Upper Austrian Jazz Orchestra
The Upper Austrian Jazz Orchestra is a big band from Upper Austria , which has existed since 1991 and is one of the most important jazz groups in Austria.
history
The formation was founded by mostly Upper Austrian jazz musicians. Motivated by the second prize at the Billa Big Band Contest in 1992, the orchestra borrowed music from a wide variety of styles in the years that followed. Since 1995 it has invited guest musicians such as Kenny Wheeler , Jack Walrath , Johnny Griffin , Slide Hampton , Toshiko Akiyoshi and Maria João to organize concert programs with him. Musicians from the orchestra also presented themselves as composers and arrangers. Since 2003, the orchestra has been involved in a number of projects with the processing of literary works and language in general in combination with jazz. So it got involved in text passages and stylistic devices by Thomas Bernhard , experimented with the Golowin songs by Friedrich Gulda and arranged Upper Austrian folk songs. Selected programs were published on phonograms.
In addition to its artistic activity, the Upper Austrian Jazz Orchetra also performs educational tasks; it looks after the Upper Austrian Youth Jazz Orchestra and organizes annual big band workshops in Bad Goisern .
Instrumentation of the orchestra
The core of the formation were (2012) Andreas Pranzl, Gerd Rahstorfer , Simon Plötzeneder and Manfred Paul Weinberger (trumpets), Dominik Stöger, Robert Bachner , Hermann Mayr, Charly Wagner (trombones), Robert Friedl , Franz Bachner, Christian Maurer , Robert Müllner , Andreas See (woodwinds), Helmar Hill, Primus Sitter , Christian Wendt and Alfred Vollbauer (rhythm section). In the past, Christian Kastenhuber, Bumi Fian , Klaus Dickbauer , Christian Steiner, Erhard Blach, Frank Schwinn, Gerald Preinfalk , Franz Weyerer, Rudolf Pilz, Wolfgang Mang and Christian Bachner were part of the ensemble.
Discography
- Plays Music of Kenny Wheeler (Westwind 1996, with Kenny Wheeler)
- La Lampe Philosophique (PAO 1999)
- You Got My Wife, But I Got Your dog (Universal 2002, with Jack Walrath, nominated for the Hans Koller Prize 2003 as “Best CD of the Year”)
- Deference to Anton Bruckner (ATS-Records 2003)
- 101 Years: Glenn Miller (ATS Records 2006, with Michael Gibbs )
- Des söwe aundas or Thomas Bernhardt Groovt (ATS-Records 2006)
- Wine, Woman and Song (ATS-Records 2008, with Tini Kainrath )
- Song-Song or 7 Muses and 4 Vices (ATS-Records 2009, with Ali Gaggl and Tini Kainrath)
- Swing and All That Jazz (ATS Records 2012, with Michael Gibbs)
- Without music, life would be a mistake (ATS-Records 2013, with Gunkl )
- In the Spirit of Hans Koller (ATS-Records 2018)