Bangers Only!

Jazzrausch Bigband - Alle Jahre wieder!CD / Vinyl / digitalJazzrausch BigbandJazzrausch Bigband has more or less invented a new art form, techno jazz, and has become well-known for performances of it. But the band also has another, different story to tell. It has invented its own tradition of hitting the road and touring at the end of each year with a programme consisting of Christmas music, and has been doing this ever since the band first emerged eight years ago. Bandleader and founder Roman Sladek explains: “Whereas our regular projects – the most recent album, ‘Emergenz’, is a good example – are all about working through a specific theme and finding new ways to reinvent ourselves, our Christmas thing is something we do for one reason alone: to have fun. It was our very first programme, we still love it, and we’re still nurturing, developing and growing it. Being able to devote one month a year entirely to the big band tradition is something we’re all really passionate about.” The band has already released four albums since its 2019 ACT debut, “Dancing Wittgenstein”, including a first Christmas programme, “Still! Still! Still!” (also in 2019). Jazzrausch Bigband has gone on expanding and renewing its holiday season repertoire. So, naturally, when a major Germany-wide Christmas tour around the major concert halls in the big cities started to beckon after the Corona break, Sladek figured: “this theme being so close to all of our hearts, it was time to record a new album. So here we are with ‘Alle Jahre Wieder’”. Some bands might have been tempted just to throw together an album of Christmas chestnuts any old how, but the Jazzrausch way of doing things is not like that at all. Indeed, the band would hardly have become the force of success and innovation which we know today if it had chosen easy options. Jazzrausch Bigband is more comfortable with the concept of pushing itself to do better than with being content with what it has done. For this band, things always have to be different, contain surprises, and have genuine “oomph”. Those strong imperatives have been there right from the start of the preparations for this album: as early as this spring, Sladek commissioned the band’s chief composer and arranger Leonhard Kuhn to put together a 50-minute programme of completely new pieces. Rehearsals and recording were wedged in between the very few gaps remaining in the band’s hyper-busy summer touring schedule. The earlier Christmas album “Still! Still! Still!” was already a kaleidoscope of big band styles, and yet Jazzrausch Bigband has managed to broaden the spectrum for “Alle Jahre wieder!” even further. In terms of form it is even more concentrated. Unlike any other album by the band, for the first time we hear purely instrumental music. Furthermore, Kuhn has taken ten classic Christmas songs – each one of them rarely heard in jazz, and tunes which can often come across as a bit staid in their original settings – from “Tochter Zion, freue dich” to “Adeste fideles” or “Ihr Kinderlein, kommet”. The title track, “Alle Jahre wieder!” (based on the 1830s carol to music by Silcher which is very familiar to children and adults in the German-speaking world) appears here in completely new orchestral garb. Sometimes the listener will recognise the kind of swing typical of Glenn Miller. At other moments it is the incomparable big band elegance of, say, Artie Shaw. “Es wird scho glei dumpa” (an Austrian carol) is given the full extra-high-pressure Tijuana brass treatment. “Maria durch ein’ Dornwald ging” gets the touch of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra after a Henry Mancini-like intro, and “Ich steh’ an deiner Krippe hier” recalls more of the great swing heritage. “We had such a great time, a Fetz’ngaudi”, Sladek smiles. The sense of enjoyment is absolutely everywhere on the album, where masterful playing and a mischievous glint in the eye go well together. Any tendency towards being introspective and over-thoughtful is simply blown away as listeners are swept up in the frenzy of Christmas joy and Christmas jazz. At the same time, “Alle Jahre wieder!” is a Christmas homage to the greats of big band history. “It’s almost over-sentimental when one realises, thinking how this recording was sandwiched between all kinds of live performances, that you’re part of something that might one day become an anecdote in jazz history. Yes, we are that very rare thing nowadays: a big band that really plays a lot. It’s a phenomenon that you only normally encounter when you dig into the past.” And it’s about even more: “This music simply has an incredible power and joie de vivre… but that doesn’t mean you have to play it wearing a suit. We want to present it in a more authentic, modern, humorous and attractive way. In such a way that everyone can relate to it in the reality of their own everyday life. In a Christmas programme, everyone can meet on common ground. And from there it’s a journey we take together.” So, once again Jazzrausch Bigband has succeeded in a way that only very few in the jazz field can, notwithstanding the openness of the genre: they have brought young and old together, tradition and revolution, the familiar and the new. Which is why it feels so completely natural and right that they should continue to do this ‘again every year’, as the album title tells them: “Alle Jahre wieder”.Credits: Directed and produced by Roman Sladek Traditional music arranged by Leonhard Kuhn Recorded by Josy Friebel at Mastermixstudio, Unterföhring, August 2022 Mixed by Josy Friebel Mastered by Umberto Echo The Art in Music: Cover Art by Lena Maidl (sturmtiefdesign)

