Last week, I had the great pleasure hearing the WDR Big Band live for the first time. The concert took place at the beautiful WDR Funkhaus in Cologne on September 20th, under the title ‘Cologne Composers Combine’. The two combined composers were Heiner Schmitz and Stefan Pfeifer-Galilea who conducted one half of the concert each.
The precision and clarity the band plays with is extraordinary, as were the number of great soloists. I was particularly delighted to hear trumpeter Ruud Breuls and tenor saxophonist Paul Heller, who were both part of the late Bob Brookmeyer’s New Art Orchestra back in the 2000s. Other soloists include trumpeter Andy Hardener, trombonists Ludwig Nuss and Andy Hunter (who also played valve trombone on one tune), and pianist Billy Test.
The two composers made a good contrast – Stefan Pfeifer-Galilea music is firmly rooted in the classic big band tradition, whereas Heuner Schmitz has a more modern approach. Both of them had written some great music for the band that showcased all the fine soloists.
The history of the WDR Big Band goes all the way back to 1947. At that time it was known as the Kölner Rundfunk-Tanzorchester. In 1957 Kurt Edelhagen was commissioned to set up a jazz band at WDR, and the two co existed until 1972 when the Edelhagen orchestra was dismantled. In 1980 the dance band was transformed into a jazz band modeled after Edelhagen’s band, and the name was changed to WDR Big Band. If you want to know more about Kurt Edelhagen, WDR has made a fine documentary that can be watched here.
Pianisten og komponisten Leo Mathisen er en af dansk jazz’ mest kendte og elskede personligheder. Her, ca 75 år efter han afsluttede sin karriere, er flere af hans melodier stadig kendte af en stor del af befolkningen. Hans popularitet skyldes uden tvivl, at han var en dygtig entertainer; men han var også en kreativ pianist og komponist som stadig fortjener at blive lyttet til.
For et års tid siden, faldt jeg over en række af hans håndskrevne partiturer og stemmer – heriblandt flere uindspillede. Min første tanke var, at det kunne være sjovt at spille dem; men flere ting gør det ikke så let at udføre i praksis: Musikken er skrevet for mange forskellige størrelser ensembler, og tydeligt er det også, at noderne kun er lavet til ‘intern brug’, da Leo aldrig skrev klaverstemmer til sig selv, og trommestemmen, hvis der er nogen, heller ikke er anvendelig for andre end ham der oprindeligt bruge den. I stedet har jeg valgt at bearbejde fire af numrene for standard 5444 bigband i nye versioner, der ligger så tæt på originalerne som muligt.
Herunder, kan du læse om, og lytte til, de fire numre i de originale versioner. Bigbands der er interesserede i at spille arrangementerne kan kontakte mig via mail for mere information.
Slow Motion er komponeret i 1946. En meget fin komposition i AABA form, som modulerer en stor terts i B-stykket (fra F dur til A mol). Efter præsentationen af temaet, følger et ‘call and responce’ afsnit mellem henholdsvis messingblæserne og en improviseret tenorsax solo. Her bruger Mathisen en effekt som jeg ikke har hørt/set andre steder, nemlig at lade en trompet med dæmper spille en overstemme til de øvrige messingblæsere. En lignende effekt bruger han i øvrigt også i sit arrangement af Take the A Train fra 1944.
Eksempel 1: Slow Motion og Take the A Train
Jungle Party, eller Congo som den også hedder, er fra 1942 og viser Mathisen fra sin mest kreative side. Her kombinerer han inspiration fra Stravinskys Sacre du Printemps med Ellington, og resultatet minder på ingen måde om et typisk swing nummer. Han arbejder bl.a. med 5 takts perioder, og der er ikke nogen toneart i traditionel forstand.
Eksempel 2: Sacre og Jungle Party
Terrific Rhythm er indspillet i 1942, og ligesom Slow Motion også i AABA form; men til forskel fra de fleste andre numre i den form, er A-stykkerne kun 7 takter (i stedet for 8). Resultatet er, at nummeret aldrig rigtig falder til to, da det hele tiden bider sig selv i halen. Nummeret benytter samme type modulation som Slow Motion. Interessant er også de mange afsnit for klaver og bas duo, som formentlig er inspireret af Ellington og Jimmie Blantons duo indspilning et par år tidligere.
