Ten great north east jazz musicians. 9 - Peter Jacobsen.

Peter (Pete) Jacobsen (1950 -2002): I can't remember where I first heard Pete Jacobsen, it may well have been at the New Orleans Club, however, the place where I heard him most frequently was The Five Bridges Hotel in Gateshead. Along with Brian Fisher on bass and Jackie Denton on drums the young blind pianist enthralled an appreciative audience with his playing.

Inevitably he moved to London where he played and recorded with top notch musicians such as Bobby Wellins and Pete King. The above screenshot is from a YouTube clip of Bobby Wellins' Endangered Species.

That he died at the relatively young age of 51 when, arguably, he had yet to reach the peak of his career even now evokes a feeling of sadness and I often wonder what direction his music would have taken him. He wasn't one to stand still. Thinking back to those sessions at The Five Bridges I recall that he was the first pianist I'd encountered who plucked the strings of the grand piano as if it were a harp. I often wondered who he'd picked up the technique from, possibly it dated back to his time at the Royal Academy of Music or maybe even earlier at the Worcester School For The Blind - we shall probably never know. Lance