Munich is a secret big band capital. The Jazz rush big band as an international lighthouse, the Earforce Big Bandthe orchestras of Monika Roscher, Matthias Bublath, Christian Elsässer or Harald Rüschenbaum, and finally that ICI or that Munich Composers Ensemble – there are more than ten permanent, regularly playing jazz ensembles in the city. So perhaps because the development of orchestral jazz, which was interrupted in the 1950s, is being resumed so successfully here, three outstanding big bands from outside of the city have now made guest appearances within just a few days.
Get started Eté Large, the orchestra of Cologne-based saxophonist Luise Volkmann, which is exceptional in every respect. The just 30-year-old founded her big band in 2015, while she was still studying. Since she did this in Leipzig, Paris and Copenhagen as well as in Cologne, she gathered special young musicians from half of Europe around her, including a complete string quartet.
For example, the Australian experimental singer Casey Moir, who now lives in Stockholm, the German-American classical tenor Laurin Oppermann, who lives in Berlin and Vienna, the electric guitarist Paul Jarret from Nanterre and three other French people. And as the closest conspirator, the German-Greek bassist Athina Kontou, who also plays in most of Volkmann’s small ensembles, which in turn are also very successful members of Kontous mom– Quartet is.
Volkmann grew up listening to her father’s rock music, including Eric Burdon, Van Morrison and Patti Smith, and wanted to be a rock guitarist as a child. The fact that she ended up with the saxophone, studying composition and jazz is not a contradiction in terms. The music of their orchestra is powerful, wild, ignoring all conventions.
The band’s second album, “When the Birds Upraise Their Choir”, made during the pandemic, which they are now releasing in the underpass is a modern homage to her father and to the music of the 1968 generation. A musical reflection of new beginnings and a new freedom that is being lost today, a questioning of political and social attitudes. Woodstock meets Newport, punk meets classic avant-garde – this orchestra is a sonic adventure that has to be experienced.
Été Large, Thursday, June 15, 8:30 p.m., Unterfahrt, Einsteinstr. 42, www.unterfahrt.de
Three drummers, three double bass players and eleven wind instruments: Gard Nilssen’s “Supersonic Orchestra” surprises with its innovative cast.
(Photo: Eddy Westveer)
The next day it’s in the Muffathalle with Gard Nilssens Supersonic Orchestra further, as a cooperation project between Unterfahrt and the Munich Jazz Foundation and, so to speak, as a harbinger of “Isarjazz”, which is now supported by a non-profit limited company. Further major jazz events are to follow under his name and direction.
The 39-year-old Norwegian drummer Gard Nilssen has long been known to the inner jazz circle, including through his own trio Acoustic Unity or as a member of the bands puma and Bushman’s Revenge. Four years ago, however, Nilssen fulfilled a childhood dream with the Supersonic Orchestra. After all, his home town of Skien is not only known as the birthplace of Henrik Ibsen, but also for its big band and marching band tradition. Above all, however, Nilssen has not put together just any big band, but an innovative Scandinavian all-star ensemble. Even the cast with three drummers, three double bass players and eleven horns – so without harmony instruments! – has no equal and creates an almost uncanny energy. Everything pulsates, effectively rubs against each other and always finds its way to hymn-like melodies.
Also because all members of the orchestra are band leaders and outstanding soloists themselves, from the bass players Petter Eldh or Ole Morten Vågan (known above all from the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra) via the trumpeter Goran Kajfes (oddjob) to saxophonists like Otis Sandsjö, Mette Rasmussen or the Polish BMW World Jazz Award winner Maciej Obara. A Nordic successor to Vienna Art Orchestraif you will, which was one of the absolute highlights at the Saalfelden Jazz Festival and the Berlin Jazz Festival and now in the Muffathalle should not be missed.
Gard Nilssens Supersonic Orchestra, Fri., June 16, 8.30 p.m., Muffathalle, Zellstr. 4, www.unterfahrt.de
Cultivates the American big band legacy of Duke Ellington or Count Basie: trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and his Lincoln Center Orchestra.
(Photo: Bell’Arte)
Last but not least, on June 19 you can experience the spearhead of the American jazz orchestras (which have meanwhile become very few), the mother of the US big bands, so to speak. With star trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the one he has conducted for more than 30 years Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra the Grail Keepers come above all in the tradition of a Duke Ellington Isar Philharmonic Hall. What the nine-time Grammy winner, Pulitzer Prize winner and declared jazz conservative Marsalis also clearly formulates: “Anyone who wants to join us should play with soul, have unique technical skills and feel the need to work with others in the ensemble – of course they should he also understands the tradition! We are all filled with the mission to transmit the art form of jazz.”
The JLCO is doing this in increasing numbers: in 2020 alone, eleven albums were released, from “Quarantine Blues” to “Swinging Celebration of Sesame Street”. The 15-strong troupe is certainly not at the forefront of innovation, but as far as the classic big band sound is concerned, another orchestra can probably hold a candle to them. After all, thanks to the wealthy Lincoln Center, Marsalis handpicked his musicians. Great jazz musicians like trumpeter Ryan Kisor, trombonist Vincent Gardner, saxophonist Ted Nash or drummer Obed Calvaire will heat you up in a classic but powerful way.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Monday, June 19, 8 p.m., Isarphilharmonie, Hans-Preißinger-Str. 8th, www.gasteig.de