Jazzrausch Bigband - Bangers Only!CD / Vinyl / digitalJazzrausch BigbandFor the album "Bangers Only!" Jazzrausch Bigband has concentrated on a form which is by its nature tight and compact: here are thirteen "bangers", the kind of hits that no self-respecting concert or playlist should ever be without. We’re fixed on the three- to four-minute song form here. So everything is about sticking to the point, or often just getting straight down to it. So we hear the very catchy, yet refined "Moebius Strip", the funky "I Want To Be A Banana" or the brass thunderstorm "Punkt und Linie zur Fläche". The other half of the setlist is new, the list of ingredients is typically long for Jazzrausch Bigband: techno, disco and funk beats, thick walls of brass alongside wide, airy surfaces, plus vocals, spoken word and improvisation. Euro-dance borrowings are new - sweet, garish and juicy.That said, they never let it get too sweet, because the band, and especially their chief composer/arranger Leonhard Kuhn are masters of keeping things in balance: what is always present and clearly audible is his genuine and completely un-ironic love for all of these contrasting styles. And also the joy he has in deconstructing them and tearing them down, the constant alternation of fun and seriousness. "Bangers Only!" shows that the band has found a way to root this repertoire in its own, thorougly recognisable sound, one which has become familiar to a large and diverse fan base and which has a way of combining everything into one big, well-rounded whole.The group of some 35 young musicians who form the Jazzrausch collective has played almost 1,000 shows in 15 countries since it was founded. Up to and including "Bangers Only!", they have released 12 albums, nine of them on ACT. And since the beginning of 2024, the band has been welcomed into a permanent home: the impressive, newly opened BERGSON Kunstkraftwerk to the west of Munich. This is something of a coming-of-age of the ideas behind Jazzrausch Bigband. The fact that the band is playing in an impressive new venue as a house ensemble takes us all the way back to their beginnings in 2014 as artists in residence at Munich techno club "Harry Klein". So the question is whether what started as a small idea can also be made to work on the large scale? Yes it can, and for two reasons: first because this music combines the familiar with new discoveries, whatever the listener’s level of familiarity with it might be. And secondly because this music has the kind of intensity which is always going to draw listeners right in. Every time.Credits: Regie & production: Roman Sladek Music by Leonhard Kuhn The Art in Music: Cover art von Lena Maidl (sturmtiefdesign)

Jazzrausch Bigband - Beethoven`s BreakdownCD / Vinyl / digitalJazzrausch BigbandThe Beethoven 250th anniversary on 17 December 2020 is an event of national significance in Germany. It even finds its way into the text of the Federal Government's coalition agreement, where it is stated that the anniversary "offers outstanding opportunities for Germany as a cultural nation both at home and abroad. That is why the preparations for this important anniversary are task for the nation." Jazzrausch Bigband got the memo straight away. With their album "Beethoven's Breakdown" the band is honouring the pioneering composer in its own way. Not by being historically authentic or by preserving him in aspic, but in a manner that befits Beethoven the radical innovator. Just as he revolutionized the history of music, the equally forward-looking JRBB has pushed ahead with its bold concept of orchestral techno-jazz. Just how superbly it works is clear from the first track of the album,"Moonlight Sonata": a firm beat propels the piece forward, the melodic theme is given to the trumpets in minimalist form and with altered rhythms, the woodwind players having plenty of room to be free with the theme and to improvise over it. Everything becomes part of the interplay, the awareness of musical time is razorsharp, and vocalist Patricia Römer sings in an onomatopoeic way, all of which serves to build up the tension, to the point of tearing it apart. The second ‘allegretto’movement of the Seventh Symphony is given a similar treatment and also emerges redefined: there is a fine trumpet solo and some lyrical singing, but the original delicate theme of this movement is given to contrabass clarinet and tuba, who assert it darkly and powerfully. String Quartet No. 14 also appears in a completely new light. Using strongly syncopated basic rhythms, melodic fragments are completely reinterpreted harmonically and formed into an origi-nal composition. This multi-faceted piece ranges from classical elements to dark German techno à la Ben Klock There is also a newly-composed sonata in four movements on "Beethoven's Breakdown". As special guest, the Jazzrausch Bigband was able to attract trombonist Nils Landgren who is featured in this work. Formally and harmonically, the sonata is strongly reminiscent of Beethoven. The melodies and the sound aesthetic, however, make use of a contemporary language that involves both the spectral music of Tristan Murail and the danceable grooves of modern house music. Two creative minds are behind this bold homage: Leonhard Kuhn, who is the mastermind of the band both from the musical-aesthetic and the philosophical-scientific perspectives. He composed the sonata and wrote all the techno arrangements of the Beethoven pieces. Bandleader Roman Sladek was, as always, a source of important ideas, and also supervised the production. He is responsible for the way the ensemble functions and has had a major role in its success. The band has only existed for five years, but has established a major profile with its approach, a new, stylistically open kind of orchestral jazz, and is now in great demand internationally: the band now plays at least 120 concerts a year, most recently at major festivals in Europe, Asia,Africa and the USA, but also as resident big band in Munich’s Unterfahrt jazz club and techno club Harry Klein. The level of common understanding among the players that this regular performing has engendered, and the phenomenal tightness of ensemble among this elite of Southern German jazz instrumentalists is to be heard on "Beethoven's Breakdown". What is happening here is a