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The Composers' Orchestra Berlin

The COB is a large orchestra, with strings, horns and rhythm section, founded in autumn 2010 by composer & conductor Hazel Leach. The members of the orchestra are not only improvising instrumentalists, but are also the composers. There is no fixed line-up: the composers can select instruments from the pool, to develop a brand-new and innovative orchestral repertoire with stylistic influences ranging from classical to jazz and from folk to free…. the music written for this band has no exclusion zones.

Since its founding in the autumn of 2010 the COB has become an established part of the Berlin jazz-scene, with regular concerts in the Kunstfabrik Schlot.

In 2014 it won international recognition with the release of two very different CDs: the audio-book “Spazieren in Berlin” (texts by Franz Hessel, music by ten COB-composers, produced by the rbb (Radio Berlin Brandenburg) and the first orchestra CD “Free Range Music” (Jazzhausmusik). Subsequent releases are  ‘Postcard Collection’ (JHM 2018),  ‘Vanishing Points’ (JHM 2020), and ‘Holding Pattern’ (JHM 2022). The most recent CD features music by COB-composer & saxophonist Tian Korthals 'Exoplanet' (JHM 2023)


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31
Album Review

The Composers' Orchestra Berlin: Holding Pattern

Read "Holding Pattern" reviewed by Jack Bowers


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 ...

5
Album Review

Hazel Leach / Composers' Orchestra Berlin: Postcard Collection

Read "Postcard Collection" reviewed by Jack Bowers


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," ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Exoplanet

JazzHausMusik
2023

buy

Holding Pattern

JazzHausMusik
2022

buy

Vanishing Points

JazzHausMusik
2020

buy

Postcard Collection

JazzHausMusik
2018

buy

Free Range Music

JazzHausMusik
2014

buy

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