About Me
MI22 is Denmark’s first, largest and oldest Funk-Big Band featuring 13 horns, rhythm-section and a singer.
The orchestra was established in the late 70’s, where at first it was lead by a.o. Thad Jones, Ernie Wilkins, Sahib Shihab - later with Bjarne Thanning leading the band for a long period.
MI22’s repertoire spans from dancing-orientated funky electronica, where the band has worked with electronica-guru Anders Trentemøller, to an extensive collection of both well-known classics and original compositions written for the band, within the funk-, jazz-, soul- and latin- genres.
MI22 does extensive touring outside Denmark; Spring 2009 the band toured China with 8 concerts mainly in Shanghai and Beijing. For this tour the band exceptionally recieved a grand from Nordea-Fonden. Summer 2008 the band performed at festivals on the Italian Amalfi coast, and earlier they’ve played the Nordic Festival in Greifswald (Germany), the Jazz Festival in Le Mans (France) and toured in Cuba, Italy, France, Germany as well as all of Scandinavia.
Throughout the years the orchestra has co-worked with a variety of star-arrangers and –soloists – e.g. Lew Soloff (US), Anders Trentemøller (DK), Jukka Linkola (SF), Christina Dahl (DK), Jesper Riis (DK), and Lars Møller (DK), who alongside the band's “own†composers/arrangers have contributed to creating the bands unique sound.
During the bands almost 30 years of existence, a lot of well known Danish musicians have set foot in the orchestra – a.o. Anders Gaardmand, Uffe Markussen, Jesper Løvdahl, Per Goldschmidt, Erling Kroner. Today the band consists mainly of students from the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen as well as other leading musicians from the Copenhagen jazz-scene.
Salerno, Italy, 2007
Nordic Festival, Greifswald, Germany, 2006
Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen, 2007
Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen, 2007
Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen, 2007
w/ Jesper Riis & Anders Trentemoller, Copenhagen Jazzhouse, 2005
