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Jazz Articles about Hans Koller
Wes Montgomery: The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings
by Chris May
Recorded in spring 1965, during Wes Montgomery's sole European tour, The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings presents the guitarist as part of an all-star international octet assembled for a one-off appearance on German television station NDR. The programme was part of a series presenting musicians who did not regularly work together in informal “rehearsal" performances. Montgomery's tour, on which he appeared with both his own quartet and local rhythm sections, has been well documented on official and unofficial recordings. But this ...
Continue ReadingHans Koller with Bill Frisell: Cry, want
by John Eyles
No, there is no need to re-read the heading or check the personnel list; guitarist Bill Frisell is included as a member of this Hans Koller twelve-piece ensemble. So, too, is Psi proprietor Evan Parker, making this the first recording featuring Parker and Frisell together--quite an occasion, eh? In addition, alongside German-raised, London-based Koller on electric piano, the ensemble features a wealth of fine British players. Of the eight tracks, six are Koller originals, joined by Charlie Parker's ...
Continue ReadingHans Koller: London Ear
by Chris May
This may or may not be the last album Steve Lacy participated in before his death--it is certainly amongst the last, recorded as it was in December '03, only a few months before he died--but in any event it has another timely significance. In a month when the octogenerian US bandleader Gerald Wilson, fast becoming a national treasure after decades of neglect, has been a featured artist in the London Jazz Festival, the release of London Ear brings the good ...
Continue ReadingHans Koller: Wild Roses
by Chris May
Composer/orchestrator/pianist Hans Koller's most groundbreaking achievements to date have been his big band projects, which have picked up and carried forward in the UK the playful and quirky iconoclasm of the late, marvellous Loose Tubes. Mentored early on by veteran experimentalist Michael Gibbs, and building too on Gil Evans' textural inventions, Koller's big bands--which feature emergent young stylists alongside major names like Stan Sulzmann, Julian Siegel, Henry Lowther, and Evan Parker--are in the tradition but always pushing and tickling the ...
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