compelling rejuvenation cure not just for conventional styles of jazz, but also for the classical music of Beethoven. And it is also how Jazzrausch Bigband is reaching and winning over new and young audiences for both Beethoven's music and big band jazz. For traditions to be carried on there must be renewal. A torch is being carried from one generation to the next, and fires in new and unexpected places are being set alight.Credits: Directed and produced by Roman Sladek Special guest: Nils Landgren / trombone on Sonata I - IV Recorded by Umberto Echo at Dorian Gray Studios, Eichenau / Munich in August 2019 Mixed by Umberto Echo Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Jazzrausch Bigband - Bruckner´s BreakdownCD / Vinyl / digitalJazzrausch BigbandIn its ten-year history, the Jazzrausch Bigband has established itself as an institution that makes the impossible possible: jazz meets techno meets big band? No problem. Sold-out concerts at electro clubs, jazz festivals and classical venues? It's on! And anyone who thinks the band's musical spectrum couldn't be broader will be proved wrong by their arrangements of classical music.Following new versions of the music of Gustav Mahler and Ludwig van Beethoven, "Bruckner's Breakdown" is now the most unusual album of the Bruckner Year 2024. Jazzrausch in-house composer Leonard Kuhn transports Bruckner's symphonies and original compositions based on them mostly in a crisp, almost pop-orientated song format - with intense grooves and often with gripping force, but also with a lot of sophistication and a big band line-up expanded to include horn, percussion, bassoon and three strings. And despite all this, there is still plenty of room for the "jazz" in "Jazzrausch" and the ensemble once again presents itself not only as a perfectly functioning unit, but also as a union of brilliant individual soloists. Fundamental bass, subtle symphonic music and improvisational freedom in interplay - where else is this as convincing as here...? Credits: Directed and produced by Roman Sladek

Various Artists - Christmas in the Spirit of JazzCD / digitalJust as there are a multitude of different ways to celebrate Christmas, there is also a vast and appetising array of Christmas music. And whereas Nils Landgren's "Christmas With My Friends" series has been an integral part of the run-up to the holiday season for the past 15 years, it is far from being all that ACT has to offer: a host of other artists from the label have created their own distinctive Christmas sounds. These range from the quiet contemplations of pianist Bugge Wesseltoft or the hymn-inspired "Nordic Christmas" from saxophonist Tore Brunborg, to music from Cana-dian singer Laila Biali or “a touch of class” (The Observer) from Echoes of Swing... and even the coruscating and youth-ful energy of the Jazzrausch Bigband. All these and many more are to be found on "Christmas in the Spirit of Jazz". This is the ACT Christmas soundtrack for 2021. Tracks from all eight of the "Christmas With My Friends" albums are the thread running through this Christmas com-pilation. Nils Landgren sets the celebrations in motion with "Coming' Home for Christmas", the album opener. In the course of the album’s eighteen tracks, we hear a roster of other soloists: Jessica Pilnäs, Johan Norberg and Jonas Knut-son bring seasonal joy to Leroy Anderson’s swinging classic "Sleigh Ride"; Sharon Dyall with her blues-infused voice jingles us through the lively "Just Another Christmas Song"; Ida Sand and Jeanette Köhn sing John Rutter’s "Angel's Carol" in a gently-paced duet. As German magazine Stern has remarked of "Christmas With My Friends”, this is music which "sparkles like the starry sky of a Nordic winter night". We cross the border from Sweden into Norway for another Christmas classic: Bugge Wesseltoft recorded one of the best-selling Christmas albums in Norway with his piano solo CD "It's Snowing On My Piano": the plaintive sounds of Wes-seltoft playing "In Dulce Jubilo" have an irresistible simplicity and directness. And then on to Denmark for Janne Mark: she sings about "Vinter", a delightful hymn which brings light and warmth to Scandinavia's season of darkness. Christmas with the Jazzrausch Bigband is lively and sassy. Sometimes loud, sometimes quiet, the stylish sound of this big band has been superbly caught: "Fröhliche Weihnacht überall" (Merry Christmas everywhere) takes us a long way from the quieter and more contemplative vibe to be heard elsewhere on "Christmas in the Spirit of Jazz". Echoes of Swing with Rebecca Kilgore treat us to a superb "Winter Wonderland": it’s swinging and American - but with a knowing, five-four smile.A song which was not originally written with Christmas in mind, but which has nonetheless found its way into the canon is "A Child is Born" by Thad Jones: Laila Biali's version of it is released here on CD for the first time. Another which has also become a Christmas evergreen is Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Polish violinist Adam Bałdych interprets it here. And with "Happy Xmas, War is Over" from 1971, we hear Iiro Rantala paying homage to John Lennon. His solo piano interpretation is virtuosic yet has depth, and the song’s message of peace could not be more topical or important than it is today. Caecilie Norby and Lars Danielsson have made a new recording of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" especially for "Christmas in the Spirit of Jazz". We hear just the duo of voice and bass, the mood carefree yet festive. "Christmas Song" is heard in a calmly uplifting version from Viktoria Tolstoy, with Ida Sand, Ulf Wakenius and Nils Landgren. And finally Mr. Redhorn brings "Christmas in the Spirit of Jazz" to an atmospheric conclusion on solo trombone: "Der Mond ist aufgegangen" (the moon is risen) is from his recently released solo album "Nature Boy". Landgren’s trombone sound echoes weightlessly through space and time: the final mood is one of contemplation and peace.

