Very close to Knudsen’s heart, though, the above project may be, he’s done much more than that during the nineties: An agreement with the Duke Ellington Estate was negotiated, giving Storyville the rights to previously unreleased Duke Ellington material. Several of ‘The Duke Ellington Treasury Shows’ (D.E.T.S.) have been released and 12 cd’s containing material from the “Stockpile” (The enormous amount of recordings that Ellington made over the years at his own expense - just for the record, if you’ll pardon the pun) are at present being edited by a.o. Ellington specialist Bjarne Busk. Not necessarily to be released on the Storyville label, but in some cases by other labels through licensing agreements. And concerning Ellington, 4 DVD releases are also at the planning stage for Storyville (they are already released in England on the Quantum Leap label). Similar arrangements have been made with several other important artists like Louis Armstrong, Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster, Clark Terry & Stuff Smith to mention a few.

The transferring from video to DVD of much of Storyville’s catalogue of videos are in the process of being made.

Another thing could very well prove to open up a veritable gold mine: A licensing agreement with the Danish Broadcasting Corp. concerning their TV-tapings of concerts as well as studio productions, making available a lot of more or less forgotten material by artists performing in Copenhagen over the years. As Knudsen recently reported to the Interviewer: “Actually we have in recent years released more recordings of radio broadcasts, taken from various archives, than brand-new studio recordings, but we have also released several new recordings by young Danish musicians, as I do consider it some kind of obligation, somehow, to support your own country’s young and up-coming talents, but believe me - in this part of the field, economically, the ends do not meet, so I realize we’ll have to rethink our involvement in these kinds of projects in the future”.

But then, there is still a lot of archive material waiting to see the light of day ? “Oh, certainly. I’ve been lucky to get in touch with knowledgeable persons at the SR (Swedish Broadcasting Corp.) and the NDR (Nord Deutscher Rundfunk, meaning the North German Broadcasting Corp.) who search their archives for material that fit into our line of releases. And I’m happy that we’ve also gotten access to the Library of Congress archives, though of course not permitted to release anything until a deal has been agreed upon by all artists involved in a particular project. There is such a vast amount of material there, with, luckily, the Library having the attitude that the music should much rather be heard than stay on the shelves. And, needless to say, I agree to that”, Knudsen adds with a slight smile.

And as if all this wasn’t enough to keep the 73-year old, white-bearded man quite busy...... Well, there are things that are so exciting that you just can’t leave them alone. In a few months we are going to release the first of eight cd’s containing Art Tatum’s Live performances and transcriptions, spanning the years 1934 through 1954, which is virtually his entire career.

For this project we have enlisted several specialists as liner note writers, including Arnold Laubich, the author of the Art Tatum bio/discography. No matter how many great Art Tatum recordings are available, this is really something special and a valuable addition to his discography.”

To celebrate the 80th birthday of Dexter Gordon, the great tenor saxophonist who lived in Denmark from 1962 through 1976, Storyville plans to release: three CD’s containing the sound of a number of Danish TV-broadcasts, later making the material available on video, all in cooperation with Gordon’s widow, Maxine.

Page 4

BOOKS

Because of Knudsen’s great interest in jazz history, his other company JAZZMEDIA has published several books since 1962, such as the discography JAZZ RECORDS which documents all the jazz records produced from 1942 to 1969. This 11-volume work has for many years been the leading discographical work concerning this period. When the author Jørgen Grunnet Jepsen died, it became clear to Knudsen that a revised version bringing the project considerably more up to date could only be done if a discographer just as dedicated could be found. The choice fell upon Erik Raben, under whose expert editing the work has now been in progress for several years. The first seven volumes are now published. A Miles Davis discography by Jan Lohmann, a new Chet Baker Discography, The Music of Chesney Henry Baker by Thorbjørn Sjøgren and a mammoth work by Dr. Klaus Stratemann Duke Ellington - Day by day and Film by Film have been published in the last few years as well as Klaus Stratemann’s latest book “Louis Armstrong On Film”. The 1998/99 season saw 2 new books published: Ray Avery’s “Stars of Jazz” and Bill Russell’s “Oh Mr. Jelly” - another mammoth book of the size of the Ellington book.

THE JAZZPAR PROJECTS

Karl Emil Knudsen’s business card reads Dr. in Jazz Archeology. A self-claimed title and not to be taken seriously (of course no such academic degree exists), but somehow it is not entirely incorrect. He has always had a particular fondness for the older styles of jazz, as he frankly admitted when Thorbjørn Sjøgren was recently talking to him about Storyville’s present and future activities: “Jazz is something that grabs you by your guts. It’s not supposed to be an intellectual thing-at least not for me.” And while this clearly reflects the majority of Storyville’s releases it certainly does not mean that Knudsen does not also recognize some sort of “obligation” to support other aspects of jazz. A good case in point being the Jazzpar project, which was initiated in the late 80’ies by Arnvid Meyer, one of the main activists and “fund-raisers” on the Danish jazz scene for some 40 years. Having Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni (Scandinavian Tobacco Co.) as its sole sponsor, the Jazzpar project has become known as ‘The Nobel Prize of Jazz’. A jazz musician - fully active, but deserving further recognition - is selected once a year by an international committee of jazz experts, to receive the substantial cash award of 200.000 Danish Crowns (equal to approx. 27.000 USD in 2002’s exchange rate) and a bronze statuette by sculptor Jørgen Haugen Sørensen. The prize recipient then headlines a series of concerts, radio- or TV-recordings and a CD-recording in the company of a handpicked group, containing a number of Danish musicians. Besides, a Danish musician/bandleader is selected and requested to pick a favorite colleague from abroad, with whom to be part (concert- and recording-wise) of the Jazzpar project. Thus, sponsoring has an important and long-time effect in (also) making Danish jazz visible on the ‘world map’ of jazz. Storyville Records is proud to have been associated with the Jazzpar awards since 1991 to present such winners as Tommy Flanagan, Lee Konitz, Hank Jones, Roy Haynes, Tony Coe, Geri Allen, Django Bates, Jim Hall, Martial Solal and recently Chris Potter along with supporting musicians such as Hank Jones, John Scofield, Mischa Mengelberg as well as the Danes: Jesper Thilo, John Tchicai, Allan Botschinsky, Kim Kristensen, Jørgen Emborg, Steen Vig, Marilyn Mazur, Karsten Hovmark & Erling Kroner.

THE END OF THE NINETIES AND ON. . . . . . .

It is fair to assume, however, that one thing more than anything else has been Knudsen’s ‘labour of love’ during the nineties: after years of meticulous preparation the year 2000 finally saw the release of the 16-cd series “The Golden Years of Revival Jazz”, containing more than 300 recordings by Chris Barber, Papa Bue, Acker Bilk, Henrik Johansen, The Ramblers, Theis Jensen, Adrian Bentzon, Bohana, Sandy Brown, and many more. This was the kind of music that was Storyville’s main field of operation during the company’s formative years; this was the kind of music that swept Europe like a tidal wave during the fifties and early sixties, and ~ aside from the nostalgic aspect - this is music that is still listenable today, some 40 or 45 years after it was originally released on singles and EP’s (remember those ? If you don’t, you’ve really missed something). Available separately, each of the CD’s includes material by five or six bands, several of the recordings being previously unreleased. A 48 page booklet is supplied free of charge if you buy at least 8 of these.