When jazz became pop – Danish “jazz”sensation Ibrahim Electric

Ibrahim Electric

Copenhagen Jazzfestival always make people that don’t normally listen to jazz find their way to bars and open air stages to listen to great music.

Like any other festival, Copenhagen Jazzfestival has the greatest experiences with the unexpected and the impulsive.

It was this metaphysical drive that drove me and a couple of friend to a small café in the heart of the Danish capital, wanting to listen to Danish Music Awards Jazz 2004 ‘New Name of The Year’ jazz drummer Steffan Passborg together with Niclas Knudsen (guitar) and Jeppe Tuxen (Hammond B3) in the band Ibrahim Electric. Little did we know, that we were in for a night unlike any other.

The musicians were at the same level as all of us listening, only elevated with the couple of carpets, that should ensure the drums staying in one place. The band was in a small corner of the café, which was all made of glass.

The house was almost full when the band took stage, but this crowd was nothing to what came to be later the same evening. The band started, it sounding like a weird twist of Eniro Morricone with the western style guitar playing the melody, the organ filling the room with a sense of cosiness and the drums pounding away making all of us uneasy in your seat, we felt like taking on the dancefloor that wasn’t there………yet.

This inferno of rhythmic sound, drew an enormous crowd, people started gathering outside the café and all windows were opened to please the outside crowd as well as the inside one, we were melting.

Between two track the guitarplayer Niclas Knudsen was encouraged by the audience to get rid of all chairs, to make room for more people. At this point people outside had been dancing for quite some time, and the orgasmic danceneed couldn’t be neglected by the audience inside. 150 people worked together like ants and got rid of all chairs in a couple of minutes, and the sweating band continued.

The concert was not just Ibrahim Electric playing, it was a two-way game, where the audiences happiness and yells made the music even greater. At one time the band made a break beat, and a woman cried at the top of her lungs, You’re soo cool and the band continued right after. The timing was perfect, and we realized that this wasn’t just jazz, it was pop, the audience was all kinds of people, the music had appeal to a broader mass than jazzlovers. Could this music end wars? Should we call Bob Geldof? There were so many question, of how to share this fantastic feeling with others.

This concert gave us all a feeling of great satisfaction. It was back in the summer of 2006, and I’ve had the pleasure of listening to the band again and again, and this must be the first jazzband ever that could become pop.

Their music cannot be described in words, if I could, there would be no reason to listen to it. Go ahead and give it a spin, and if you ever get the chance, listen to them live, that’s their element.

This is not from the concert I was at, but I get that moving feeling