A Bassist's First Word, Unfinished
Pedersen's debut finds him searching, occasionally awkwardly, for his voice as a leader.
Jaywalkin' arrives as electric piano washes over a rhythm section that doesn't quite know what to do with it. The textures are thick, sometimes murky, the tempos shuffle between breezy and becalmed. There's a restless quality to the whole thing—someone trying on different hats, none quite fitting. The electric keyboard was a choice that would haunt Pedersen's memory; AllMusic reviewer Ken Dryden heard the album as "a bit of a mixed bag" and pointedly noted that "Fortunately, Pedersen rarely utilized electric piano on future sessions as a leader."
This is Pedersen's first album under his own name, recorded in 1975 and released on SteepleChase, the Danish label that became a home for Nordic jazz. The bassist is the anchor here, as you'd expect, but the leadership role feels uncertain. The electric piano that Dryden singled out for criticism does date the record—it pushes toward fusion touches that don't always land with the player's natural gifts. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings rated it 3 out of 4, a solid mark that suggests genuine merit despite the rough edges.
For listeners new to Pedersen, this isn't the place to start. His later work as a leader would find cleaner footing, less genre-hedging, more of what made him essential as a sideman. Jaywalkin' matters mainly as a document of an artist's early uncertainty—the moment before he figured out who he actually was.
