Cross-over, Friday, September the 9th

Marilyn Mazur

Looking at Marilyn Mazur's work as a musician and composer, "breaking with traditions" pops to mind. Her personal approaches testify to her eagerness to tamper with the rule book.

Mazur's collaboration with Miles Davis, the American jazz trumpetist and composer, is already legend. The percussionist parted with Davis in search of fresh challenges with groups of her own. "The reason is not to be found in any kind of sexual discrimination," she insists, "but rather in a difference between American and Danish culture. I feel more comfortable with Danish musicians."

The percussionist explains: "The music and ways of thinking on the other side of the Atlantic are far from my own way of working with music. Case in point: the musicians with Miles Davis had clearly defined roles in the group. Fm more in favor of playing together intuitively where you react and communicate. That's why I chose to leave the group."

Mazur has composed and scored orchestral works, and wants to do more. Here lie new challenges for one who has written mostly im-provisational music. As Marilyn Mazur puts it, "This form of expression puts new demands on your powers of imagination as to how various instruments sound together. Then I can have purely practical problems with the instruments I don't know so well, like the guitar and violin. It's mostly about what can be done and what is impossible to realize.

But my point of departure as a musician and composer has always been to solve the problems by working with the material myself, rather than letting others tell me how to solve compositional as well as purely musician-related problems. That's how I like to relate to the world."