Jazzrausch Bigband - Dancing WittgemsteinCD / Vinyl / digitalJazzrausch BigbandJazzrausch Bigband is the latest group to join the ACT family of artists, and it stands out being as unique in several respects, in the first place for its size and versatility: it has more than 40 musicians as regular members. Jazzrausch plays an average of 120 concerts a year, which would clearly be impossible to achieve without this bench-strength. Within one year the ensemble has performed at Lincoln Center in New York, the JZ Festival in Shanghai, the Safaricom International Jazz Festival in Nairobi, the Ural Music Night in Yekaterinburg and the SXSW in Austin TX. There is probably no other jazz orchestra in the world which is quite as busy, in demand and successful as Jazzrausch. And there is also no other orchestra which reaches audiences as young as it does, notably people who had hitherto been very dis-tant from jazz. Jazzrausch Bigband’s ability to reach young audiences is attributable to its revolutionary new sound and repertoire. By playing acoustic techno-jazz in a big band format the ensemble has created a new style that delights jazz fans and excites dance addicts. This is music which can satisfy the longings of clubbers in search of the genuine, the handcrafted and the original; and yet it appeals in equal measure to devotees of jazz and classical music by having more oomph, being brilliantly entertaining, and through its chunky sound. The German broadsheet FAZ talked about a mixture of "powerful sound, groove and enormous stage presence". For the time being at least, Jazzrausch Bigband has no imitators and essentially has the field to itself. The band’s rapid rise in just five years of existence naturally has everything to do with its instigator and leader, trombonist Roman Sladek. This visionary musician who grafts round the clock had already realized when he was still a student that “the way in which jazz has developed has ended up destroying an awful lot. There’s a prevalent attitude of snobbishness and dismissiveness, combined with an absence of awareness of the audience. We jazz musicians have to find our way back into the here and now. We have to learn to master every form of music and demonstrate and proclaim that our music has massive creative potential." In other words. if people won't come out to jazz, then jazz has to go out to the people. So he cast his net widely and took his ebullient enthusiasm to places that jazzers hadn't thought of before. And one place where he located a definite interest was the legendary Munich techno club "Harry Klein". Sladek asked his chief composer and arranger, guitarist Leonhard Kuhn, to write a programme that combined big band jazz and techno. And, as it turned out, the young audience was all over it. Jazzrausch Bigband became the only "artist in residence" big band in a techno club anywhere in the world, with a monthly date that still sells out every time. The good word started to do the rounds, and soon other clubs and festivals were keen to get hold of them and the band’s rise to its current heights began. Now the band has two ACT albums as its visiting card: there is a rerelease of "Dancing Wittgenstein", the successful techno-jazz program, and also "Still! Still! Still!” a Christmas album in classic big band style. "The Christmas programme was actually the first one we ever played," explains Sladek. "And we’ve enjoyed developing it further every year since. In the run-up to Christmas, it provides the perfect counterweight to the thrills of the techno shows that we do for the rest of the year." "Still!, Still!, Still!" consists of Leonhard Kuhn's multi-layered orchestrations for the band’s 18 musicians of twelve popular German Christmas songs, traversing the entire history of big band repertoire – and justifying those three exclamation marks in the album title. The opener is a Basie-style swinger "Leise rieselt der Schnee" with extremes of soft and loud; “Engel auf den Feldern singen” (Shepherds in the Field Abiding) receives a brisk Herb Alpert treatment; "Fröhliche Weihnacht überall" has the characteristic Stan Kenton sound. “These tunes,” says Sladek, “are to our Christmas programme what the rhythms are to our techno programme. The beauty of "Still!, Still!, Still!" is that everyone knows the songs. So we and the audience have a common starting-point musically from which we can inspire people who seldom hear jazz to really enjoy it." In fact, this idea gets to the heart of the Jazzrausch Bigband phenomenon: for a long time, this group has been working in "jazz", which more than ever today is the category for interesting and worthwhile music that doesn't fit into any other category. Jazzrausch Bigband keeps the music fresh and on the boil. It doesn’t merely demolish musical barriers, it has a joyful focus on one thing above all: that musicians and audience alike can have fun.Credits:directed &produced by Roman Sladek music by Leonhard Kuhn, except 05 & 06 Recorded & mixed by Umberto Echo Mastered by Dieter Pimiskern Additional producing, mixing and recording on Native Riddim by Silvan Strauß The Art in Music: Cover design by Lena Maidl (sturmtiefdesign)

