Jazz from Germany – Current Trends

First came the dancing, then the experimenting. Big Bands and jazz orchestras in Germany have been through a varied development, but are more vital than ever.

Jazz in its beginnings was popular music and was perceived as such. While in America Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson were gradually freeing themselves in the 1920s from the early ensemble sound of the New Orleans and Chicago school, in Germany it was mainly show orchestras that left their mark on the cultural consciousness until the end of the Second World War.

1945 marked the collapse of oppressive structures, but also the beginning of a new era of big bands. Whereas the popularity of dance orchestras never again reached its pre-war level of popularity, as also in America, the federal system of West Germany introduced by the Allies led to the establishment of regional radio broadcasters and with them to the founding of radio orchestras. Since each station in the occupied zones demanded its own ensemble, the paradoxical situation arose that no other western European country of the post-war period had as many professional jazz orchestras as did Germany.

The radio big bands

Over the years there developed from the prototype of the radio big bands four ensembles that are today still actively shaping musical life: the jazz orchestras of North German Broadcasting (NDR), West German Broadcasting (WDR), Southwest Broadcasting (SWR) and Hessian Broadcasting (hr). For the jazz scene, they are important in several respects. For one, they provide permanent positions for a nucleus of experienced musicians and so too the financial support that enables the ensembles to launch less lucrative projects. They also enhance the prestige of the broadcasters as popular partners for national and international guests on numerous recordings.

A few examples. The work of the NDR big band is particularly characterised by continuity. Conducted by Franz Thon until 1980, and then by Dieter Glawischnig and since 2008 by Jörg Achim Keller, it has made recordings with Johnny Griffin and Chet Baker, Nils Landgren, Gary Burton and Heinz Sauer. Recent projects include The Martin Luther Suite – A Jazz Reformation (music by Lucas Marcus Schmid, 2008); a homage to John Lennon, In My Own Write (2010) with guest arranger Colin Towns; and 21 Spices (2011) with the music of the Indian tabla master Trilok Gurtu. The WDR big band is busy with similar artistic activities. Following Kurt Edelhagen, it has been conducted by Werner Müller, Jerry van Rooyen and Bill Dobbins, and is now under the aegis of Michael Abene. In addition to recording important albums with the Stockhausen brothers, Paquito D'Rivera, Lalo Schifrin and BAP boss Wolfgang Niedecken, the WDR big band has even won a Grammy for its 2003 recording of Some Skunk Funk with the Brecker Brothers.

The SDR big band, which had grown out of Erwin Lehn’s “Southern Broadcasting Dance Orchestra”, become the SWR big band after the south western broadcasting merger in 1992 and has kept a balance in the course of changing conductors between jazz and entertainment projects. Over the past decade it has been nominated four times for a Grammy and has recorded critically acclaimed projects such as Bossarenova (2009) or the homage to Africa, Shosholoza (2010). The big band of hr was initially committed to entertainment as the “Dance Orchestra of Hessian Broadcasting” under Willy Berking, but has developed since the 1970s, with the help of conductors Heinz Schönberger, Kurt Bong, Jörg Achim Keller and (since 2008) Örjan Fahlström, into a highly regarded jazz orchestra, which has caused a stir with projects such as the Ellington homage Money Jungle (2009) and the Brazilian album It's Only Love (2010) with guest star Tania Maria.

Experiments and education

Since the 1960s, the independent orchestra scene has been shaped in a variety of ways. The independent era found its big band protagonist in the pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, who founded, following the 1965 New Jazz Meeting in Baden-Baden, the Globe Unity Orchestra, which still exists today. To this phase of re-orientation also belong the bands based on rock music models. The United Jazz & Rock Ensemble, founded by pianist Wolfgang Dauner in 1975, saw itself as an internationally staffed playground with a strong stylistic character, and Peter Herbolzheimer’s Rhythm Combination & Brass brought this spirit of transgression to German television, first in the ZDF series The Jazz Concert Gala (1976) and then as a orchestra for various show formats, such as the series Bio's Bahnhof.

With Peter Herbolzheimer we come full circle to education. Drawing on the knowledge that big bands are the best school for aspiring professionals, he founded in 1987, as a project of the German Music Council, the Federal Youth Jazz Orchestra, which he headed until 2006. It was to become the central organ for promoting young German jazz talent, gave musicians such as Till Brönner, Hennig Sieverts and Peter Weniger a start, and became the model for numerous state jazz orchestras, which supplemented the principle of promoting young talent in practice at the regional level.

Young ensembles

Over the past decades jazz education and the international trend to preserve traditions ensured that the acceptance of big bands has steadily increased. Today there are many orchestras with young musicians at grammar schools, music schools and universities. Workshops from Burghausen to Berlin and whole series of events, such as the Big Band Night held every Monday in the well-known Munich jazz club “Unterfahrt”, are committed to performing orchestral jazz in all its forms.

Young bandleaders, such as Nicolai Thärichen with his mini big band Thärichens Tentett (Farewell Songs, 2009) or the WDR Jazz Prize winner Stefan Schultze with his Large Ensemble (Run, 2011), have made use of this trend. The Sunday Night Orchestra, founded in Nuremberg in 1994, is actively committed to performing the music of German composers such as pianist Peter Fulda (Moaning Songs, 2011). Every summer the Jazz Baltica Ensemble is constituted for the eponymous festival, whose programme includes not only international guests but also German musicians such as bassist Martin Wind (Theresia, 2011).

If the big band was looked upon in the 1990s as an antiquated form from jazz history, today it is once again an important and productive part of musical life, encompassing popular and successful projects with singers such as the Swing crooner Roger Cicero and nostalgia fan Max Raabe.