It’s 12 noon on a Tuesday, and a piano/guitar blues duo is giving a Randy Newman song a workout while a few customers – mostly other musicians and one reporter – sip coffee or a pint and munch on free sandwiches. Mojo, Copenhagen’s blues bar, is celebrating its 30th birthday with a 30-hour, round-the-clock concert. Most of the performers are the regulars that crowd the stage in the dingy room on the nights when a major touring act is not in town.
“Mojo always does what it can for local musicians,” said guitarist Carsten Egedal when he finished his set. “It is great they have made it work for so long.”
Opening under another name in 1983, it wasn’t long before blues became the dominant form of music at the juke joint on Løngangsstræde. It officially became known as Mojo Blues Bar in 1993.
Famous for its jam nights where acts of widely varying degrees of talent give blues classics either a caressing or a beating, it is only fitting that Mojo celebrate itself with the kind of freewheeling party that has made it famous.
The celebration continues long into tonight. The list of scheduled acts is at mojo.dk
