Moss / ‘Out of the Desert’ hr-Bigband feat. Joachim Kühn Trio

Moss

All About Jazz celebrated him as “German-American Meistersinger” – Theo Bleckmann could hardly be tagged more aptly. The Dortmund-born vocal export and student of Sheila Jordan’s has, together with ‘half’ of the New York Voices, Peter Eldridge and Lauren Kinhan plus all-rounder Kate McGarry, founded a vocal quartet with the sophistication and refinement, which only seems to be exceeded by the relaxed manner of their performance.

It is the cabaret scene as independent as typical for New York, like at Café Carlyle, that seems to incite phenomena such as Moss. Artists like Eartha Kitt and Bobby Short, Elaine Stritch and John Pizzarelli come to mind who were and still are the force behind a culture of entertainment that for some by now might already be covered with “moss”. But what pleasure it is to rest one’s ears on this moss!

A next generation has now stepped up and it’s great that Theo is involved. The standard remains. The repertoire is becoming broader and more confident: Neil Young? Sure! Joni Mitchell? With pleasure! Tom Waits? More of it, pleeeze!

‘Out of the Desert’ hr-Bigband feat. Joachim Kühn Trio

The great avant-garde pianist Joachim Kühn celebrated his 64th birthday in March, 2008, and spent it in the desert doing what he does best – making music. He played in the middle of the Sahara with Moroccan Berbers, the desert musicians of the “Source Bleue des Meski”, a small oasis near the Algerian border. This is documented on his album Out of the Desert. Kühn, his trio members and the North African musicians share the Maghreb’s heat, its richness of colours and its variety of forms. Departing from this experience and this fundus of material, Kühn wrote a special programme for the hr-Bigband. The 2009 premiere at Deutsches Jazzfestival Frankfurt was an overwhelming success and Frankfurter Allgemeine magazine even praised the stirring performance a “musical miracle”.

Joachim Kühn, first and foremost world-renowned as an imaginative virtuoso, in this project also impressively bears witness to his capabilities as a composer and big band-arranger. His input is the perfect starting point for the vibrant attacks of one of Germany’s longest-serving jazz orchestras which happily contributes all of its wealth of experience reaching from swing to avant-garde.

Moss

Theo Bleckmann vocals
Peter Eldridge vocals
Kate McGarry vocals
Lauren Kinhan vocals
Keith Ganz guitar
Kermit Driscoll bass
John Hollenbeck drums

‘Out of the Desert’ hr-Bigband feat. Joachim Kühn Trio

Ed Partyka conductor
Frank Wellert, Martin Auer, Thomas Vogel, Axel Schlosser trumpet
Günter Bollmann, Peter Feil, Christian Jaksjø trombone
Manfred Honetschläger bass trombone
Heinz-Dieter Sauerborn, Oliver Leicht, Tony Lakatos, Julian Argüelles reeds
Peter Reiter Fender Rhodes
Martin Scales guitar
Thomas Heidepriem bass
Jean Paul Höchstädter drums

Joachim Kühn piano
Majid Bekkas vocals, guembri, oud, kalimba
Ramon Lopez drums, percussion