Artist: Neil Ardley & The Danish Radio Big Band
Title: jazz i danmark ‘68
File: Jazz
Available from digital music sales sites from July 3rd 2026
Only a few years into his career helming Britain’s New Jazz Orchestra, Neil Ardley was a natural fit for directing the Danish Radio Big Band in this near perfect recording from 1968.
Driven by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s aim to raise awareness of jazz in the country, this set captures works by Kurt Weill, Mike Taylor, Howard Riley and Jack Bruce and of course Neil Ardley himself.
Mike Gibbs directs the band which includes Palle Mikkelborg and Allan Botschininsk in some powerful arrangements with soloists including trumpeters Palle Mikkelborg and Allan Botchinsky on Ardley’s Debussy-inspired “Le Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe”, and a winning version of his arrangement of Weill/Brecht’s “Surabaya Johnny” featuring standout bass from Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen.
A year on and Ardley’s next studio album titled ‘Le Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe’ was asserted upon release to be a classic of modern British jazz – and Ardley now an important auteur of the genre.
TRACKS
- Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe
- Nardis
- There And Back Again
- Surabaya Johnny
- Pendulum
- Shades of Blue
- Angle
- The Immortal Ninth
- Greek Variations