Human Being Human
Biography Human Being Human
Torben Bjørnskov
(1966) is a musician and composer and one of Denmark's most sought after bassists. He has performed and toured in most of the world and worked with musicians from a large number of countries, especially the U.S.A. and the Scandinavian countries. The concerts have taken place from the very small venues to large international venues such as the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Royal Festival Hall in London. In addition, he participates on a large number of studio and live recordings, including a number of album releases in his own name.
Torben Bjørnskov is educated at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen with i.a. NHØP as teacher, and is currently employed as an Associate Professor at The Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus / Aalborg.
Esben Tjalve
grew up in Denmark where he played original music from an early age. He graduated from the RAM with Bachelor Honours in 2004 and later did a Master in Composition at the Guildhall School of Music. Since then he has composed and recorded music for Universal, Warner Bros., BBC4, BBC Radio Drama, BBC Cbeebies, theatre productions as well as the nominated film animation “Marriage of the Thames and the Rhine”and the highly acclaimed radio drama series called “The Great Scott” featuring David Tennant. He has collaborated with many fellow contemporary jazz musicians including Cecilia Stalin, Jasper Hoiby, Tim Giles, Toni Kofi, Ernesto Simpson, Henrik Jensen and Andre Canniere and worked with several musicians outside of jazz like Lucinda Belle, Raf Vilar, Ghanean rapper M3nsa, world music artist Muntu Valdo and American Singer Kristina Train, with whom he played on Jools Holland In 2012. Lastly an album with his acclaimed six-piece “Red Kite” has been released on the indie jazz label F-ire. His band Red Kite is also due to release the album “Theory of Colours” with the label Jellymould Jazz in September 2019. This album features some of the finest jazz musicians at present: Fulvio Sigurta - trumpet, Ross Hughes - bass clarinet, Hannes Riepler - guitar, Jasper Høiby - bass and Tim Giles - drums.
“Tjalve’s writing is intelligent and consistently interesting with rich colours and textures but there’s an engaging spikiness about the music too that seems to draw its inspiration from contemporary American jazz developments”. - The Jazz Mann
"Tjalve's accessible but knotty playing pulls in every listener". - Alyn Shipton
Frederik Emil Bülow
won a Danish Music Award in 2014 with his Bangin’ Bülow’s Nice Jazz Quartet (BBNJQ).
BBNJQ recorded their third album ‘Let’s get weird’ in New York in 2016, which was produced by jazz guitarist Gilad Hekselman.
BBNJQ has toured in Europe, Russia and the United States.
From 2015, his Jazztronica quintet Abekejser has broken the boundary between Jazz and electronic music. They create original, innovative music that speaks to people of all generations. They released four singles, and in the fall of 2019, their debut album was released. They have toured in Europe and in Russia. Their second album was released in Sept 2021.
In the spring of 2017, Balvig / Bülow / Christensen’s debut album was released and they have since toured in Europe, India and Japan.
In 2017, Frederik formed the band JAF Trio with two of his Finnish friends -Adele Sauros and Joonas Tuuri. Shortly after, they were awarded The Rising Stars at the WeJazz Festival in Helsinki, Finland.
They released their debut album in July 2020 on WeJazz Records.
In 2018 and 2019 he has written music for his crossover ensemble called Misceo which is a collaboration between the classic string players Cieslak / Westerberg and the trio Rônkà / Bülow / Christensen. Their debut album was released in May 2020.
Frederik composes music for all his bands.
He works as well as a drum teacher at The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Denmark
Tour lifeFrederik has toured in Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland,
Poland, Guinea, Greenland, India, Japan, China, Russia and the USA.
Chris Cheek
Originally hailing from St. Louis, Missouri, Chris Cheek, born in 1968, is one of the most sought after saxophonists in the jazz world today, having played in the groups of legends such as Paul Motian, Charlie Haden, Steve Swallow and Bill Frisell. Known for his lyricism, and a warm, distinctive sound, he is a refreshingly individual musician, whose albums Saturday Songs (Sunnyside), I Wish I Knew, A Girl Named Joe, Vine, and Blues Cruise (Fresh Sound) have all received rave reviews internationally, and become favorites among players and listeners alike. He is also co-leader of the bands Rudder, the Bloomdaddies and Reeds Ramble. A long time member of Guillermo Klein’s Los Guachos, Chris has also recorded and performed with the big bands of Dafnis Prieto, Alan Ferber and Miguel Zenon.
Chris’ music encompasses a wide vista, firmly rooted in the jazz tradition with a foot towards the unknown. As Steve Swallow and Carla Bley put it: “On the one hand, he’s the very embodiment of gentle, graceful lyricism. But he’s unable to resist the urge to subvert. He’s a master of the sucker punch; just when he’s convinced you that things couldn’t be sweeter, he’ll play something that jolts you right back to real life, something as direct and succinct as an uppercut.” His colleague, composer Guillermo Klein says of Cheek: “[Chris] is one of my favorite people in this world. An amazingly gifted musician in constant communion with sound. For more than 20 years I’ve been blessed to share music with him, and I have to say that every note and phrase he played to date has been beautiful and meaningful.”
