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Thomas Clausen

THOMAS CLAUSEN has performed and/or recorded with among others: Miles Davis, Gary Burton, Dexter Gordon, Thad Jones, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Elvin Jones, James Newton, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, George Russell, Ben Webster, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Henderson, Harry Edison, Tim Hagans, Toots Thielemans, Roy Haynes, Johnny Griffin, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Lee Konitz, Stanley Turrentine, Ed Thigpen, Chuck Israels, Bob Brookmeyer.

AWARDS:

The Ben Webster Price (1989), The Jasa Price(1990), The Fanfare Price(1992), DJFBA`s (The Danish Society for Jazz, Rock and Folk Composers) Composers Price.
With the status of "Special Ensemble", special support from The Danish Arts Foundation 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 ,2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.

According to Den Store Danske Encyklopaedi - The National Danish Encyclopedia:

THOMAS CLAUSEN: "Danish jazz piano player and composer, inspired by both jazz and recent European composition, since the beginning of the 1980’s having become one of the important musicians in European jazz. He is equally appreciated as a solo piano player, trio leader, and accompanist for leading American musicians. Further he has worked as a composer for large ensembles in a way that reveals Alban Berg as a main influence.”

Thomas grew up in a musical home. Both of his parents were teaching mathematics, however, his late father played a strong and able jazz piano in swing style, whereas his mother is out of a family of singers. “Like father - like son” - or as they say in Denmark: The apple does not fall far from the tree, so both Thomas and his brother Bent Clausen became musicians - Thomas as a piano player and composer, Bent as a vibraphonist and drummer, recently also music director of the Tom Waits/ Robert Wilson theater productions of “Woyzeck” and “The Black Rider”.

Thomas Clausen was very young when he began playing with great artists of jazz. His energetic, but lyrical piano playing was discovered by Dexter Gordon in 1969; at the same time Thomas began participating in Palle Mikkelborg’s projects and groups (the “Riel/Mikkelborg V8”, the “Entrance”, and the CD “Palle Mikkelborg’s Journey To…”), and soon Thomas began playing regularly with the bass players Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Bo Stief, and Mads Vinding, and with the drummers Alex Riel, Bjarne Rostvold, and Kasper Winding.

Thomas accompanied a number of international jazz stars in the world renowned now gone “Jazzhus Montmartre” in Store Regnegade in Copenhagen: Ben Webster, Elvin Jones, Jan Garbarek, Joe Henderson, Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Eddie ”Lockjaw” Davis (as heard on the LP “Swingin’ Till The Girls Come Home”), Jackie Mclean and Gary Bartz (as heard on the LP “Ode To Super”), and Johnny Griffin (as heard on the CD “And The Great Danes”) - just to mention a few...

In the mid 80’s Thomas was a regular member of the Peter Herboltzheimer International Big Band in Germany (the LP “More Bebop”).

Thomas' wish to form his own band was fulfilled in 1978, when he started "Mirror", a group that recorded the first LP with Thomas’ own compositions (“Mirror”/CBS/1979). Musicians: Jan zum Vohrde (sax/fl), Ole Skipper Moesgaard (b), and Aage Tanggaard (dr). Here the music had already taken a strongly melodic turn after Thomas' studies of modern compositional technique with composer Ib Noerholm at the Royal Danish Music Conservatorium.

In 1979 Thomas created his first jazz trio, with Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass and Aage Tanggaard on drums. The trio recorded two albums that were indeed positively received by both the press and the audience: “Rain” (1980) with mainly own compositions, and “The Shadow Of Bill Evans” (1983), which Baystate, Japanese record label, wanted to be a tribute to the recently deceased Bill Evans, so accordingly the LP contains a number of arrangements of tunes that are connected to Bill Evans - however, in more than one sense a kind of re-composition of the material.

In 1987 Thomas put together his second jazz trio with Mads Vinding (b) and Alex Riel (dr). In 1988 this trio recorded the CD/LP “She Touched Me” for the German label of MA Music. Here again mainly standard tunes in new disguise. The trio participated in the first Jazzpar Prize concerts (Copenhagen, Odense, and Paris) in 1990, joined by with Gary Burton. The collaboration with Burton lasted a couple of years and led to the recording of the CD’s : “Café Noir” (1990) and “Flowers & Trees” (1991), and a great Giant Jazz concert in The Circus Building during the Copenhagen Jazz Festival 1994. The basic trio recorded another CD in 1994: “Psalm”.

In the mid 90’s Thomas stroke out a new path when starting collaborating with Brazilian guitarist/ composer Celso Mendes, who introduced him to a number of Brazilian musicians living in Denmark and Germany. The first result of that can be heard on “Festa” (Olufsen, 1995). This was the beginning of a new era, leading to the “Thomas Clausen Brazilian Quartet”. By his side were his old friend Jan zum Vohrde, and the Brazilian musicians Fernando Demarco (b) and Afonso Corrêa (dr).

So far the Thomas Clausen Brazilian Quartet has recorded 3 CD’s for STUNT Records:

”Follow The Moon” (1998), originals + some Corrêa & Ivan Lins.
“Prelude To A Kiss” (2000), originals + some Ellington and Tom Jobim.
“Balacobaco” (2003), only originals, a mix of choros and classical inspiration.

On Balacobaco the group is extended to an octet with Mikkel Nordsoe (guitar) and the Madame Claude Harp Trio (Pia Kaufmanas (flute), Ida Speyer Groen (viola), and Tine Rehling (harp). Ida Groen was later replaced by David Lasserson, London.

At the Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2004 the Thomas Clausen Brazilian Quintet had the pleasure of featuring the Brazilian flute and sax virtuoso Teco Cardoso. A new member Léa Freire (flutist, composer, arranger, and owner of Maritaca, one of Brazil’s most important labels) joined last year, and in spring and summer 2005 the "Brazilian Quintet" - now consisting of Thomas Clausen (p), Teco Cardoso (fl, sx), Léa Freire (fl), Fernando Demarco (b), Afonso Corrêa (dr, perc), toured extensively in Brazil and Europe. The tour was so successful that the group did another just as successful tour in Europe in May this year, when in England joined by guitarist and composer Jonny Phillips, and the Brazilian Quintet have upcoming tours in November 2007 and again in 2008.

This quintet just released a wonderful new CD on Maritaca: MARITACA QUINTET: WATERBIKES (Maritaca 1037), recorded in the Sun Studios, Copenhagen, June 2006. The music is compositions by Léa Freire, Thomas Clausen, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Show less

Thomas Clausen: Brazilian Quartet

by Jim Josselyn
October 1, 2001

The rhythms of Latin music have crossed many cultural and geographic borders. Throughout history the Latin influence has made a strong mark on classical, jazz, pop, rock and a variety of world music. German pianist and composer Thomas Clausen puts his hand in the pot with his latest effort, “Brazilian Quartet".

The set opens with “The Old Man In The Midnight Sea", a frantic, playful romp through the tides - sort of like ‘70’s Chick Corea with a sense of ...

Boris Rabinowitsch in "Politiken" April 30, 2007:

AT A HIGH LEVEL

Thomas Clausen Trio: BACK TO BASICS
(Stunt Records, STUCD 07062)

Receives 5 hearts out of 6

As is the case with other leading European pianists, Thomas Clausen would not mind to acknowledge the great importance of which especially Bill Evans has been to him. However, what is also remarkable is the high extent to which Clausen has intensified the personal expression of his playing. This has not been all cost free. There was a transitional period where his playing, at that time mainly based on chords, could seem too uptight.

Boris Rabinowitsch in "Politiken" April 30, 2007:

AT A HIGH LEVEL

Thomas Clausen Trio: BACK TO BASICS
(Stunt Records, STUCD 07062)

Receives 5 hearts out of 6

The way it comes out on his new CD, however, the music is again delicately balanced with lines of single notes. And similarly Clausen has succeeded in redressing the balance between the impetus, which represents one side of his musical expression, and the calm necessary for the music to be in equilibrium.

The title of the CD is “Back To Basics”, Clausen having returned to a number of standards that here once again confirm their constancy. Tunes as Harold Arlen’s “That Old Black Magic”, Jerome Kern’s “Dearly Beloved”, and Thelonius Monk’s “Round Midnight”. Plus a couple of Clausen’s own compositions that brilliantly match this celebrated company.

This has become an outstanding release, on which especially Clausen’s exquisite artistry of harmonizing gives such strong unique character to the music. And to this is added the economy, the sense of also letting the rests speak that marks a great deal of the music. This is also very true of bassist Thomas Fonnesbaek, who performs a high-class response as an accompanist, and as a soloist shapes each note with thought. And similarly Karsten Bagge on drums understands to add both the right energy and finely varied coloring of sound in that interplay.

Boris Rabinowitsch in "Politiken" July 2003:

ENCHANTING - A MASTERPIECE

Thomas Clausen Brazilian Quartet + Friends: BALACOBACO
(Stunt Records, STUCD 03112)

Pianist Thomas Clausen’s relationship with Brazilian music has developed into a deep-felt reciprocated love. Not so much the bossa nova, which is well known for having incorporated jazz-impulses, but the so-called choros, sprung from traditional sources. What Clausen has done with them on his latest release, “Balacobaco”, makes me think of what Astor Piazzolla has done with the Argentine tango. For like Piazzolla, Clausen has refined the original music and raised it to a sphere where it amalgamates with influences from the classical-European tradition. And what is more, he has done so without damaging its roots. I should not be at all surprised to learn that Clausen has actually borrowed motifs and subsequently developed them. The reason why the music is so utterly spellbinding is that it creates a feeling of intimacy that goes straight to the heart, while at the same time being so abundant in musical riches that it never ceases to offer ingenious surprises.
The nucleus of the ensemble is Clausen’s Brazilian Quartet with Jan zum Vohrde on alto sax and flute, Fernando Demarco on bass, Afonso Corrêa on drums and Clausen himself at the piano; here with the addition of guitarist Mikkel Nordsoe and the Madame Claude Harp Trio, i.e.Pia Kaufmanas on flute, Ida Speyer Groen on viola, and Tine Rehling on harp. And Clausen has arranged his music for this ensemble with an elegance that is perfectly congenial to the performance itself. Solo voices emerge in the most beautiful way, but everything forms a perfect synthesis where spontaneity also works as an incentive in the written passages. Yes, we have before us a masterpiece.
In one of the tunes, “Turkey”, Balkan music also finds its way into Clausen’s universe without seeming out of place. And as I hear it, his “Song Of Love”, a piano solo, not only sends its greetings to Frederic Chopin, but also to Billy Strayhorn!

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