Bild © hr

"Fantastically colorful music" or "As if it had never been written for anything other than a big band" are just two of the many, effusive feedbacks on the YouTube channel of the Frankfurt Radio Big Band about the project "Bach Goes Big Band". Now comes the accolade for the arrangements by Jörg Achim Keller: the invitation to the Bachfestival in Leipzig. A concert tour to the city where Johann Sebastian Bach lived and worked as Thomaskantor during his main creative period. In 2018, the hr-Bigband embarked on this project to show how a contemporary big band can approach Bach's œuvre. A special encounter of baroque austerity and jazz musical looseness, of detailed composition and the freedom of improvisation. 

Jörg Achim Keller, conductor 

Friday, August 6th 2021 
Bachfest Leipzig  
Bühne am Markt 
8 p.m.
bachfestleipzig.de 

German version

Axel Schlosser Bild © hr

Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong is one of the most unmistakable figures in US jazz history. His distinctive raspy voice and trumpet tone made him world famous. It was he who taught the musicians in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra to swing and improvise in New York in the 1920s. One part of this Frankfurt Radio Big Band program is dedicated to Louis Armstrong. The other revolves around the young Duke Ellington, who at almost the same time created his very own cosmos of raw jungle sound and orchestral sophistication, thus becoming another pioneer of big band jazz. The Frankfurt Radio Big Band bringes new life into the music of these two pioneers, with Axel Schlosser as congenial soloist in the role of Louis Armstrong. 

Axel Schlosser, trumpet 
David Grottschreiber, conductor 

Saturday, August 14th 2021 

Rheingau Musik Festival, Ingelheim 
kING, Kultur- und Kongresshalle 
5 p.m. (sold out) & 8 p.m.

Tickets: (06723) 60 21 70 

German version

Julian Argüelles Bild © Miguel Estima

"Sonorous, sunny" or "full of joy, so alive" are just some of the euphoric press opinions about the program "Africa in Exile", which has been the idea of the British saxophonist Julian Argüelles. It is based on compositions by South African musicians who fled the apartheid regime in the 1960s and found exile in London. For five years, Julian Argüelles himself played in the big band "Brotherhood of Breath", which was a project of the South African Chris McGregor, and thus learned the themes and the playing approach of the South Africans first hand. "The buoyant, irrepressible spirit of South African jazz is given new life here. ... It's a joy," according to the British newspaper The Telegraph. In this spirit, the Frankfurt Radio Big Band presents this program again and is looking forward to the two guests Julian Argüelles and his brother Steve, who will also contribute to the project as percussionist.

hr-Bigband
Julian Argüelles, Saxophone / Conductor
Steve Argüelles, percussion

Friday, August 20th 2021

Jazz Montez
Open Air im Hafenpark
Honsellstraße 7
60314 Frankfurt
8:30 p.m. 

Saturday, August 21st 2021

Darmstädter Residenzfestspiele 
(Information: Konzertchor Darmstadt)
7 p.m.

German version

Bild © hr

For a long time, the "Duke" shaped the sound of big band jazz like no other. For more than 40 years, Ellington created hundreds of world-famous melodies as a composer and arranger and, as a bandleader, assembled the best and most influential musicians of his time in his orchestra. Ellington's music continues to reverberate in orchestral jazz to this day. On this evening, Marko Lackner and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band will bring numerous of these well-known pieces from very different eras to the stage of the Eckelshausener Musiktage. 

Marco Lackner, conductor 

Saturday, August 28th 2021 

Eckelshausener Musiktage 
Dautphetal-Friedensdorf  
Firmenhalle Elkamet  
6 p.m.

Tickets: (06461) 27 10  

 German version