I admit that jazz is not my favorite music style. But there's something special about Malene Mortensen. Having listened to a couple of her versions of jazz standards in the media, I bought her album. Rather difficult to get, as it was sold out at several of the record dealers, I asked for it. This tells something about that Niels Lan Doky was right, when he spotted this talented 20 year old girl and offered her to co-operate on a jazz album with the very bass player himself, NHØP and drummer Alex Riel.
I'm so old that I have seen Alex Riel playing the drums at Savage Rose's debut concert in the Falconer Theatre in 1968, and have photographed Malene's late mother, Karen Mortensen, when she played drums in all-girl band, Hos Anna in the early 1970's.

If you liked the album, you will love Malene live. She has improved so much since the recording sessions, that you shouldn't believe this intense jazz-feeling, coming from a young girl at that age. She was surprisingly confident at stage, making small spoken intros prior to each song.
She really went deep into the performance of each song, and often she sang with her eyes closed. I promised myself to give the jazz genre another chance after being convinced of its qualities after listening to Malene's performance and also Lan Doky's divine piano playing.

After the show, I went into the dressing room to have my album signed and I had a brief talk with Alex about his old Savage Rose days and I expressed my enthusiasm for the songs to Lan Doky and Malene.
Niels Lan Doky's father, Thai Doky, contacted me in the hall, and he told me about Niels' childhood, interest in music, education and career. A very interesting conversation.

Unfortunately the light at the venuw was not the best for a photo session, so maybe the colours are a little strange sometimes due to a lot of work on the computer. But I hope that the following images catch a little of the jazz mood present.

Photographs by Eric Klitgaard © 2003