Jesper Thilo Quintet Featuring Hank Jones - Jesper Thilo Quintet (1991)

This one of several recordings which, in addition to their musical qualities, commemorate the second annual JAZZPAR awards.

Thilo is, by now, one of the leading soloists on the Danish jazz scene, having been born in Copenhagen in 1941, and one of the best-known thanks to his work with Denmark's Radio Big Band from 1966 to 1990. With a style which is 'mainsream' in the best sense, he has absorbed the influence of classic American players from Ben Webster (whom he had the good fortune to work alongside during Webster's last years) to Johnny Griffin. But you would be hard put to trace particular elements of Thilo's playing today to any specific models.

As to Thilo's excellent sidemen, all except Hank Jones are regular colleagues who go a long way back. Bassist Hugo Rasmussen and Svend-Erik Nørregaard are both inventive players who work well together, recording for instance with Zoot Sims and Al Cohn as long ago as 1974. Doug Raney, though clearly not a Danish native, has been based in Copenhagen for many years and is an integral part of the local scene. Taught by his father, the famous Jimmy Raney with whom he first toured in Europe, Doug has an individual, laid-back style, with an attractive veiled tone that doesn't diminish the clarity of his very rythmic ideas.

Many of the same things, of course, apply to Hank Jones: 'individual', 'laid-back' and 'rythmic' are all part of him. In addition, the percussive aspect of the piano being so superbly in his control, he has an infinite number of gradations from gentle to firm to forceful, and everything in between.