Jazzrausch Bigband - EmergenzCD / Vinyl / digitalJazzrausch BigbandJazz meets techno meets big band. It really shouldn't work...and yet, as anyone who has ever heard or seen the Jazzrausch Bigband will know, the reality of the band in action firmly knocks that idea on the head. Ever since Jazzrausch started in 2014, it has been on an unstoppable path of growth and development which has been very much on the band’s own terms. Jazzrausch first came to attention as the house band at the legendary Munich techno club "Harry Klein" – currently threatened with closure, incidentally – where the recordings for the new album "Emergenz" were made. Since then, the band’s growing renown has taken it to Germany’s great temples of classical music: the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Isarphilharmonie in Muich and the Berlin Philharmonie... and a buzz has been building internationally too. What is Jazzrausch Bigband all about? Putting a couple of exceptional and unconventional musical brains in charge, letting their sense of what is serious and what is banging prevail, and then seeing how much it can appeal to both younger and older audiences. Jazzrausch has dealt with the whole idea of ‘no can do’. By hitting it out of the ballpark. The fact that Jazzrausch works so well is attributable to three factors which have remained constant. First there is Roman Sladek: this bandleader/organiser/mover/shaker is a strong-toned, and classically-trained trombonist...who also has a background in heavy metal. Second, there is composer/ electronic musician Leonhard Kuhn: the fact that Jazzrausch Bigband also functions like a classical orchestra is down to him. Each "season" they devote themselves to one or more new themes. They take a classical composer like Beethoven, Bruckner or Shostakovich, or they put their minds to trends in philosophy, literature or the natural sciences. Or they’ll concoct a swinging Christmas programme, and (as happened with one project) they’ll completely turn their backs on techno. None of this would be possible without the thirty or so musicians who make up the Jazzrausch Big Band. Each of them is a genuine and individual character with a clear identity, stage personality and her or his uniquely diverse musical background. The theme of the new album is "Emergenz" (emergence), a term from philosophy and systems theory which describes new properties which occur in a system as a result of the interaction of its individual elements. It serves well as a metaphor for Jazzrausch Bigband, a living and constantly changing organism. Comparing "Emergenz" with earlier albums, what is most striking is how the band's expressive palette has become even more differentiated and refined. The moments when the energy levels are at their highest are still dominated by techno jazz, which is only to be expected. But, in between, the regular four-on-the-floor pulse of the bass drum is increasingly frequently suspended, so there are sections where the forward momentum comes from intricate interlocked horn parts, or just from voices. Influences from minimal music and bouncy drum'n'bass are audible too. Fragments from poems by Gertrude Stein ("Go!Go!Go!", "Present Tense") are present, as is the music of Wayne Shorter ("Orbits"). On "As Darkness Fell“, the Armenian-born trumpeter Angela Avetisyan whispers of a time when things became quiet and no music could be heard. The ballad "Five Dice" tells the true story of a woman who, after separating from her partner, keeps five dice as a memento of him. The nervously upbeat "Ticking Time Bomb" describes the feeling of being overwhelmed by one's own feelings and thoughts, and almost bursting out of oneself as a result of a sheer overload of impressions. Of course it is of some help to be aware of all of these factors which have influenced the lives and thought processes of the participants. But, in the end, there is really only one way to get to the bottom of the Jazzrausch Big Band phenomenon, and the fascination and success which there clearly is around it. And that is to hear their music first-hand, to be affected, touched and inspired by it. The different external factors unite organically, and what emerges is completely new and utterly compelling. This is music which takes hold of the listener’s heart and head. Say it again: it really shouldn’t work. But it truly, definitely does. Credits: Recorded by Josy Friebel from May to September 2021 at Harry Klein, Munich Produced, directed and mixed by Roman Sladek Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann The Art in Music: Cover art by Lena Maidl (sturmtiefdesign)

Various Artists - Magic Moments 13CD / digitalBest Jazzinfotainment: 16 tracks, 75 minutes of music in the Spirit of Jazz, including Nils Landgren & Jan Lundgren, Wolfgang Haffner,Ulf Wakenius, Solveig Slettahjell, Grégoire Maret, Vincent Peirani & Emile Parisien, Kadri Voorand, Viktoria Tolstoy, Jazzrausch Bigband.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Various Artists - Magic Moments 14 "In The Spirit Of Jazz"CD / digital"More than any other art form, music touches people directly," is ACT founder Siggi Loch's credo. For nearly 30 years, the core of what the label does has been to find and to promote the artists who can inspire the mind, reach the heart and touch the soul, and who do so in ways that have a lasting impact. Perhaps this has never been more important than now in the time of the pandemic, when culture has been silenced, when people have felt emotionally isolated and – far too often – the only “reality” has been virtual. With sixteen tracks from the current ACT release schedule, "Magic Moments 14" gathers together all of the power of "Music in the Spirit of Jazz", this world language beyond words which is understandable to everyone. It not only brings people together, it also moves and inspires them. ACT’s main mission is in the absolute foreground on this album: to be a discovery label. ACT’s main focus has always been on European jazz, to document this art form growing and developing, to show it reflecting on its own musical traditions, linking them back to jazz’s American roots and thereby opening up new paths. So, in that spirit, "Magic Moments 14" begins with a "Canzon del fuego fatuo" from the remarkable young Spanish pianist Daniel Garcia. Here is a fascinating new voice from Spanish jazz, taking up the music of his homeland in a refreshingly new way. We also