Jazzhus Montmartre

The Montmartre developed into one of the main locations for jazz in Europe, for long years with pianist Kenny Drew (who moved to the city in 1964), bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, and drummer Alex Riel as the regular rhythm group accompanying guest musicians.

From 1976, the venue was at Nørregade 41 with Kay Sørensen (1938–1988) as owner, while Niels Christensen served as music manager, assisted from 1982 by Lars Thorborg.

Besides jazz stars like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Oscar Peterson, Nancy Wilson, Betty Carter, Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, Brecker Brothers, and many more, Montmartre presented world music artists such as Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil, Djavan, Tania Maria, Youssou N'Dour, and King Sunny Adé, as well as funk/soul artists like James Brown, Tower of Power, and Gil Scott-Heron.

Local pop and rock artists also saw Montmartre as their home ground, as well as the very popular Natdiskotek (night disco), which attracted youth from all over greater Copenhagen every weekend and also provided the economic foundations for the club's strong jazz profile.

In 1989, Kay Sørensen suddenly died and Montmartre was sold to Eli Pries, who had trouble maintaining the club's traditional mix of art and commercial success.

[6] Among the other jazz musicians playing on and off at Montmartre were Roland Kirk, Oscar Pettiford, Joe Harris, Buddy Tate, Coleman Hawkins, Don Byas, Bud Powell, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Cecil Taylor, Brew Moore, Harold Goldberg, Lucky Thompson, Archie Shepp, Johnny Griffin, Art Taylor, Booker Ervin, Albert Ayler, Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), Don Cherry, Rune Gustafsson, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Eli Thompson, Sonny Rollins, Yusef Lateef, George Russell, Teddy Wilson, Paul Bley, Bill Evans, Eddie Gómez, Richard Boone, Herbie Hancock, Eddie Henderson, Billy Hart, Keith Jarrett, Miroslav Vitous, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Lee Konitz, Louis Jordan, Charles Mingus, Ken McIntyre, Nat Adderley, Donald Byrd, Tony Williams, Lou Bennett, Phil Woods, Charles McPherson, and Dizzy Gillespie.

[7] The reopening of Montmartre in May 2010 was initiated by media executive and entrepreneur Rune Bech together with jazz pianist Niels Lan Doky (who after eight months was replaced as music director by saxophonist Benjamin Koppel in February 2011).

In 1998, he co-founded the successful health portal NetDoctor.com, and in 2001 became the internet director for the leading Danish broadcaster TV 2 and a member of the executive management team.

The ten new masks were put back on the wall by the artist himself during Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2010, an event heavily covered by the media.

[9] On September 2, 2020, Jazzhus Montmartre wrote on their homepage that all future concerts will be canceled immediately due to the bad economic situation exacerbated by the government's regulation of attendance in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.