Jazz Articles

Erwin Lehn Orchestra: Let 'Em Swing!

by Jack Bowers
November 27, 2006

Let 'Em Swing! surveys the early years (1951-65) of bandleader/vibraphonist Erwin Lehn's groundbreaking Südfunk-Tanzorchester, which continues today as the world-class SWR Big Band. Lehn led the band for forty years until his retirement at the end of 1991. The orchestra then became known as the SDR Big Band, and later the SWR.

Lehn's entire career as leader of the orchestra is documented in a superb two-disc set, 40 Jahre Jazz, on the IRS label, and in another two-disc set, 50 ...

Bob Curnow & the SWR Big Band: Towednack

by Jack Bowers
August 2, 2002

After hearing Bob Curnow's wonderful Celtic-inspired big-band composition, “Towednack," introduced at a convention of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) several years ago in Anaheim, CA, I hurried to the Sierra Music Publications booth in the exhibition hall (where I knew I'd find him) to applaud the composer. “Absolutely brilliant!" I gushed, or words to that effect. “You simply have to record that someday."

And now here it is, sounding as radiant as I remembered it, on a marvelous ...

The SWR Big Band: 50 Jahre

by Jack Bowers
September 1, 2001

Germany’s world–class SWR Big Band, which began life in 1951 as Erwin Lehn’s Südfunk–Orchester, marked its golden anniversary this year by releasing not one but three consistently spectacular albums. The first, Goldener Meilenstein, features compositions and arrangements by one of America’s most prominent big–band leaders, Bob Florence, while 50 Jahre, a marvelous two–disc set, covers the years 1956–2000 with thirty–three well–chosen numbers played by the orchestra and a who’s who of Jazz luminaries from the U.S. and abroad. When Lehn ...

The SWR Big Band Live!: Plays the Music of Maria Schneider / Kurt Weill

by Jack Bowers
August 1, 2001

Setting aside for the moment the question of her proficiency as a composer / arranger / conductor, one must concede that Maria Schneider is either a crackerjack (self)–promoter or has one of the best agents in the business. Ten photographs are included with this two–CD set, which was recorded in concert in May 2000 with Germany’s SWR Big Band, and Schneider appears in every one of them, while the liner notes warmly chronicle her musical development from the age of ...