, and had a background in classical ...

, NHOP (

) With

Roland Hanna Roland Pembroke Hanna (February 10, 1932 – November 13, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and teacher. Biography Hanna studied classical piano from the age of 11, but was strongly interested in jazz, having been introduced to i ...

*1987: ''This Time It's Real'' with JensThilo Quartet (

) With

*1989: Aura (Columbia Records) With Scott Hamilton *2012: ''Scott Hamilton Meets Jesper Thilo'' (Stunt Records)

Awards

* 1971: Danish jazz musician of the year * 1977:

Ben Webster Prize The Ben Webster Prize is an annual jazz award set up by the Ben Webster Foundation to honour Danish and American jazz musicians as well as other professionals active in the promotion of jazz in those countries. The American jazz musician Ben Webste ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thilo, Jesper 1941 births Living people Musicians from Copenhagen Bebop saxophonists Cool jazz saxophonists Danish jazz musicians Danish jazz saxophonists Male saxophonists Swing saxophonists DR Big Band members 21st-century saxophonists 21st-century male musicians Male jazz musicians Almost Big Band members Storyville Records artists