Bass Player: Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen

Ørsted Pedersen was born in Osted Nr. Roskilde, on the Danish island of Zealand, the son of a church organist. As a child, Ørsted Pedersen played piano, but from the age of 13, he started learning to play the double bass and, at the age of 14, while studying, he began his professional jazz career in Denmark with his first band, Jazzkvintet 60 (Danish for Jazz Quintet 60). By the age of fifteen, he had the ability to accompany leading musicians at nightclubs, working regularly at Copenhagen’s |Jazzhus Montmartre, after his debut there on New Year’s Eve 1961, when he was only 15. When seventeen, he had already turned down an offer to join the Count Basie Orchestra, mainly because he was too young to get legal permission to live and work as a musician in the United States.

The Montmartre was a regular stop-off for touring American Jazz stars, and as a member of the house band, the young Ørsted Pedersen performed with saxophonists such as Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Stan Getz and pianist Bill Evans, with whom he toured in Europe in 1965. During the 1960s, Ørsted Pedersen played with a series of other important American jazzmen who were touring or resident in Denmark, including Ben Webster, Brew Moore, Bud Powell, Count Basie, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Jackie McLean and Ella Fitzgerald. He also played with Jean-Luc Ponty and became the bassist of choice whenever a big-name musician was touring Copenhagen.

He was awarded Best Bass Player of the Year by Downbeat Critics’ Poll in 1981.

Pedersen often played in a duo and trio alongside guitarist Philip Catherine and it was Catherine who wrote the tune that features in the attached transcription. The chart is a head only piece and features the tune ‘Airpower’. It highlights Pedersen’s astonishing facility. The tune is a tough one to crack on electric bass but, on double bass, it’s impossible.