The Danish Radio Big Band featuring Cecile McLorin Salvant at the Attucks Theater

Danish Radio Big Band, originally called The Danish Radio Orchestra, just completed its first United States tour in 24 years, performing at a few art festivals and university presenters in South Carolina and Virginia. The band has been under the leadership of Japanese composer/conductor Miho Hazama since 2019. Because the group is a national broadcast orchestra funded by Danish public radio, their U.S. visits tend to be short residencies or festival appearances, not large commercial tours—so a run of only 2-3 American shows is typical.

Accompanying the band and on this tour was three-time Grammy winner Cecile McLorin Salvant. The French-American jazz vocalist is always at the top of critics' polls as one of the finest of her generation. Her personality, humor, and warmth come through very clearly in her singing, and that's one of the things that makes her performances feel unusually alive and personal. The audience of 400 was treated to a repertoire of reimagined standards, big band orchestral arrangements and Salvant's original material from her Ghost Song album. The extraordinary jazz pianist Adam Birnbaum accompanied Salvant and the band for this concert.

The following are photos from the show.

Comments