So one could ask what the next jazz musician, the Dane Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen aka Nils Pedersen (in the US) and NHØP in Europe, for short, has to do with Miles Davis.
Well, NHØP was the house bassist in the first Jazz House Montmartre in the center of Copenhagen on the street Store Regnegade, where also the Dane Alex Riel was the house drummer at the same time. Both of them highly regarded in jazz from the early 1960´s internationally.
Bill Evans (piano), asked for Alex Riel to replace Paul Motian (drums) from the US on a European tour of Bill´s, with bassist Eddie Gomez, and NHØP was headhunted by Oscar Peterson during an Oscar Peterson performance at Jazz House Montmartre, where Oscar Peterson signed up NHØP for a ten years contract touring, playing, recording and performing with Oscar Peterson throughout the world.
That´s how NHØP became famous on the double bass in the USA. That´s also why a lot of African American jazz musicians through the introduction to NHØP came to Europe and Denmark to play and do jam sessions "Round Midnight" after the ordinary show with the audience, because they had been told by NHØP of the Jazz House Montmartre, and that they could work there.
Don Cherry (trumpet and piccolo trumpet) lived in Sweden for a number of years married to a Swedish woman. Kenny Drew (piano) and Ed Thigpen (drums) lived in Copenhagen for a number of years, while they could not get regurally jobs in the USA. Charlie "Byrd" Parker (alto saxophone) lived and worked in Paris, France for a number of years.
So here´s an album in memory of the late Great Dane Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen aka NHØP (double bass) called "Unchanted Land", by Epic Records 1992, before his all to sudden and early death, with a lot of the musicians he personally favoured in his years as one of the very best double bass players in the world.
The musicians beside NHØP:
Liza Freeman (Sweden) - vocals
Steve Swallow (USA) - 5 string el. bass guitar
Jan Garbarek (Norway) - tenor and soprano saxophone
Mehmet Ozan (Turkey) - acoustic guitar
Michel Petrucciani (France)/Ole Kock Hansen (Denmark) - piano
Marilyn Mazur (half American, half Danish) - drums, percussion