Big Band Dorsten

Big Band Dorsten: Critic's Choice

by Jack Bowers
December 13, 2006

Yet another excellent big band from Germany, this one from the small city of Dorsten (pop. 80,000), at the northern edge of the Ruhregebiet area, which marked its twentieth anniversary by releasing the splendid album Critic's Choice. I don't know whether this is a professional ensemble (I suspect not) but it surely plays like one.

As the band was founded in 1981 as a part of the local music school, the album must have been recorded five years ago. The ...