// press
ABOUT “STREAM”
…ein Album, das im modernistischen Jazzalltag aus dem Rahmen fällt.
JAZZ THING, Ralf Dombrowski
Schaut man in die Besetzungslisten der wichtigsten Alben der modernen Jazzgeschichte von Wes Montgomery über Jimmy Smith, Stan Getz oder Herbie Hancock bis zu Miles Davis, dann findet man verblüffend oft den Namen Billy Hart als Schlagzeuger. Von seinen Lebensmittelpunkten New York und Kopenhagen aus war er an mehr als 800 Einspielungen beteiligt. Der famose, in Hamburg und New York lebende Schweizer Posaunist Christophe Schweizer hat jetzt für das Münchner Label Enja ein paar europäische Kollegen zusammengetrommelt, die Hart so verehren wie er selbst, um mit dem Meister seinen 80. Geburtstag zu feiern. Hart beweist bei den seine Traditionslinie aufnehmenden Modern-Jazz-Kompositionen seiner Verehrer samt finalem Standard (“Body and Soul”) einmal mehr, wie energisch und variabel er eine Band vorantreiben und in neue Richtungen lenken kann.
SÜDDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, Oliver Hochkeppel
A spaceship which takes us on a long trip.
LE SOIR, Jean-Claude Vantroyen
Zeitlos moderner Jazz, in dem sich eine sangliche Melodik und abstrakte Strukturen zu einem betörend eleganten Ganzen verbinden.
JAZZ’N’MORE, Georg Modestin
ABOUT “THE BROADER PICTURE”
// JazzTimes January / February 2017
Billy Hart is beyond a “first-call” drummer. He is all but inescapable. It is not surprising for him to turn up almost anywehere. Except in Germany, leading a big band.
……Hart’s writing is like his drumming theatrical and suspenseful. You never know when turbulence will be unleashed.
….Schweizer makes you think of Gil Evans.
The WDR Big Band, based in Köln, is one of the many capable regional radio orchestras of Europe. It nails Schweizter’s challenging charts and is full of badass soloists like Heller, trumpeter Rob Bruynen, alto saxophonist Karolina Strassmayer, trombonist Andy Hunter, and pianist Frank Chastenier.That a project as improbable and international and powerful as this one got made gives one hope for the survival of big-band jazz.
Editor’s pick – by Thomas Conrad
// JazzIz Magazine March 2017 (feature article on Bllly Hart)
Billy Hart is a study in contradictions.
The drummer, composer and bandleader has been associated with some of the most iconic performers in jazz history, including John Coltrane and Miles Davis, and while he’s well known as a creative an versatile sideman, recordings under his own name are highly treasured by aficionados of the genre, too. Indeed, the 76-year-old’s latest albums with the Billy Hart Quartet and the all-star ensemble dubbed The Cookers, as well as THE BROADER PICTURE (ENJA / YELLOWBIRD), a vibrant offering that teams him with the
WDR Big Band, are among his finest ever.
Michael Roberts
The Broader Picture (enja/yellowbird) of Billy Hart & The WDR Big Band is so dexterous you could probably listen to it nine times straight and hear new things on that ninth listen. Swiss arranger/conductor Christophe Schweizer has outdone himself. ….Hart’s compositions from different eras of his career are ripe for reinvention…you simply cannot take it all in on first listen or second or even third listen…Excuse me but I just got to go back and dig on this thing again.
Mike Greenblatt
// Down Beat
“…thoroughly examined reflections over Hart’s tunes…..boldly panoramic, and Schweizer’s charts unfold atlas-like into a full stretch cinemascopic love-out….Quite an earful.”
Fred Bouchard (Down Beat – 4 stars out of 5)
// The Buffalo News
“The key name here is Christophe Schweizer (…) Schweizer’s arrangements…put him in the same class as Bob Brookmeyer and Maria Schneider. (…) A radiant disc of Jazz orchestral music with rich, sensual textures and fine soloists…..majestic.”
Jeff Simon (3,5 stars out of 4)
// www.steptempest.blogspot.com
The Broader Picture” (ENJA/Yellowbird), is nearly 80 minutes long although it feels like half that length. ….contemporary feel with arrangements that open to fine solos with sectional writing that may remind some of Gil Evans, Bob Brookmeyer, and Jim McNeely.
…..Echoes of Maria Schneider’s atmospheric sound…….In a year of superlative recordings, “The Broader Picture” stands out. Give this music the time it deserves and demands; enjoyment will ensue!
…(An) engrossing and brilliant affair. ….Eight Hart pieces are given expansive big band treatments here, highlighting the composer’s way with the pen and his easily identifiable, impossible-to-duplicate drumming. If anybody but Hart had been in the driver’s seat (a.k.a. on the drum throne) this would’ve been a very different recording…..proves to be a thrill ride with punching brass, hard-hitting drums, and relentless enthusiasm……more reasons to appreciate the way that Hart and Schweizer balance melodic thought, humor, and strength in this substantial work. The teacher and the pupil have become colleagues, and the results couldn’t sound any better.