mark here the ACT debut of mesmerising Austrian actor Birgit Minichmayr. Here is a voice and a personality with charismatic presence, delivering a Shakespeare Sonnet in the grand manner, together with Quadro Nuevo’s versatile world music team and the early jazz specialist Bernd Lhotzky. Other examples of new shining stars in the European musical firmament are the French-Algerian cellist and singer Nesrine and Austrian pianist David Helbock’s new trio. This focus on new and recent arrivals at the label does not mean neglecting the artists who have been with ACT since the beginning and who have made it the leading label for Swedish jazz: trombonist Nils Landgren contributes a new humdinger from his Funk Unit, a band which has been giving soul jazz a European face for over twenty-five years. Bassist/composer Lars Danielsson again celebrates the combination of classical music, jazz and Nordic sound with "Cloudland" from his new Liberetto album. Ida Sand conti-nues the tradition of Scandinavian singers who enrich the world's songbook with their pop "in the spirit of jazz". And for the final track, Jan Lundgren and Lars Danielsson, toge-ther with Emile Parisien, the French musician who has single-handedly redefined the soprano saxophone, show us Euro-pean art music with a Swedish accent at its most communicative and inspired. Last but not least, ACT was one of the first important labels to promote contemporary German jazz. There are more German artists on "Magic Moments 14" than ever before, demonstrating this important strand: violinist Florian Willeitner from Passau; guitarist Philipp Schiepek who has made a meteoric rise in the South German scene; the feisty attitude of KUU! led by singer Jelena Kuljic – like Minichmayr also primarily known for her acting and stagecraft; the Jazzrausch Bigband, whose techno jazz is attracting attention worldwide; and two rising stars who are currently harvesting all of the major awards, Johanna Summer and Vincent Meissner.Summer and Meissner - like Garcia, Lundgren and Helbock - also stand for the special place ACT has always found for the best pianists in Europe. Thus it is two German pianists of major international significance who complete the offering on "Magic Moments 14": 77-year-old Joachim Kühn is still utterly driven and a major force; his heir apparent Michael Wollny can also be heard here in his new all-star quartet with Emile Parisien, Tim Lefebvre and Christian Lillinger. The drummer was a multiple award-winner at the new German Jazz Prize, including one for KUU!. "Magic Moments 14" is a quintessence of the many directions which genre-crossing, innovative jazz is currently taking. These difficult times need remedies that are both energising and emotionally affecting: here are musicians who unfailingly show us the value and importance of trust and dialogue.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Various Artists - Magic Moments 15: In the Spirit of JazzCD / digitalBest jazz infotainment for the 30th anniversary of ACT: 16 tracks, 65 minutes of music in the spirit of jazz, featuring artists like Nils Landgren, Emile Parisien & Theo Croker, Iiro Rantala, Vincent Peirani Trio, Michael Wollny Trio, Joel Lyssarides, Jakob Manz & Johanna Summer, and more.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Jazzrausch Bigband - Mahler´s BreakdownCD / Vinyl / digitalJazzrausch BigbandWith their invented explosive mix of big band jazz with techno rhythms and sounds, the Jazzrausch Bigband has become well-known. However, it is sometimes overlooked that bandleader Roman Sladek and chief composer Leonhard Kuhn also enjoy incorporating orchestral classical music into their concept. As early as 2016, they dealt with the music of the 19th-century Austrian romantic on "Bruckner's Breakdown". Brahms also appears in the JRBB program list. And at the height of their wave of success, "Beethoven's Breakdown" would likely have been another triumph in Beethoven's year 2020, had the pandemic not thwarted all performances. Now, the high-pressure jazzers have once again dedicated themselves to a classic: Gustav Mahler. Unlike their previous classical adaptations, this time it's not a "best-of" of various compositions, but focused on a central work of Mahler's: his famous 5th Symphony in C-sharp minor, a masterpiece of the Viennese late romanticism at the threshold of modernity. Mahler himself struggled with it for a long time: "My fifth symphony is a cursed work. Nobody understands it," complained the composer, revising the instrumentation of his work several times after its premiere in 1904. He couldn't think of the most obvious solution: "The symphony was written for techno big bands, although they didn't exist at the time," says Jazzrausch Bigband founder and bandleader Roman Sladek with a wink. Listening to the entry with the "funeral march" of the first movement, Sladek's joke gains a serious background: How a drum click and a guitar lick set the tempo, how the heavy brass introduces the theme, how the piano lays down a groove underneath, how all instruments together make the melody dance. How then the saxophone takes over the theme and improvises further, how the whole culminates after a key change and ends again with click and guitar – this could not be written better for the Jazzrausch Bigband. The magnificent second movement or the dreamy fourth, sometimes leading into the classical big band sound, also seem tailor-made for this ensemble. As an encore, there is a movement from the 3rd Symphony – at Sladek's special request because of the outstanding trombone passages.So "Mahler's Breakdown" is again an outstanding arrangement by the mastermind Leonhard Kuhn. "I had listened to all of his symphonies, but quickly decided on the fifth. Because it is well-known to the audience, and because it