SWR Big Band and Jens Winther - Winther: SWR Big Band Live (2000)

b. 29 October 1960, Næstved, Denmark. Trumpeter and composer Winther was still in his teens when he enrolled in John Tchicai’s and Hugh Steinmetz’s ‘school’ of free jazz and ethnic music, the Cadentia Nova Danica big band. In the 80s he joined Erling Kroner’s band which played a fusion of Argentinian tango and American jazz. Winther has made frequent visits to New York, USA where he has received encouragement from musicians including Bob Brookmeyer and has also sat in with local groups. Winther is thoroughly at home with all current styles of black American popular music and tends to eschew so-called Scandinavian ‘coolness’. His lines are rhythmically exciting and he avoids melodic clichés by employing unusual interval leaps. He is one among a handful of Danish jazz musicians who has recorded his own compositions with the Danish Radio Big Band. Winther’s admiration for the sound of Chet Baker and Miles Davis is particularly apparent on the broodingly desolate music in parts of The Planets.