Biography
Mentioning Bent Axen instantly summons an image of a continental European performer, perhaps from Scandinavia, stationed at an airline baggage desk and describing damage to his instrument during shipment. Although touring players routinely encounter their own version of such misfortune, only select elements of that image match reality. Bent Axen was indeed a musician and Danish by nationality; yet because he specialized in piano, he belonged to the narrow group of instrumentalists whose axes are supplied by the venues themselves. Still, the phrase applies in another sense, for one hallmark of his career is the number of substandard and chronically mistuned pianos he encountered while accompanying a succession of visiting American and European jazz leaders on Danish stages.
Set in the typography favored by labels such as Prestige, the name Bent Axen surfaces quickly in discographies of musicians as dissimilar as Eric Dolphy and Don Byas, both of whom relied on economical European rhythm sections while touring. His path to those engagements began with commercial dance bands in the late 1940s and continued in the mid-1950s alongside baritone saxophonist Max Bruel. In 1959 he formed his own Jazz Quintet, an ensemble that remained active through 1963 and coincided with his membership in Danish Radiojazzgruppen as well as frequent appearances beside touring American players.
Dolphy arrived in Denmark in 1961 and subjected Axen to demanding tempi and extended phrasing; the pianist endured, though one of the venue’s instruments did not. Years after the recordings appeared, a distraught listener reportedly broke into the club and silenced the piano permanently, an act of retribution on behalf of every listener who had suffered its intonation. Brew Moore visited the following year, and elder statesman Don Byas appeared in 1963. By 1967 Axen had redirected his energies toward work as a theater composer and music director, an occupation that largely supplanted the jazz activity whose artistic summit remains the 1960 solo album Let’s Keep the Message. The 1997 CD reissued that session together with two additional Debut recordings.
Set in the typography favored by labels such as Prestige, the name Bent Axen surfaces quickly in discographies of musicians as dissimilar as Eric Dolphy and Don Byas, both of whom relied on economical European rhythm sections while touring. His path to those engagements began with commercial dance bands in the late 1940s and continued in the mid-1950s alongside baritone saxophonist Max Bruel. In 1959 he formed his own Jazz Quintet, an ensemble that remained active through 1963 and coincided with his membership in Danish Radiojazzgruppen as well as frequent appearances beside touring American players.
Dolphy arrived in Denmark in 1961 and subjected Axen to demanding tempi and extended phrasing; the pianist endured, though one of the venue’s instruments did not. Years after the recordings appeared, a distraught listener reportedly broke into the club and silenced the piano permanently, an act of retribution on behalf of every listener who had suffered its intonation. Brew Moore visited the following year, and elder statesman Don Byas appeared in 1963. By 1967 Axen had redirected his energies toward work as a theater composer and music director, an occupation that largely supplanted the jazz activity whose artistic summit remains the 1960 solo album Let’s Keep the Message. The 1997 CD reissued that session together with two additional Debut recordings.
Albums
