Marilyn Mazur



Marilyn Mazur (born January 18, 1955) is a percussionist, drummer, composer, vocalist, pianist, dancer and bandleader. She was born in New York and has lived in Denmark from age six. She is of Polish and African-American descent. Since 1975, she has worked as a percussionist with various groups, among them Six Winds with Alex Riel. Mazur is primarily an autodidact, but she has a degree in percussion from the Royal Danish Academy of Music.

Musical life
She has worked with many musicians: John Tchicai, Pierre Dørge (New Jungle Orchestra), Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Palle Mikkelborg, Arild Andersen, Eberhard Weber, Peter Kowald, Jeanne Lee, Jan Garbarek, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter and Gil Evans, to mention a few.

In 1989, she founded her band Future Song, with pianist Elvira Plenar, singer Aina Kemanis, trumpet player Nils Petter Molvær, her husband Klavs Hovman (bass) and Audun Kleive, as second drummer. Later jazz singer Tone Åse joined the band. In a second project, Percussion Paradise, she works regularly with percussionists Benita Haastrup, Lisbeth Diers and Birgit Løkke.

The U.S. magazine Down Beat, in 1989, 1990 and 1995, selected Mazur as a "percussion-talent deserving wider recognition". In 2001, she was awarded the Jazzpar Prize, the world's largest international jazz prize.

Honors

 * Ben Webster Price 1983 by Ben Webster-clubb
 * JASA Prize 1986 by Danish Jazz Journalist's
 * Jazzpar Prize 2001 the world's largest international jazz prize
 * Editon Wilhelm Hansen's Composer Prize 2004
 * Danish Django d'Or (Legend) 2006
 * Unlimited Communication 2007 by Telenor
 * Down Beat has on six occasions rated her as No. 1 Jazz Performer.

Discography
Marilyn Mazur Marilyn Mazur & Pulse Unit
 * Celestial Circle (ECM, 2011)
 * Marilyn Mazur & Jan Garbarek
 * Elixir (ECM, 2008)
 * Marilyn Mazur's Future Song
 * Future Song (veraBra, 1990)
 * Small Labyrinths (ECM, 1994)
 * All the Birds (Stunt, 2002)
 * Daylight Stories (Stunt, 2004)
 * Ocean Fables
 * Havblik (veraBra, 1991)
 * Circular Chant (Storyville, 1995)
 * Marilyn Mazur Group
 * Tangled Temptations & The Magic Box (Stunt, 2010)
 * With Palle Mikkelborg & Miles Davis
 * Aura (1985)
 * With Lindsay Cooper
 * Oh Moscow (Victoriaville, 1989)
 * With Jan Garbarek Group
 * Twelve Moons (ECM, 1992)
 * With Jon Balke & the Magnetic North Orchestra
 * Further (ECM, 1993)
 * With Jan Garbarek
 * Visible World (ECM, 1995)
 * Rites (ECM, 1998)
 * With Yelena Eckemoff
 * Forget-me-not (L & H Production, 2012)
 * With Harry Beckett & Chris McGregor
 * Grandmothers Teachings (ITM, 1995)
 * With Eberhard Weber
 * Stages Of A Long Journey (ECM 2005)
 * Band appearances
 * Miles Davis Band (1986–89)
 * Gil Evans Orchestra (1986)
 * Wayne Shorter (1987)