Aarhus Jazz Orchestra, Jakob Buchanan, Marilyn Mazur, Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir & Carsten Seyer-Hansen
Biography Aarhus Jazz Orchestra, Jakob Buchanan, Marilyn Mazur, Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir & Carsten Seyer-Hansen
Jakob Buchanan
was born in Viby, Jutland. He was raised in Rosenhøjby his Danish mother and British father. He was the first jazz student ever to be accepted at soloist class of the Royal Academy of Music Aarhus, Denmark. A position from which he has been able to work closely with familiar artists while also creating unexpected con-stellations. His early works were composed for a jazz sextet and released on his first two albums ‘Dreamfactory’ and ‘i’. Since 2008, Jakob Buchanan has been playing and touring with his quartet for longer periods. Percussionist Marilyn Mazur and guitarist Jakob Bro have been members of the Jakob Buchanan Quartet from the beginning.
Bassist Jonas Westergaard replaces pianist Simon Toldam on the latest quartet album ‘Some People & Some Places’. The album was nominated in two categoriesat the Danish Music Awards Jazz 2014: ‘Jazz Album of the Year’, and ‘Jazz Composer of the Year’. For his album ‘Requiem’, Jakob Buchanan won the Danish Music Awards Jazz 2016 ‘Release of the Year’ and ‘Composer of the Year’, and in 2015 the Jazznyt Award.
Jakob Buchanan teaches trumpet and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark and has toured in allScandinavian countrys, Germany, France, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Poland, America, Canada, and Russia. With Marilyn Mazurs Special 4 and the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra. The Requiem: Alarge-scale work which combined elements from the Latin mass for the dead with European choral tradition, Nordic orchestral music and improvisation. In 2001, Jakob Buchanan became the first jazz musician at the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus to take part in the soloist programme, previously reserved for classical students.
Today he teaches composition in the rhythmic department: ‘In Aarhus, you are part of a diverse environment, where jazz is close to classical music, because the Academy has merged the courses. I have always loved the great works and, when I was a student, I could find a way of sneaking in and attending conductors’ rehearsals with strings and orchestras. I studied Russian for acouple of years at the university, and there I discovered Russian avant-garde art from the beginning of the 20th century, including the painter Malevich, who worked with points, lines and surfaces. When I listen to Bach, Tchaikovsky,
Mahler or James Macmillan today, I can find myself listening for the points, the lines and the surfaces of the music. It can be a new way to experience how works are composed.’ Since Requiem, which also saw the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with choral and orchestral conductor Carsten Seyer-Hansen, several orchestral projects have seen the light of day. In 2017, as mentioned, it was
The Voices from Rosenhill written to celebrate Aarhus 2017 –European Capital of Culture. In 2019, Songs To The Green Land for big band, choir and soloists was performed in Aarhus and Copenhagena co-writng project w. Norwegian drummer Helge Andreas Norbakken. Buchanan has also written and recorded with guitarist Jakob Bro a work for choir and instrumental soloists,that have not yet been published. And a new commission awaits it’s releasea piece for Aarhus Jazz Orchestra and the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir under the direction of Carsten Seyer-Hansenand featuring Marilyn Mazur on percussion. Jakob Buchanan has quietly become a new and exciting voice in Danish orchestral music.
