A brief introduction from Alan Dearling
Søren Bebe website: https://sorenbebe.com/
I’ve been in touch with Søren recently on-line. He has been using social media to find new fans for his blends of Nordic Jazz. His piano playing is very much in the tradition of what many refer to as ‘ECM Jazz’, and specifically the piano-playing of Keith Jarrett. Søren has been offering to post signed copies of his 2019 album, ‘Echoes’ just for the cost of postage from Denmark. We briefly chatted over the web, and, good as his word, his album arrived safe and sound.
The opening title track, ‘Echoes’ is stunning. I listened to the album the day after the Republican noise and rabble-rousing from Washington of the President Trump inauguration, which seemed to memorialise the worlds of John Wayne, filled as it was with retrograde and aggressive attitudes. The music of the Søren Bebe Trio is a welcome antidote. It’s quiet, a little melancholic, sparse, reminiscent of fjords, open skies – Scandinavian land and sky-scapes. It is also cerebral, thoughtful, somewhat solemn.
Søren says, “In summer 2024 we played a live streaming concert on facebook from Mill Factory NuVenue during the Copenhagen Jazzfestival. Same studio where the trio recorded the 2016 album, ‘Home’.”
The 30 minute concert is up on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYXIK5qnW5Q
It features: Søren Bebe – piano; Kasper Tagel – bass, and Knut Finsrud – drums.
The tracks are some his best known and loved tunes: 0:00 ECHOES (from ‘Echoes’); 6:54 TANGERI (from ‘Here Now’); 15:47 GRATEFUL (from ‘Here Now’); 20:33 A SIMPLE SONG (from ‘Eva – featuring Marc Johnson’); 28:03 FREE, FREE, SET THEM FREE (from ‘A Song for You’).
It is always nice to discover a new-to-yourself musical artist. From the late 1970s through to now, I’ve been keen explore Nordic Jazz. Along that journey, I have fallen in musical love and admiration with Jan Garbarek (especially loving ‘Dis’ and ‘12 Moons’) Nils Okland’s ‘Kjolvatn’; Terje Rypdal; EST with Esbjörn Svensson; Steve Dobrogosz with Radka Toneff and Tord Gustavsen. There are many other jazz players with connections to the Nordic styles of jazz, but many lead to Keith Jarrett, whose myriad collection of albums and piano playing, are things of wonderment, in particular for me, the truly astounding melodies and improvisations of the ‘Koln concerts’.
Søren suggests the pianists he is most influenced by are, “Oscar Peterson, then Keith Jarrett and, more recently, Aaron Parks. As for non-pianists, my number one would be Kenny Wheeler.”
From what I have heard so far, the music of the Søren Bebe Trio is not as varied, experimental or explosive as that of Jarrett, Charles Lloyd, Rypdal or even John Surman and Ralph Towner, but hehis playing imbues a gentleness of touch, a sombre intensity and solemnity that are something of his own trademark. A track I especially liked on the ‘Echoes’ album is ‘Kaerlighedstraeet’, which almost sounds as though it has escaped from ‘The Snowman’ film of Ralph Brigg’s character flying over snow and fields of white!
The US jazz journal, ‘All About Jazz’ informs us: “Bebe certainly belongs to the tradition of lyrical pianists that goes from Erroll Garner and Bill Evans through to Keith Jarrett. What Bebe adds to the lyrical tradition of the piano is a sense of folk-like simplicity, with mourning melodies blossoming like shy night-flowers.”
From his website, I have learned that:
“Søren’s busy touring schedule has included most of Europe, as well as the US, China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Brazil and Morocco. Along the way, he’s performed at international jazz festivals like Hong Kong Jazz Festival, EFG London Jazz Festival, Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival, Jarasum Jazz Festival (South Korea) and SXSW (South By Southwest) in Austin, Texas.
Born in the Danish city of Odense in 1975, Søren had his first piano lesson at the age of eight. In 2004, after seven years of study with, among others, the highly respected Swedish jazz pianist Lars Jansson, Søren graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus (Denmark) with an advanced postgraduate diploma in music for exceptional soloists.”
Finally, Søren informed me that he has a new album coming out in November 2025.