"Those Who Were" is a composition by Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen. It refers to his remembrance of friends who passed away. Niels himself passed away in 2005 and we want to honour him by dedicating this CD to him. He was a leading star for both of us - showing us many new ways to play the bass and how to approach music. He was also a brilliant, humoristic and warm man whose primary target was to release control over the music and let it speak through the player instead. We miss his presence here with us.

Some of the other tunes we have selected for this CD are also tributes to "those who were".

Duke Jordan was living in Denmark from the beginning of the 70's. We both had the fortune to play and record with him, and we honour his memory by playing one of his finest compositions, "Jordu".

Denmark has been blessed by many fine American jazz musicians who from the beginning of the 60's made the decision to stay in our country. The jazz community in Denmark has benefited a great deal from the inspiration coming from these fine artists. One of the true greats was the bass player Oscar Pettiford. He definitely had much to do with the fact that Denmark later became famous for its bass players. We decided to remember Oscar Pettiford by playing his beautiful ballad "Two Little Pearls", which he dedicated to his newborn twins Celeste and Cello.

"Django" is composed by John Lewis - the piano player and leader of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Both of us have played with John and we had a great and educating time because of his way of interpreting a melody. Simple - but with the weight on the important notes.

"I've Never Been In Love Before" was one of the late, great clarinet player Putte Wickman's favourite tunes, so in this way we decided to honour his memory.

Bill Evans composed "Waltz for Debby". We both wish that we had had the chance to play with him. What a challenge that would have been!

Some of our heroes are fortunately still alive. Roger Kellaway composed "I Have The Feeling I've Been Here Before". He's a brilliant, inspiring piano player and composer.

Neither of us knew Richard Rodgers or Frank Loesser and neither of us have worked with Paul McCartney. But we listened a lot to their way of putting music together.

Recording this, our second album together, has been a fun challenge for us. We learn a lot by playing together - and we hope that we have succeeded in making this CD even better than the first one.

Jesper Lundgaard & Mads Vinding

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