Blues for Papa Bue

Icon of Danish jazz, ARNE PAPA BUE JENSEN passed away.
Jørgen Larsen

Blues for Papa Bue (English) Papa Bue (1930 - 2011) (Dansk) Blues voor Papa Bue ( Nederlands)

On the 3rd of November, 2011 the Danish jazz legend, Arne Papa Bue Jensen, passed away, 81 years old. The sad news was frontpage priority in leading Danish media, an important figure of the traditional jazz scene in Denmark had left, a successfull career as a bandleader and trombonist of the world famous Papa Bue's Viking Jazz Band had ended after more than 50 years in business. - Here we also like to pay a tribute to Papa Bue and point our readers to the extensive career profile of Arne Papa Bue Jensen by Rienus Kanning published at the keepswinging blog a couple of years ago.

The Viking Jazz Band ( ca 1960) Papa Bue is the first one on the left ( source: Rhythme nr. 130- Juli 1960) (Hans Koert archive)
The most respectfull way to pay a musician a tribute is to play his or her music, thus here are three highlights from the recorded career of Arne Papa Bue Jensen uploaded at YouTube. - The first video features the audio of a live-recording made at Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen 1978, the tune Just A Closer Walk is accompanied by still photos and the musicians are Arne "Papa Bue" Jensen - Trombone, Ole Stolle - Trumpet, Jørgen Svarre - Clarinet, Banjo and vocals - Bjarne "Liller" Pedersen, Jens Sølund - Bass, Knud Ryskov - Drums, Jørn "Jønne" Jensen - Piano.



From the 50th years Jubilee concert of Papa Bue's Viking Jazz Band in 2006, also recorded at Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen, here a fragment of We Shall Walk Through The Streets Of The City, musicians are: Arne Bue Jensen (tb vo), Finn Otto Hansen (tp), Jørgen Svare (cl), Jørn Jensen (p), Mogens Seidelin (b) and Ib Lindschouw (dr)



Photo compilation of Papa Bue's Viking Jazzband - Dixieland uit Denemarken (( source: Rhythme nr. 128- mei 1960) (Hans Koert archive)

Finally, the audio track of a recording of Papa Bue's version of When The Saints ...




During the 1960s the Papa Bue's Viking Jazz band was extreme popular in the European trad scene. In the spring of 1956 Arne Bue Jensen had founded an amateur dixieland band, which performed at the Copenhagen Montmartre Club. In the summer of 1956 the band traveled to Hamburg, where they got a gig at the New Orleans Beerbar. They made some records, which became hits. As Chris Barber had its Ice Cream and Petite Fleur, Acker Bilk his Summerset Papa Blue became immortal with Schlafe Mein Prinzchen, Schlaf' Ein, not the most jazzy tune he had in his repertoire.
Jørgen larsen
keepwinging@live.nl
The Danish trombone player and bandleader Arne Jensen, better known as Papa Bue, passed away. He was an icon of Danish jazz. Around the 1960s the trad jazz scene, with names like Acker Bilk and Chris Barber, adored Papa Bue, who made with his Vikiing Jazz Band accesible dixieland music, which became popular to the common people with hits like Schlafe Mein Prinzchen, Schlaf' Ein, not the most jazzy tune in Acker Bilk's repertoire. Keep Swinging loves to point you to this kind of icons in jazz. If you don't want to miss any contribution, follow it at Twitter (# keepswinging) or as for its free newsletter ( keepswinging@live.nl)

Retrospect
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DSC Band & Acker Bilk In Concert.

On November the 3rd I had the pleasure of attending a double concert featuring the Dutch Swing College Band and Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band, who are on tour in Denmark during November. The concert took place at the new concert hall situated in Alsion, Sonderborg. Alsion, which is a division of the University of Southern Denmark, was officially declared open for the public by the Queen of Denmark on October the 30th, the building is designed for the use of university students and science activity, but also contains a grand and magnificent
concert hall, where the concert took place.

The Dutch Swing College Band played the first part of the double concert fronting an enthusiastic audience, who got what they had paid for - an entertaining show of traditional jazz in the best of dixieland and swing style, performed by a professional and engaging band. The repertoire of the band consisted of standards with an accent on swing, most of the tunes are contained in the band's latest cd entitled "Swing That Music", a live-recording made in Germany 2006.

To give you an impression of the music played by the DSC band, I insert three video fragments below, recorded at the 2006 live concert in Germany. - The first video features the band's version of "Swing That Music"

Another fragment from the same concert features DSC band playing "China Boy", also performed at the concert in Alsion, Sonderborg:

A highlight during the concert in Alsion was the band's performance of "Light Hearted Banjo Strings", a tune composed by Arie Lighthart (1924-1997), , a former and now departed member of the DSCB, here featuring the contemporary band's excellent banjoist/guitarist, Ton van Bergeyk as a soloist:

Secound half of the double concert featured a performance by Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band, as mentioned. Mr. Acker Bilk has been and still is popular with the Danish audience and both he and the band was given a warm wellcome and a grand applause in Alsion. The performance by the band of course included Acker Bilk's hit from 1961, "Strangers On A Shore", but also contained regular jazz well executed by both the leader and his bandmembers. A part of the concert was performed by Acker Bilk and the band's piano player, Colin Wood, in a duo setting. One of the tunes performed by the duo was "Corrine Corrina" - I found a video featuring this recorded at another live gig to illustrate a great moment from the concert in Alsion:

Jo