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Album Review

The Composers' Orchestra Berlin: Telling Stories

Read "Telling Stories" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 20, 2026

The Composers' Orchestra Berlin is precisely that: a 15-piece ensemble, now a battle-tested 16 years old, all of whose handsome compositions on its eighth recording, Telling Stories, were written and arranged by members of the orchestra or its conductor and music director, Hazel Leach. The COB includes a small string section (two violins, viola, cello) that is more than mere window dressing, as it plays an important role on most numbers, as does the solitary 'trumpet section' (Amadeo ...

Album Review

The Composers' Orchestra Berlin: Holding Pattern

Read "Holding Pattern" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 1, 2022

Holding Pattern is the fourth album by The Composers' Orchestra Berlin, which, as the name denotes, is an ensemble wherein “the members of the orchestra are not only improvising instrumentalists but are also the composers." Every one of its ten selections was written and arranged by members of the ensemble. According to the jacket notes, “there is no fixed line-up; the composers can select instruments from the pool [of twenty-three musicians] to develop a brand-new...orchestral repertoire with stylistic influences ranging ...

Album Review

Hazel Leach / Composers' Orchestra Berlin: Postcard Collection

Read "Postcard Collection" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 21, 2018

These picturesque “postcards" from composer / arranger Hazel Leach's well-appointed Composers' Orchestra Berlin are addressed to various locales in Europe and South America, presumably designed to echo musically the special nature of each site. Oddly enough, as there are only eight cards to be delivered, the album opens with Postcards 10 and 11, aimed at Caracas, Venezuela, and Tucuman, Argentina, respectively. There's a Postcard 9 as well, directed to Kalavrita, Greece, and one unnumbered memo, “Postcard aus Schlabendorf am See," ...