Nikolaj Hess

Pianist and composer Nikolaj Hess crafts music that fuses modern classical sensibilities with post-bop and European jazz idioms in inventive ways. Among his widely praised recordings are the 2009 release The Champ by his Spacelab trio, the 2010 album Global Motion alongside saxophonist Marc Mommaas, and the 2013 Danish Music Award-nominated Trio featuring bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen. He has also written scores for cinema, among them Lars von Trier's Melancholia. In 2021 his wide-ranging interests converged on the expansive, richly textured chamber jazz project Spacelab & Strings.

Born in Denmark in 1967, Hess trained on both piano and violin during his formative years. Growing up on the culturally rich Jutland peninsula, he and his brothers—saxophonist Emil Hess and drummer Mikkel Hess—encountered jazz and classical repertoire early on. He later studied at the Copenhagen Conservatory under Horace Parlan and Butch Lacy. During this period he received several honors, among them the gold prize at Copenhagen’s Berlingske Tidendes competition for non-classical music and the title of best European jazz pianist under 25 at the 1991 RAI competition in Rome. As a performer he has appeared alongside an array of improvisers spanning multiple traditions, such as Ben Monder, Christian McBride, Ulla Henningsen, Ambrose Akinmusire, Fela Kuti, and Lee Konitz. His film scores include Lars von Trier’s Melancholia and Juliane Fezer’s Meeres Stille. In addition he has taught as associate professor at the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen and has given instruction at the New School in New York, The Royal Danish Conservatory of Music, Conservatoire National Superieur de Music de Paris, Conservatory of Non classical Music in Århus, and William Paterson University of New Jersey.

After several projects with vocalist Sissel Vera Pettersen, Hess issued his first leader date, 2009’s The Champ, documenting the Spacelab trio completed by bassist Anders Christensen and drummer Mikkel Hess. He next joined saxophonist Marc Mommaas, guitarist Ben Monder, bassist John Herbert, and drummers Jeff Ballard and Tony Moreno for the 2010 album Global Motion. In 2013 he formed a trio with bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen that earned a Danish Music Award nomination for jazz album of the year. The following year brought another nomination, this time for 3 X Hess, a luminous trio recording with his brothers Emil on saxophone and Mikkel on drums.

Rhapsody: Impressions of Hammershøi appeared in 2016, uniting the pianist and drummer Mikkel with pianist Marilyn Mazur and bassist Anders Christensen. Two years afterward Hess recorded the lyrical standards collection Willow with vocalist Foyn Friis. In 2021 he reunited with Spacelab for the lushly textured Spacelab & Strings, which merged classical arrangements and exploratory improvisation; the sessions featured a string quartet comprising violinist and co-producer Cæcilie Balling, violinist Christian Ellegård, violist Jakup Lützen, and cellist Josefine Opsahl.