Jazz Articles

The Big Band Convention: Live at the Rheinl

by Jack Bowers
April 12, 2002

Are there any less–than–stellar big bands in Germany? Surely there must be — but the Big Band Convention isn’t one of them, an observation that is pressed home emphatically from the opening measures of Don Menza’s electrifying “Blues for Uncommon Kids,” recorded, as was everything else on this consistently impressive album, without a safety net at its regular watering–hole, the Rheinländer club in Cologne. Our thanks to baritone saxophonist Martin Schäfer (who’s a standout on his showcase, Bob Florence’s graceful ...