Jazz Articles

Joe Wulf & The Gentlemen of Swing: Dixieland Jubilee 2005

by Edward Blanco
March 22, 2006

German trombonist/bandleader Joe Wulf and the so-called Gentlemen of Swing recorded this live performance in Kornwestheim, Germany in January of 2005, mixing traditional jazz swing with the blues sound of the '30s and '40s. The members of Wulf's seven-piece band provide some outstanding solo performances and collectively deliver a respectable big band feel on this fifteen-track sampling of blues, pop and mostly Dixieland-style music.

The group plays “Shoeshine Boy" straight, with fine alto and piano solos. “That's A ...

Allmand Chaoten Orchester: Potato Jazz, Live / Pool Jazz

by Jack Bowers
September 1, 1999

The 21–year–old Allmand Chaoten Orchester, based in Stuttgart, is another of the many young German big bands who obviously love what they are doing and are a lot of fun to hear. The more recent of these two discs, Potato Jazz, was recorded in concert in ’98 to mark the ACO’s 20th anniversary. After opening with an a cappella choral version of what sounds like a German drinking song (“Eine Kartoffel”), the ensemble settles into a more Jazz–oriented groove that ...

Big Band Jugendmusikschule Hochschwarzwald: Jetz isch Zitt

by Jack Bowers
August 1, 1999

Bassist Thomas Winterhalder was kind enough to send this CD by the Jazz ensemble at the Hochschwarzwald Youth Music School in Germany’s beautiful black forest with a letter explaining that “all the musicians . . . on the CD [except for conductor Götz Ertle and vocalist Esther Kaiser] make music as their hobby.” Well, for student/hobbyists they ain’t half bad, performing together as capably as many college–level big bands in this country. Like every German band we’ve heard, amateur or ...