Marilyn Mazur

Marilyn Mazur (born January 18, 1955) is a Danish percussionist, drummer, composer, vocalist, pianist, dancer, and bandleader. She was born in New York City and has lived in Denmark since 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, including 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, Gil Evans, Dhafer Youssef, and Makiko Hirabayashi (Makiko Hirabayashi Trio). In 1989, she founded the band Future Song, with pianist Elvira Plenar, singer Aina Kemanis, trumpet player Nils Petter Molvær, her husband Klavs Hovman (bass) and Audun Kleive, as a 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, 1995, 1997, 1998 and 2002 selected Mazur as a "percussion-talent deserving wider recognition". In 2001, she was awarded the Jazzpar Prize, the world's largest international jazz prize.