is powerful, but overall rather delicate. And perhaps also because I had heard it live in Dresden after one of our premieres and had a special connection to it." The album turns the symphony on its head: 110 years later, Mahler's departure towards a new musical language is skillfully continued, as is his desire to cast parts with soloists. In the 50-minute techno version of the "Sinfonia Maledetta," as an Italian copyist called it, the Jazzrausch Bigband unfolds its instrumental versatility and sheer power. Not least through their energetic improvisations, the 15 musicians bring Mahler's (and Kuhn's) music into the here and now: A rave to listen to, a symphony to dance to.Credits: Music by Gustav Mahler, arranged by Leonhard Kuhn Recorded, mixed and mastered by Umberto Echo Recorded on March 19th 2023 at Dorian Gray Studios, Munich Jazzrausch Big Band, directed and produced by Roman Sladek Photo by Sebastian Reiter the art in music: cover art by sturmtiefdesign

Jazzrausch Bigband - Still! Still! Still!CD / Vinyl / digitalJazzrausch BigbandJazzrausch Bigband is the latest group to join the ACT family of artists, and it stands out being as unique in several respects, in the first place for its size and versatility: it has more than 40 musicians as regular members. Jazzrausch plays an average of 120 concerts a year, which would clearly be impossible to achieve without this bench-strength. Within one year the ensemble has performed at Lincoln Center in New York, the JZ Festival in Shanghai, the Safaricom International Jazz Festival in Nairobi, the Ural Music Night in Yekaterinburg and the SXSW in Austin TX. There is probably no other jazz orchestra in the world which is quite as busy, in demand and successful as Jazzrausch. And there is also no other orchestra which reaches audiences as young as it does, notably people who had hitherto been very dis-tant from jazz.Jazzrausch Bigband’s ability to reach young audiences is attributable to its revolutionary new sound and repertoire. By playing acoustic techno-jazz in a big band format the ensemble has created a new style that delights jazz fans and excites dance addicts. This is music which can satisfy the longings of clubbers in search of the genuine, the hand-crafted and the original; and yet it appeals in equal measure to devotees of jazz and classical music by having more oomph, being brilliantly entertaining, and through its chunky sound. The German broadsheet FAZ talked about a mixture of "powerful sound, groove and enormous stage presence". For the time being at least, Jazzrausch Bigband has no imitators and essentially has the field to itself.The band’s rapid rise in just five years of existence naturally has everything to do with its instigator and leader, trombonist Roman Sladek. This visionary musician who grafts round the clock had already realized when he was still a student that “the way in which jazz has developed has ended up destroying an awful lot. There’s a prevalent attitude of snobbishness and dismissiveness, combined with an ab-sence of awareness of the audience. We jazz musicians have to find our way back into the here and now. We have to learn to master every form of music and demonstrate and proclaim that our music has massive creative potential." In other words. if people won't come out to jazz, then jazz has to go out to the people.So he cast his net widely and took his ebullient enthusiasm to places that jazzers hadn't thought of before. And one place where he located a definite interest was the legendary Munich techno club "Harry Klein". Sladek asked his chief composer and arranger, guitarist Leonhard Kuhn, to write a programme that combined big band jazz and techno. And, as it turned out, the young audience was all over it. Jazzrausch Bigband became the only "artist in residence" big band in a techno club anywhere in the world, with a monthly date that still sells out every time. The good word started to do the rounds, and soon other clubs and festivals were keen to get hold of them and the band’s rise to its current heights began. Now the band has two ACT albums as its visiting card: there is a rerelease of "Dancing Wittgenstein", the successful techno-jazz program, and also "Still! Still! Still!” a Christmas album in classic big band style."The Christmas programme was actually the first one we ever played," explains Sladek. "And we’ve enjoyed developing it further every year since. In the run-up to Christmas, it provides the perfect counterweight to the thrills of the techno shows that we do for the rest of the year." "Still!, Still!, Still!" consists of Leonhard Kuhn's multi-layered orchestrations for the band’s 18 musicians of twelve popular German Christmas songs, traversing the entire history of big band repertoire – and justifying those three exclamation marks in the album title. The opener is a Basie-style swinger "Leise rieselt der Schnee" with extremes of soft and loud; “Engel auf den Feldern singen” (Shepherds in the Field Abiding) receives a brisk Herb Alpert treatment; "Fröhliche Weihnacht überall" has the characteristic Stan Kenton sound. “These tunes,” says Sladek, “are to our Christmas programme what the rhythms are to our techno programme. The beauty of "Still!, Still!, Still!" is that everyone knows the songs. So we and the audience have a common starting point musically from which we can inspire people who seldom hear jazz to really enjoy it." In fact, this idea gets to the heart of the Jazzrausch Bigband phenomenon: for a long time, this group has been working in "jazz", which more than ever today is the category for interesting and worthwhile music that doesn't fit into any other category. Jazzrausch Bigband keeps the music fresh and on the boil. It doesn’t merely demolish musical barriers, it has a joyful focus on one thing above all: that musicians and audience alike can have fun.Credits: Band directed and produced by Roman Sladek  Music arranged by Leonhard Kuhn

