Pianist Oscar Peterson has long been noted for his enduring associations with great bassists. His trios with Ray Brown were considered legendary, but his long-standing relationship with Danish bass master Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (fondly known as NHOP and “The Great Dane”) also produced many magical moments and recordings over three decades. One of the most prolific recording artists in the history of jazz, NHOP participated in over 400 recordings over his career and was a sought-after partner to a long list of musicians, from Kenny Drew and Albert Ayler to Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie, to contemporary European masters such as Palle Mikkelborg and Ulf Wakenius. Orsted Pedersen died suddenly in Copenhagen on April 19, 2005, at age 58. He is survived by his wife Solveig and three children.

Born in Osted, Denmark, NHOP was the son of a church organist and started piano studies as a young child. When he was tall enough to play the double bass—at age 13—he joined the family band, quickly progressing to performances at Copenhagen’s premiere jazz club, Montmartre Jazzhus. With the house band, NHOP had the opportunity to work with touring musicians such as Ben Webster, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Roland Kirk, and Bill Evans. Invited to join the Count Basie Orchestra at age 17, he turned down the opportunity to finish his education. Orsted Pedersen had the ability to work in a wide range of styles, including the avant garde of Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp, but his true calling seemed to be more mainstream. He was a mainstay of the Danish Radio Big Band from 1964-1982, developing “a method of playing pizzicato using all four fingers of the right hand, enabling him to execute very high-speed passages without sacrificing either tone or definition” (The Telegraph).

Orsted Pedersen toured Europe with pianist Kenny Drew, Sr. in the early 1970s, and worked with guitarists Joe Pass and Phillip Catherine before joining Oscar Peterson in 1973 on the urgings of Norman Granz and Ray Brown. Noted Brown to his ex-boss Peterson, "He's the only one I know that might keep up with you.” Dubbed by Petereson as “The Viking,” he remained as the pianist’s regular bassist for thirteen years, and continued to play and record with the great Peterson for the rest of his life. Of the many recordings of NHOP with Peterson, perhaps the best known is The Paris Concert (1978).

Orsted Pedersen was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1991, the first time this prize for composition went to a performing musician. In recent years, NHOP led his own bands of mostly of Scandinavian musicians, and taught at the Rytmiske Musikkonservatorium in Copenhagen, all while still appearing from time to time with Oscar Peterson on tour and in the studio. Their last recorded collaboration, A Night in Vienna, was released on DVD in 2004.

I had the fortune to see Orsted Pedersen perform with the Oscar Peterson Quartet twice in the past five years. It is hard to imagine one without the other.