One Kiss Too Many

About the album

There is no doubt that Jakob Dinesen is one of Denmark’s most important and active jazz musicians. In periods he is almost hyper-active; always close to his saxophone, with most of the world as his playground. He is equally happy in Cuba, some place in Africa, touring eastern Europe with Polish musicians, playing with visiting Australians on a sunny day by  the canals of Copenhagen, in a duo with guitarist/singer Paul Banks, or on the road with bassist Hugo Rasmussen’s All Starz – we could go on and on... He is a real musician, for whom it is important to be where the action is.  

Jakob Dinesen has been described as a superbly expressive and virtuoso musician, a masterful and powerful interpreter of the great jazz tenor tradition. His approach is progressive while still deeply in debt to the past. Uncompromisingly, he has followed his own choice of music and musical constellations. Dinesen has never been one to fall for the latest trend.

His ratio of CD releases is also impressive, both as a sideman and as leader of his own groups. Twice his albums have been awarded Jazz Release of the Year: Once Around the Park’s Unity in 1997 and in 2000 his collaboration with Kurt Rosenwinkel on Everything Will Be All Right. Jakob Dinesen does not really believe in measuring music by awards, but he accepted the honor from the JAZZPAR committee when asked to gather a band for the 2004 JAZZPAR event. The resulting album, Lady With A Secret, which included Eddie Gomez and Nasheet Waits among the musicians, was nominated for a Danish Music Award.

39-year old Dinesen’s newest release was recorded in New York with several of the leading instrumentalists in jazz, bassist Ben Street and drummer Nasheet Waits, as well as Danish guitarist extraordinaire Jakob Bro. The repertoire on One Kiss Too Many includes many ballads, and it is a pleasure to hear how wonderfully Dinesen masters an idiom that is so demanding of the soloist. The opening track, Rezo A Ellegua Y Obatala, goes straight to the heart, and their version of Stardust reveals world-class tenor playing. But Dinesen & Co. can also groove.