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hr-Bigband

The Frankfurt Radio Big Band (hr-Bigband) stands for innovation and variety. It unfolds its activities in a broad range of styles from classical big band jazz to avant-garde jazz and from popular to classical music.

The Frankfurt Radio Big Band is one of the most innovative German jazz ensembles of our times. Its imaginative programmes, quality musicians and high-profile projects have raised the Big Band of the Hessischer Rundfunk (German Public Radio of Hesse) to the Champions League of large ensemble jazz music and have set new musical standards. From swing to the avant-garde, it covers the entire spectrum of jazz, as well as crossing over into classical, pop and world music. Together, projects with talented young musicians and international stars, concerts performances, radio broadcasts and CD recordings make up what the hr-Bigband is today.

The band's days as a "radio dance orchestra" have long past. Today, the Frankfurt Radio Big Band is a celebrated guest at numerous jazz festivals, and itself invites international jazz stars like John Scofield, Gary Burton, Billy Cobham, Django Bates, Oregon or The Bad Plus to perform, driving the development of Big Band music forward with commissions for compositions and arrangement. Thanks to their regular, intensive collaboration to create a tight, homogenous sound ensemble, the Frankfurt Radio Big Band's musicians are ready for any challenge.

Week after week the Frankfurt Radio Big Band covers new musical worlds. In every concert season about 25 new projects take shape, which are performed live in about 50 concerts. Almost no project is to big for the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. World innovations such as the surprising meeting with Gamelan music from Bali or with DJ and electronics are merely attractive challenges for the musicians. All concert projects are recorded live and broadcast on hr2 (the radio program of Radio Frankfurt).

Thanks to the wide range of its musical work, the Frankfurt Radio Bigband has become an irreplaceable part of cultural life in Germany.

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Extended Analysis

Meeting Of The Spirits: A Celebration Of The Mahavishnu Orchestra

Read "Meeting Of The Spirits: A Celebration Of The Mahavishnu Orchestra" reviewed by Walter Kolosky


There's been a rush of Mahavishnu Orchestra related projects during the last two years. First there was Mahavishnu keyboardist Jan Hammer playing Mahavishnu music with guitarist Jeff Beck in Europe. Then there was the Jeff Richman-produced tribute album, Visions Of An Inner Mounting Apocalypse. There is the ongoing success of the Mahavishnu Project band and its VishnuFest. And just this month, Hammer shows up on the new album from drummer Billy Cobham. There's plenty more too. The ...

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Album Review

hr Bigband: Once in a Lifetime

Read "Once in a Lifetime" reviewed by Jack Bowers


It's not often--perhaps only Once in a Lifetime--that a big band, from Germany no less, has a chance to record with not one but two of the jazz world's acknowledged master craftsmen, organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Jeff Hamilton. The hr Bigband from Frankfurt seized that chance in December '03, and the result is this spectacular album on which DeFrancesco and Hamilton affirm beyond any doubt that they are among the very best at what they do.

The nine persuasive ...

154
Album Review

hr-Bigband with Joey DeFrancesco & Jeff Hamilton: Once In A Lifetime

Read "Once In A Lifetime" reviewed by Edward Blanco


One doesn't often associate the sounds of the organ with the music of big bands, but that's exactly what you get when Joey DeFrancesco, a virtuoso on the Hammond B-3 organ, joins forces with renowned drummer Jeff Hamilton of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra as special guests of conductor Jorg Achim Keller and the German hr-Bigband (Hessischer Rundfunk).

While there's no question that you're listening to a typical big band album, as evident from the brassy sounds of the ...

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