Jazz Articles about WDR Big Band

About WDR Big Band

Album Review

Florian Ross/WDR Big Band: Plans & Drawers

Read "Plans & Drawers" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 19, 2026

While Plans & Drawers may seem an odd name for an album of big-band jazz, the fact is that German-born composer and arranger Florian Ross had no “plans" to record before the opportunity arose to produce a second album with his home country's world-class WDR Big Band Cologne, and many of his compositions had been consigned to “drawers" in his studio. Once the agreement was finalized, Ross reopened those drawers, plans were made, and Plans and Drawers was recorded in ...

Radio & Podcasts

Improvising the Classics: Roll Over Beethoven

by Larry Slater
December 5, 2025

Beethoven was a musical revolutionary. He transformed every musical form he used to create his body of music.The pianist and composer Jon Batiste said “Beethoven's work taps into a universal connective, magnetic truth in music." Beethoven was a master of motivic development, taking small musical ideas and expanding them into long and varied ideas, just like the art of improvisation.In 1998, Elvin Jones, the legendary drummer who anchored John Coltrane's quartet, was a guest artist at ...

Album Review

WDR Big Band featuring John Goldsby and Bob Mintzer: Big Band Bass

Read "Big Band Bass" reviewed by Artur Moral

by Artur Moral
November 7, 2025

What better way to bid farewell to a long, fruitful relationship than with a mutual gift? That is the decision John Goldsby and the extraordinary WDR Big Band made after 30 years of intense collaboration. Extended partnerships are perhaps not too frequent in today's jazz landscape, even in the more conducive orchestral realm: well-known are the lengthy associations, uninterrupted and almost exclusive, of Harry Carney with Duke Ellington And His Orchestra (over 46 years!) or Freddie Green with the Count ...

Album Review

3 Cohens, WDB Big Band: Interaction

Read "Interaction" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
May 5, 2025

A dieci anni di distanza dalla loro ultima collaborazione discografica, Yuval, Anat e Avishai Cohen tornano con quest'album live, che documenta il concerto dato con la WDR Big Band il 16 giugno 2022 alla Filarmonica di Colonia. Altra figura centrale dell'evento è Oded Lev-Ari, che ha scritto le partiture e diretto l'orchestra. Oded collabora con i Cohen sin dagli anni in cui tutti studiavano a Tel-Aviv. Anche se suonano assieme dall'adolescenza, il sodalizio professionale dei tre fratelli è ...

Album Review

The 3 Cohens: Interaction

Read "Interaction" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
April 11, 2025

As a thriving collective, the 3 Cohens have recorded four outstanding studio albums over the first quarter of the 21st century: the self-produced One (2003), 2007's Braid, 2011's Family and 2013's Tightrope, (last three released by Anzic Records, the label founded by clarinetist Anat Cohen with kindred-spirit producer-collaborator Oded Lev-Ari). Dipping, darting, diving, the 3 Cohens have crisscrossed the global stage, bringing their joyful high-flying interplay to Brazil, New York, Europe and Australia. Searing, swerving and soaring, trumpeter Avishai Cohen's revved-up swing testament, ...

Album Review

Steve Gadd, Eddie Gomez, Ronnie Cuber, WDR Big Band: Center Stage

Read "Center Stage" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 22, 2022

Mixed emotions must underline this review. Center Stage, featuring bassist Eddie Gomez, drummer Steve Gadd and baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber with Germany's superb WDR Big Band conducted by Michael Abene, was recorded in Cologne in January and February 2022. Sadly, Ronnie Cuber passed away in October, shortly after the album was released. If this was Cuber's last hurrah, it thunders loudly above the rooftops, as his solos (on each of the album's nine numbers) and melodic passages ...