Jazz
Jazz Nutcracker
In 1962, Duke Ellington and arranger Billy Strayhorn collaborated to do a jazz version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. The original version was for big band and features nine movements. The titles have been slightly modified — for instance, the ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ becomes ‘Sugar Rum Cherry’ — but the melodies remain relatively easy to identify (even if, at times, Tchaikovsky’s melodies don’t readily swing).
Why improvise? A Review of Gabriela Montero’s New Album “Baroque”
In one of his countless interviews Friedrich Gulda remarked that those who cross boundaries are considered by society either as “revolutionaries or fools.” That, like so many of Gulda’s views, is somewhat exaggerated and simplistic, but there lies a kernel of truth in this assessment: going beyond the boundaries of our ordered world, one can either discover a land of wonderful possibilities or shipwreck in a stormy sea losing orientation and direction.
Jazz Concert @ Oxident Bar
Don’t miss your chance to hear the LAST (for now) Berlin performance of Billy the Kid and the Outlaws at the Oxident Bar this Saturday, June 2nd, at 10 pm. The show will be a memorable one featuring several special guests. The Oxident Bar is here: http://www.oxident.de The Outlaws are: William Bares, aka Billy the […]
Don Menza and Harald Rüschenbaum Trio
Yesterday night I went to the Munich Jazzclub “Unterfahrt”. Very nice location (good service, nice interieur, and non-smoking!), go check it out some time. The concert was great. Don Menza is 70 years old but he plays like a young man. What I found most interesting was the contrast between the American style of playing […]
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