Jazzrausch Bigband - téchneCD / Vinyl / digital Jazzrausch Bigband featuring: Jelena Kuljić, Nesrine, Viktoria Tolstoy, Wolfgang Haffner, David Helbock’s Random/Control, Kalle Kalima, Nils Landgren & Jakob Manz “Jazzrausch Bigband is making jazz sexy again” (Bayerischer Rundfunk). Downbeat has singled out not just the band’s “high-voltage performances” and “party atmosphere”, but also the amount of experimentation going on. The ensemble’s ingenious mix of techno and big band jazz has proved to be just as accessible to people listening to the band from the comfort of their seats in a concert hall as it has to those sweating it out on the dance floor. Since 2015 Jazzrausch Bigband has been in residence at Harry Klein in Munich, a club renowned for its house and techno acts as well as for its stunning live visuals; this cooperation between a techno club and a big band is truly unique in the world. From its base at the club, the pioneering ensemble has defined a completely new genre, “techno jazz”. The band’s music is getting noticed on the other side of the Atlantic too: Jazzrausch Bigband has performed at New York’s Lincoln Center, and Downbeat magazine has pinpointed this unusual band’s remarkable strengths: “A high-voltage performance with party atmosphere and yet plenty of experimentation. The mix of jazz and techno initially might seem surprising, but actually makes perfect sense.” On their previous albums “Dancing Wittgenstein” and “Beethoven’s Breakdown”, Jazzrausch Bigband impressively demonstrated its process of finding new perspectives on the artistic interaction of themes and elements from a wider cultural context. The focus of all the group’s trailblazing creativity has now turned to “téchne”. This ancient Greek term, “τέχνη”, is still significant in today’s European-influenced philosophy and its understanding of the arts, science, and technology. Indeed, the element which was decisive in sparking Jazzrausch Bigband’s interest in “τέχνη” was the fact that the original concept of both ‘making’ and ‘doing’ can be applied indistinguishably to any of the three. The idea of “téchne” was particularly appealing to composer Leonhard Kuhn because it drew him into a musical exploration not just of the relationship between art and technology, but also made him want to go further and work his way through bigger questions in science and philosophy, and notably existentialism. Thus, “What It Is” looks at the politics of widening wealth inequality in the current Corona crisis. He shows in Sartre‘s words, that there is an alternative to the famous “It is what it is”. In “Der Literat” Stravinskyesque harmonies are in-terwoven with complex rhythms and melodies, as Kuhn places words by Dada poet Hugo Ball into a wild techno setting. In “AI 101”, the technology of Artificial Intelligence is combined with the art of music by the use of AI as a composition tool: “This piece raises the question of whether AI is progressively taking on more of the characteristics of human beings, or whether in fact it’s the reverse. Don’t we sometimes already behave far too much like machines in a self-imposed panopti-con prison?” Such glimpses into Leonhard Kuhn’s extraordinary ways of thinking are always rewarding and illuminating. In addition to these pieces by Leonhard Kuhn who is the band’s main composer/arranger, “téchne” also features compositions by compo-sers familiar with the band. This is actually quite an unusual step for Jazzrausch Bigband: “Most of our programmes are through-composed and function as a cohesive whole,” explains Roman Sladek. “With ‘téchne’, on the other hand, we wanted everything to be more kaleidoscopic, multi-faceted. Theresa Zaremba is a brilliant film com-poser and Andreas Unterreiner a great jazz trumpeter and composer. We have already worked on complete concert programmes with both of them, so their compositions fit perfectly into the world of ‘téch-ne’.” Another new feature is the roll-call of star guests invited to join Jazzrausch Bigband: trombone star Nils Landgren is on “téchne"– he had already guested on “Beethoven's Breakdown”. We hear the completely beguiling voice of Nesrine in the opening track “Mosaïque Bleu”. Plus there is a highly individual contribution from sin-ger/theatre actress Jelena Kuljić, known from the indie jazz band KUU! and a permanent member of the Munich Kammerspiele – her interpretations of texts are particularly evocative. And Viktoria Tolstoy, Wolfgang Haffner, David Helbock, Kalle Kalima and Jakob Manz complete an impressive list. The album was recorded by Josy Friebel at the Harry Klein club: “It’s where we feel at home. This en-vironment put us straight into the right vibe for the album, rather than starting off with the dry sound of a recording studio.” And “téchne” does indeed sound a bit more techno, more “down to the floor” than the previous albums with their more complex arrange-ments. “Holy cow, what a band!” was Fono Forum’s ecstatic response to Jazzrausch Bigband. A statement that certainly also applies to “téch-ne", and which should also encourage more people to get out and hear this band live. With the new Jazzrausch Bigband album, the young musicians and their guests revel in making seamless and effort-less transitions from one sphere to another. Through their compositions and lyrics they embrace mathematical, philosophical and literary themes, with a compelling band sound fusing jazz, classical music, and techno. With their dazzling confidence, genuine authenticity and communicative panache, the members of Jazzrausch Bigband have created a musical world which is as close to jazz and its origins as it is to the electronic music of the future.