Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen

Danish saxophonist/composer Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen, living in both New York and Europe, has been an active performer in the improvised and experimental scene around the world for the past 9 years. 
She is best known for her work as a solo performer and performing with her 'Spaced Out Ensembles,’ featuring her own idiosyncratic and sensitive compositions arranged for winds, brass and hyperactive rhythm section, her duo project with bassist and husband Tom Blancarte called the Home of Easy Credit, an improvising trio with Columbia University-based electronic artist Damon Holzborn and Tom Blancarte, and a trio called Herbert Eckardt which plays her own freakish blend of pop tunes and improvisation, co-lead by herself and Italian drummer Luca Marini.

Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen (b. 1980) grew up in a small village in the South Jutland region of Denmark. She began playing saxophone professionally at age 14. After studying at the jazz school in Vojens from 1995 - 1998, she eventually moved to Copenhagen where she began studying with Danish saxophonist Christina Von Bülow and Swedish piano player Henrik Sundh, among others. 
Her tenure with Henrik Sundh opened her up to a sound world that she has since embraced as her own. In 2002 she moved to Amsterdam where she studied at the Conservatorium von Amsterdam until moving to Berlin in 2008 where she was an active performer on the free improvised scene. She currently spends half of the year in Astoria, New York with her husband American bassist and composer Tom Blancarte. She continues to explore solo saxophone performance, as well as collaborating with such artists as Kevin Shea, Dan Peck, Nate Wooley, Brandon Seabrook, Dan Blake, John Bernard Wagner, Bruce Eisenbell, Ricardo Gallo, Tim Dahl, Sam Pluta, Carol Liebowitz and Weasel Walter.

Louise is also a busy performer in a variety of ensembles in Europe. She co-leads the duo Seiki with drummer Andreas Pichler (of the Wolfgang Muthspiel Trio), the Slow Food Cook Book (Matthias & Andreas Pichler) and an improvised quartet with Guro Moe, Håvard Skaset and Tom Blancarte. Other musicians she has collaborated with include Achim Kaufman, Hilmar Jensson, Andrés Litwin, Luca Marini, Xavier Lopez, Tristan Honsinger, Ab Baars and Wilbert de Joode.

Her first solo CD, You Look Like Your Mother, Would You Like Some More Sauce? was well received by critics:

"A poem in Danish about people and dots I would elect to be the best I've ever heard sung in Danish in the genre of avangarde" (Niels Overgaard, JazzNyt)

"Louise has a strong, warm tone and sounds a bit like Lee Konitz… Female sax players are still a relative rarity nowadays outside of Biggi Vinkeloe & Ingrid Laubrock. We can now add Louise Jensen to that slowly growing list of fine sax explorers" - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery