On December 12, 2025, Danish drummer Marilyn Mazur died at the age of 70 in her hometown of Copenhagen. 

The music world has lost an important jazz drummer, a pioneer and strong personality who fought for the visibility of women in jazz. 
Marilyn Mazur became world famous in 1984 as the drummer in Miles Davis' band, with whom she toured the world twice. She can be heard on Miles Davis' album “Aura.”  Later, she played with saxophonist Jan Garbarek and realized numerous projects of her own, such as Future Song, Percussion Paradise, Shamania, and the Marilyn Mazur Quartet, combining jazz, world music, rock, and electronic music.  
Marilyn Mazur founded an all-female ensemble back in the 1970s. She continued to show her commitment to promoting female musicians in 2015 with the women's band Marilyn Mazur's Shamana. 

In Switzerland, she played to a packed house at the Aktionshalle in the Rote Fabrik in 1986. Invited by Rosmarie A. Meier and Irène Schweizer from the Fabrikjazz organizing team, she played at the first Canaille Festival on October 17 and 18, 1986. The big event at the Zurich Canaille Festival was the meeting of Irène Schweizer (drums) and Marilyn Mazur (drums). This world premiere for female drummers made jazz history. The drum duo brought the concert hall to a boil. The then largely unknown Swiss saxophonist Co Streiff first demonstrated her world-class talent in a duo with Marilyn Mazur and then in a quartet with Annemarie Roelofs (trombone), Irène Schweizer (piano), and Marilyn Mazur (drums) with the piece “Gaat Uw Gang, Dames!”

Listen to this historic recording: Canaille

A selection from the Canaille Festival was released as the second (!) release by Intakt Records under the title “Canaille - International Women Festival of Improvised Music” (Intakt LP 002). The vinyl album is out of print. However, the music from the album is still available via our website. 

Irène Schweizer and Marilyn Mazur stayed in touch over the years. As a member of the organizing team for the unerhört! festival, Irène Schweizer invited Marilyn Mazur's band, Celestrial Circle, to perform at unerhört! in the Rote Fabrik in 2014.

Photo: Mazur by Danny Gignoux