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Karolina Strassmayer

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Album Review

Chuck Owen: Renderings

Read "Renderings" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Nato dalla collaborazione tra la WDR Big Band e Chuck Owen, Renderings conferma quest'ultimo ai vertici dell'orchestrazione mainstream contemporanea e l'orchestra tedesca l'autorevole e avvincente ensemble che sappiamo. L'idea del progetto nasce quando la splendida sassofonista della big band, Karolina Strassmayer, ha chiesto a Chuck di arrangiare una sua composizione, stimolando il bandleader a impegnarsi in un ampio lavoro con l'orchestra di Colonia. Impegni personali e circostanze varie (tra cui la pandemia) hanno ostacolato il progetto, che ...

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Album Review

Chuck Owen: Renderings

Read "Renderings" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Renderings by Chuck Owen and The WDR Big Band is a remarkable jazz album that showcases the artist's mastery as a composer, arranger and bandleader. This release stands as a testament to Owen's innovative approach to jazz music blending traditional elements with modern influences to create a unique and captivating sonic experience. The album title is an apt description of the musical approach taken by Owen, as he focuses on the works by other composers along ...

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Album Review

Chuck Owen and the WDR Big Band: Renderings

Read "Renderings" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Anyone who uses YouTube to search for contemporary jazz must surely be familiar with Germany's blue-ribbon WDR Big Band, as it is abundantly represented at the site. Bearing that in mind, it may come as no surprise to those seekers (and others) that the WDR's latest recording, on which it is paired with the esteemed Florida-based composer and arranger Chuck Owen, offers another master class in big-band artistry, or how to make even the most arduous charts seem deceptively simple. ...

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Album Review

Drori Mondlak and Karolina Strassmayer: Freescapes

Read "Freescapes" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


During twenty plus years of collaboration, drummer Drori Mondlak and saxophonist / flutist Karolina Strassmayer have perfected their creative chemistry. Their highly individual styles are, nevertheless, seamlessly complementary resulting in a unique sound that marks their superb releases. Their eighth, the haunting Freescapes, is an absorbing work with an undercurrent of subtle mysticism that showcases this synergy and splendid musicianship on nine interlinked tracks. Opening with “Sing To Me Of..,," a duet between the co-leaders, and closing with ...

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Album Review

Bob Mintzer: Soundscapes

Read "Soundscapes" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


Well, what is your pleasure? Swinging charts? You have them. A tight big band? Yes, that certainly, and more. Terrific soloists? In abundance. A blend of genres that go from straight ahead to Latin to funk? That is all here too. The only thing absent, and all respect to Bob Mintzer, is excitement. To be honest, many contemporary big bands doing studio recordings have a similar issue. The level of musicianship is astronomical, but something is not there. You wonder ...

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Album Review

Bob Mintzer & WDR Big Band Cologne: Soundscapes

Read "Soundscapes" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Saxophonist Bob Mintzer, a New Yorker who left home long ago to see the world, is a professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music and chief conductor of the world-class WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany, with whom he has recorded Soundscapes, a luminous showcase for his singular talents as composer, arranger and soloist. As anyone who is familiar with Mintzer--through big-band recordings, his quartet the Yellowjackets or other avenues--clearly understands, he will ...

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Album Review

Scott Whitfield & Friends: A Bi-Coastal Christmas

Read "A Bi-Coastal Christmas" reviewed by Jack Bowers


If trombonist Scott Whitfield's A Bi-Coastal Christmas cannot quicken your inner holiday spirit, that will not be for lack of trying. Whitfield uses every ribbon in the packet and every tool in the shed to help make the season bright, from big band to quintet, from duo to solo (Whitfield's trombone all by itself). Two of the selections were recorded in 2004, four others in 2005, whereas Whitfield's brace of solo tracks was taped in 2020 as he cast off ...

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Recording

"Joining Forces" New Recording From Drori Mondlak & Karolina Strassmayer - Klaro!

"Joining Forces" New Recording From Drori Mondlak & Karolina Strassmayer - Klaro!

Source: Drori Mondlak

Karolina Strassmayer & Drori Mondlak | Joining Forces Karolina's passion for the saxophone began in her native village in the heart of the Austrian Alps. A thirst for adventure brought her to New York City, where she garnered a stellar reputation as a jazz saxophonist performing with Duke Ellington Orchestra, Chico Hamilton and many others. In 2004, Karolina became the first woman to join the world-renowned Grammy award winning WDR Big Band Cologne. In the present she divides her time ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Renderings

MAMA Records
2023

buy

Freescapes

Lilypad Music
2022

buy

Soundscapes

MCG Jazz
2021

buy

Blue Soul

Strikezone Records
2020

buy

A Bi-Coastal Christmas

Self Produced
2020

buy

Knife's Edge

From: Renderings
By Karolina Strassmayer

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