Hanne Roemer & Mads Granum Trio

Line up:

Hanne Roemer, vocals and saxophones,

Mads Granum, piano,

Jakob Vind Lauritsen, Bass,

Ricco Kjær, Drums.

Sandra Hempel, when we play as quintet 

Plays jazz, blues and Latin American music featuring Hanne Rømer's vocal and saxophones. The group presents a swinging repertoire with their own personal arrangements focusing on several tunes from the American Songbook, as well as original compositions and arrangements of Nordic folk melodies. In spring 2004 they were presenting a new repertoire which can also be found in the new CD/Book:  

Everything you wanna know about Spring

Hanne Roemer: vocal, soprano and tenor saxophones and arranger. Member of one of the first all-woman rock groups in DK. "Hos Anna" (´75-´81) - leader of the All woman Big band "April Light" (´94), Jomfru Fanny Bigband (´89 - 03) and several other big band projects. Studied in New York and Los Angeles (1981-83). Composes for big band, choir, ad.hoc.- ensembles, symphony orchestras, theatre, and jazz ensembles. Has studied with Thad Jones, Bob Brookmeyer, Eddie Harris, Kenny Werner, Judy Niemack and Bob Rockwell. Since ´87, leader of her own quartet and various duos. Runs her own publishing company "Amanda Music", which releases CD´s as well as ear-training books on improvisation theory.

Mads Granum: piano and arranger. Has played piano since early childhood. Professional church organ player for 2 years as well as music teacher. Studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston (´95-´97) and graduated with "Berklee achievement scholarship for outstanding contributions". Performed in Boston and New York with Lawrence Watson. Plays regularly with gospel and jazz trios as well as various duos and has developed a very personal and virtuoso piano playing covering all modern stiles.

 This year the quartet has the young and promising bassist Jakob Vind Lauritsen in the line-up. He graduated from the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen a few years ago and is as well a composer with many interesting ideas. He lives in Copenhagen where he plays with various groups and he is often seen with his bass on the way to the next gig.

The drummer Ricco Kjær, has his roots in the West Jutland part of Denmark and was educated first in Esbjerg and later on the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen. Ricco has many talents and can play on anything that can make a sound being touched by his hands - with or without sticks. It is not just the jazz thing that has his heart, but exactly here is the possibilities of improvisation and with that comes the very specialty of being spontaneous and get a deeper communication with the other musicians as well as the audience. Ricco also plays with the bassist Bo Stief, with the band ”Ordentlige Folk” and with various crazy projects on the Danish music scene.

When we play as Quintet add:

Sandra Hempel played the accordion and classical piano for a number of years and then started playing the guitar at age 16. She studied jazzguitar at the School for Music and Theater Hamburg, Germany and at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

From September 2001 until June 2003 she lived, worked and studied in New York City. In May 2003 she received her Masters Degree in Jazzperformance at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College. She has won several international competitions as composer and musician.

Among others Sandra has performed with Herb Geller, Dick Oatts, Seamus Blake, Rick Margitza, Ingrid Jensen, Mike Manieri, Scott Wendholt, the German Jazz Orchestra „Bujazzo“ (conducted by Peter Herbolzheimer), Wolfgang Schlueters New Generation Band, the New Cool Collective Bigband  (conducted by Ben Herman and Willem Friede) and with the Bigband of the Northern German Radio Station „NDR-Bigband“.

Hanne Roemer and Mads Granum

also play together as Duo