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Ed Partyka Jazz Orchestra: Hits!*, Vol. 1
by Jack Bowers
There's actually an asterisk after the title of the Ed Partyka Jazz Orchestra's latest album, Hits! Vol. 1 In small print, at the bottom left-hand side of the jacket, are the words “except track 8." As Partyka explains in the liner notes, much of the album is comprised of “a cross section of the music that has generated the most enthusiastic response" from audiences, and thus the orchestra's “hits." The exception is track 8, “Hair of the Dog," a staple ...
read moreThe Jazz Big Band Graz: Plays the Music of Bob Brookmeyer
by Jack Bowers
Now in his seventies, feisty Bob Brookmeyer has nothing to prove to anyone about his virtuosity as composer, arranger or valve trombonist - but he keeps on doing it anyway, ably supported in this instance by Germany's worldclass Jazz Big Band Graz. Brookmeyer, once a hardcore bopper who played with and wrote for the likes of Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Gerry Mulligan and many others, has adapted and ripened his approach, as anyone should, but without losing sight of those ...
read moreThe RIAS Big Band Berlin: Bach Brandt New
by Jack Bowers
Who’d have suspected that Johann Sebastian Bach, who died more than 250 years ago, would be making such a strong comback in the twentyfirst century, and in a Jazz context, no less? But here we have the venerated maestro, resurrected first in Bach 2000, an excellent album by David Matthews and the Manhattan Jazz Orchestra, and now in Bach Brandt New, in which Germany’s worldclass RIAS Big Band performs marvelous new arrangements of half a dozen Bach themes by the ...
read moreThe Polizeiorchester Hamburg: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong
by Jack Bowers
One of the highest compliments I can pay the Poleiziorchester Hamburg is to say the ensemble reminds me of Rob McConnell's Boss Brass. The charts are dissimilar, as one would expect on a tribute to Louis Armstrong, but there's the same aura of understated elegance and casual selfassurance that one hears from the Brass, as director Kristine Kresge uses horns, clarinets, piccolo, flute, oboe and even a banjo to augment the usual trumpets, trombones, reeds and rhythm and add splashes ...
read moreThe Thilo Wolf Big Band: Swing It! Volume II
by Jack Bowers
Cloning sheep? Small potatoes. Pianist Thilo Wolf has cloned an entire big band! On Swing It!, Volume II his German–based ensemble is practically a mirror image of the late pianist Gene Harris’s SuperBand which recorded three albums in 1987–90 for Concord Records, and Wolf himself sounds so much like the irrepressible Harris that it’s downright spooky. Is that a good thing? On balance, yes; Harris fronted a marvelous all–star band, and so does Wolf. There’s nothing disagreeable about that, nor ...
read morePeter Weniger: With the Metropole Orchestra
by Jack Bowers
Saxophonist Peter Weniger, hardly more than a blip on Jazz radar screens here in the States, has achieved a far more prominent stature in Germany and Europe, impressive enough to be invited in ’94 to record with the prestigious Netherlands Metropole Orchestra under director / arranger Rob Pronk. He’s in pretty good company, as American reedmen who’ve recorded with the MO include Zoot Sims, Nick Brignola, Bob Cooper, Bud Shank, Lew Tabackin, Lee Konitz and Ronnie Cuber — not to ...
read moreBuJazzO: On Tour
by Jack Bowers
This new release by Germany’s most celebrated young Jazz ensemble, BuJazzO (shorthand for Bundesjugendjazzorchester), was actually recorded in 1987 during a European tour led by the superlative composer / arranger / educator Peter Herbolzheimer. As the liner notes are in German it’s hard to pinpoint every destination but we managed to identify Turkey, Croatia, Rumania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia along with several stops in Germany. As is the case with Great Britain’s renowned National Youth Jazz Orchestra, some of Germany’s most ...
read moreThe Jazz Big Band Graz: Here & There: The Music of Ed Neumeister
by Jack Bowers
Programming is an essential part of any recording endeavor, but one that too often is slighted. This new release by Austria’s Jazz Big Band Graz is a case in point; a generally commendable album whose weakest track is for reasons unknown placed first. And to compound the misstep, trombonist Ed Neumeister’s “Here & There” runs for more than eleven minutes! Far better (in this reviewer’s opinion) to have opened with the sunnier and more rhythmically appealing “Locomotion” (last in line) ...
read moreBundesjazzorchester (BuJazzO): Focus on Vocals
by Jack Bowers
Luckily for those of us who prefer our big–band Jazz straight (no chaser), this recent two–disc set (recorded in March ’97) by Germany’s remarkably proficient Bundesjazzorchester (Youth Jazz Orchestra) doesn’t focus exclusively on vocals. The nine selections on each disc include five instrumentals on Disc 1, five more on Disc 2. Among the (non–vocal) highlights on Disc 1 — Antti Rissanen’s buoyant “Red Letter Day” and luminous charts by Bernd Lechtenfeld (Pat Metheny’s “Better Days Ahead,” which does include wordless ...
read moreOliver Pospiech's Small Big Band: Cool Blue
by Jack Bowers
Pospiech's band may be small in size (the core group is actually an octet) but not in artistry or charisma. For his debut as leader the German-born valve trombonist, who cites Rob McConnell and Bob Brookmeyer among his influences (and sounds almost like them), has chosen his sidemen and his music with great care. The rhythm section is first-class with the versatile American drummer Jeff Hamilton cooking alongside bassist John Goldsby (best known for his work with the WDR Big ...
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