Londonderry Air, den kendete folkemelodi, arrangeret af Mathisen i 1945. Det er hvad man den gang betegnede som ‘sweet’. Påfaldende er fraværet af improviserede soli. Til gengæld får vi melodien spillet af basunen i Tommy Dorsey stil, og som duo for tenorsax og klaver.
Tak til Tore Mortensen og Jazzcentret i Aalborg, samt til Tobias Bendixen og JazzDanmark.
Nearly 50 years after Ellington’s death, Duke’s music still continues to inspire young musicians. One of them is Laura Jurd. For those of you who haven’t heard about her, she is a British award-winning trumpet player, composer and bandleader. Very active on the UK scene, Laura has developed a reputation as one of the most creative young musician in recent years.
There are many similarities between Ellington’s and Jurd’s music. Just as the blues is always a fundamental element in Ellington’s music, Jurd likewise draws on folk music from her heritage. She doesn’t accept boundaries in music either, and her music reaches far beyond so called jazz music.
If you listen through the 8 albums or so she has made so far, and the many recordings available on YouTube, you will find several pieces related to Ellington. One of them is Billy Strayhorn’s composition Absinthe from 1963. She recorded it for the album To the Earth, released in 2020, with her regular quartet Dinosaur, together with 6 of her own compositions.
This new interpretation of this relatively obscure Strayhorn tune, is done with much respect to the original, but at the same time, the four musicians manages to give it a modern touch. It’s also quite remarkable how well Strayhorn’s tune fits in with Jurd’s own compositions.
Like Absinthe, the next track also originates from the Afro Bossa album. It is Ellington’s own composition Purple Gazelle. Jurd recorded a duo version for YouTube in 2020 with drummer Corrie Dick, also af member of the quartet Dinosaur.
There are many similarities between Jurd’s playing and the style of the Ellington trumpets. When you listen, you will notice a lot of growl and plunger work, witch often reminds me of Ray Nance. She also does valve effects, like squeezing the note and making tremolos and trills using alternative fingering, much like Rex Steward did (think of Frantic Fantasy for example).
Like Duke’s musicians, Laura also likes to invent new sounds on the instrument. On Purple Gazelle you will hear a short section (0:43) where she plays with a buzzing sound. This is done by inserting a kazoo into the bell. I have never heard anyone else do that.
In 2021, she made a solo recording of Absinthe for YouTube. Here you can hear her play some pedal notes. Every trumpet player can do that, but it’s rarely used as anything more than a technical exercise. Here she implies these low notes to good effect, with good sound and intonation, and so did Rex Steward occasionally back in the days (think of the cadenza from Boy meets horn for example.)
The last example is Jurd’s own composition Jump Cut Shuffle, written for the Ligeti String Quartet in 2016, and included on the album Stepping Back, Jumping In, released in 2019. The piece is inspired by Ellington and Strayhorn’s The Queen’s Suite from 1959. Here is a short video by Laura explaining the idea behind the piece.
As Jurd states in the video, it is not an arrangement of The Queen’s Suite. Instead, she has taken small sections from Ellington and Strayhorn’s work and used them as a starting point for her own composition. Although not an arrangement, there are several easily recognizable bits of Ellingtonia in the piece. The most obvious, is probably Paul Gonsalves’ break heard several times during the Northern Lights movement. It is first presented solo in the viola (1:35), and later as a canon between all four strings (5:41). The beginning of Lightning Bugs and Frogs is also clearly heard as a cannon (1:07), played pizzicato by all four string players. There are several others. Try for yourself and see how many you can find.
And if you haven’t had enough Laura Jurd at this point, i recommend listening to her latest album, released this september, entitled The Big Friendly Album.
Recommended albums by Laura Jurd:
Laura Jurd: The Big Friendly Album (Big Friendly Records, 2022)
