BIG­BAND PLUS - Jazz and Pop on CD & You­Tube

Four brand-new big band com­po­si­ti­ons, re­cor­ded live at the fi­nal con­certs of the new Mas­ter's de­gree cour­se in Big Band, plus six fur­ther re­cord­ings in smal­ler en­sem­bles from the jazz/pop de­part­ment of the HfMDK show just how di­ver­se jazz and pop are at our uni­ver­si­ty. This rou­sing CD of­fers mu­sic ran­ging from La­tin Ame­ri­can-in­spi­red sounds to mo­dern jazz, blues, folk and pop!

The pie­ce Sprin­g's Dew by sa­xo­pho­nist Ro­man Fritsch is in­spi­red by John Wil­liams' ar­ran­ging style for big band. With Foot­fin­gers, sa­xo­pho­nist Paul Scheu­gen­pflug and his quar­tet PSQ build brid­ges bet­ween cli­chés and the un­con­ven­tio­nal, bet­ween catchy pop me­lo­dies, dri­ving groo­ves and en­er­ge­tic jazz im­pro­vi­sa­ti­on. Gre­gor Schor makes a sur­pri­sing li­tera­ry ex­cur­si­on to Ernst Jandl with his or­ches­tral in­ter­pre­ta­ti­on of the poem Doo­sch­log­dadoo. A Cu­cum­ber In Space by Da­ni­el Rhein­bay in­tro­du­ces guest so­loist Jan Lam­mert on the Moog syn­the­si­zer and ta­kes lis­teners on a ten-mi­nu­te so­nic jour­ney. In­stru­men­tal rein­force­ment by the ac­com­plished alto sa­xo­pho­ne so­loist Heinz-Die­ter Sauer­born from the hr-Big­band is pro­vi­ded in the sa­xo­pho­ne con­cer­to by Sö­ren Ries­ner, which is in­flu­en­ced by La­tin Ame­ri­can mu­sic. With Un­appre­cia­ted, the neo-soul band Nee­lah pres­ents a power bal­lad from their own pen. In con­trast, the HfMDK Pop & Jazz Choir has al­ways had a pre­fe­rence for groo­vy gos­pel mu­sic, which they live out with power­ful vo­cals in I Found The Way. And last but not least, the all-roun­der Jona Heck­mann pres­ents him­s­elf as an ima­gi­na­ti­ve ar­ran­ger and com­po­ser, trom­bo­nist and pia­nist in equal mea­su­re.

What cha­rac­te­ri­zes the sound? "The ori­gi­na­li­ty of the com­po­si­ti­ons, power­ful rhythms, spar­k­ling me­lo­dies, fresh sound, the un­brid­led joy of play­ing. It's fun and con­ta­gious," says Hen­dri­ka Ent­zi­an. She is a guest pro­fes­sor on the Mas­ter's de­gree cour­se in Big Band, in which the HfMDK coope­ra­tes with the hr-Big­band (the Frank­furt Ra­dio Big­band. The stu­dents now head out into the world. "With FÄZZ," says Hen­dri­ka Ent­zi­an, "the Rhi­ne-Main re­gi­on has a jazz collec­tive that will cer­tain­ly con­ti­nue to en­li­ven the re­gio­nal sce­ne and in­spi­re the next ge­nera­ti­on of stu­dents."

Mu­sic cri­tic and jazz aut­hor Wolf­gang Sand­ner wro­te in the FAZ af­ter the con­certs: "Loo­king at the com­po­si­tio­nal re­sults, we can al­rea­dy speak of a good year (...)."

The Mas­ter's de­gree cour­se in Big Band has been en­ri­ching ar­tis­tic jazz edu­ca­ti­on in Ger­ma­ny with a uni­que pro­fi­le sin­ce 2022. Stu­dents de­epen their know­ledge of wri­ting for, play­ing in and lea­ding lar­ge jazz en­sem­bles in pro­jec­ts with the hr-Big­band, the Frank­furt Ra­dio Big Band, and in les­sons at the HfMDK. In the sum­mer of 2024, the first year of this in­no­va­ti­ve cour­se of stu­dy com­ple­ted its trai­ning and is now rea­dy to en­ter the world of mu­sic.

The HfMDK Big Band brings tog­e­ther two ye­ars of the HfMD­K's Big Band Mas­ter's de­gree cour­se as well as jazz stu­dents from Jo­han­nes Gu­ten­berg Uni­ver­si­ty Mainz and guests. Their work fo­cu­ses on the stu­dents' ar­ran­ge­ments and com­po­si­ti­ons.

CD: BIG­BAND PLUS - Jazz and Pop
Re­cord­ing a. o. May 2024, Small Hall of the HfMDK

• Jens F. Mei­er, sound en­gi­neer
• Dr. Syl­via Denn­er­le, edi­tor
• www.s-t-a-t-e.com, de­sign/con­cept
• Lisa Mahl­berg, de­sign/lay­out
• Lau­ra Brich­ta, Pho­to­gra­phy
• HOFA GmbH, Pro­duc­tion
• Frank­furt Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts - Prof. El­mar Ful­da, Pre­si­dent

Spon­sors

We would like to thank the fol­lo­wing for their kind sup­port: The MA Big­band - for In­stru­men­ta­lists, Com­po­sers and Con­duc­tors is sup­por­ted by the Ernst Max von Gru­ne­li­us Foun­da­ti­on, the Stif­tung Po­ly­tech­ni­sche Ge­sell­schaft Frank­furt, the Wirt­schafts- und In­fra­struk­tur­bank Hes­sen (WI­Bank) and the Ver­ein der Freun­de und För­de­rer der hr Big­band e.V. The HfMDK Jazz­fest is sup­por­ted by DZ Bank.