Dan Bilawsky
// www.lance-bebopspokenhere.blogspot.de/
(The blurb (album notes) described the album so accurately that, rather than add my own punitive comments, I decided to post it verbatim rather than adding only, that the music ranges from Kenton to Kenny Wheeler and beyond via Clarke/Boland, Jones/Lewis, the Liberation Orchestra and more – it’s compelling)
Lance Bryant
// The New York Jazz Record
…..overall, this soundfest of Hart’s music, punctuated by his own playing, invites listening and listening again.
Alan Veléz
// Jazzthetik
….Man spürt die Lust der einzelnen Musiker an dieser Musik, daran, auf den Schwingen von Harts nach wie vor ungebrochen vitalem Schlagzeugspiel in Dimensionen aufzubrechen, in die man sonst mit so einem öffentlich-rechtlichen Soundtanker nur selten gelangt.
Stefan Hentz
// Rondo
…Um Missverständnissen vorzubeugen: mit Avantgarde hat das nichts zu tun. Alles auf THE BROADER PICTURE lässt sich auf bekanntes zurückführen
…nur klingt hier nichts so, wie man es erwarten würde ….das Ergebnis ist erstaunlich und zeigt, was passieren kann, wenn man sich aus seiner
Komfortzone heraus bewegt…
Josef Engels (5 Sterne von 5)
ABOUT “GRAND GRACE”
GRAND GRACE was awarded a honorary mention on the best-of-2015-list (January 2016 issue) of “The New York City Jazz Record” www.nycjazzrecord.com
“…very impressive…” (Cadence Magazine June 2015, Bob Rusch)
“ …..a wizard on the trombone… his broad musical panorama gives a sense of breaking through and exhilaration. His compositions are immensely polished with plenty of room for free improvisation. And yet, the cool awakening produced by the solid framework and momentary groove beat coexist well together…. a graceful dynamism permeates the whole work…” (www.jazztokyo.com (Kayo Fushiya))
“Like a pleasant song heard through multiple car windows in stop-and-go traffic, the music of trombonist Schweizer has a strange tunefulness to accompany its abrupt motions. Staggered tempos warp melodic fragments in mid-air.” (www.birdistheworm.com (Dave Sumner))
“……these cats play off each other nicely and weave a whole that works in a wondrously hypnotic way. Giving you a feeling of space without leaving you adrift, this bunch could have the cynics out there rethinking their feelings about improv. Check it out. (www.midwestrecord.com (Chris Spector))
“ ….geht den möglichst geraden Weg des grösstmöglichen Widerstandes, alle Konventionen ausser acht lassend, nur dem Klang verpflichtet……GRAND GRACE (glänzt) durch die Vermeidung von Wiederholungen, in die Tiefe gehend uns aus ihr…..wieder in den Fokus einer speziellen Sound-Art zurückkehrend: Christophe Schweizer’s Ideenreichtum erfordert die volle Konzertration auf Kreativität, Spontaneität…..Leichtigkeit aus Harmonie und Mut…” (Jazzthetik 7/15, Klaus Hübner (4 von 5 Sternen)
“….wahrscheinlich beständigster und konsequentester Avantgardist…” (Concerto 6/15, Thomas Hein (5 von 5 Sternen)
“…cette musique avance….avec intelligence…” (Pile de Disques, Culture.Jazz.fr, June 2015
“…..Fürwahr: Wer sich auf ”Grand Grace” einlässt, braucht ein auf Überraschungen gefasstes Gehör und eine gesunde Portion Offenheit. Nur so ist der Hörer in der Lage, in die Fülle von Klängen und Einspielungen einzutauchen, diese zu verarbeiten und mental zu einem übergeordneten Ganzen zusammenzufügen.”
(Jazz ‘n’ More June 2015)
“….es kann trotzdem Spass machen, sich durch das komplexe Klanggestrüpp zu schlagen, dafür bürgt schon die Klasse der Protagonisten.” (Jazzthing 7/15, Rolf Thomas)
ABOUT “COCOA”
“Now here at last is a truly extraordinary album in every respect”
Josef Engels in RONDO (2010)
“COCOA stands out like a monolith in today’s musical landscape”
JAZZTHETIK Rolf Thomas (2010)
“The positive spirit and liveliness (of this album) are hard to top”.
JAZZTHING Wolf Kampmann (2010)
“…..if this music is called jazz, it’s because there is no other term for it”.
DIE WELT Stefan Hentz (2010)
„Excellent performance by Christophe Schweizers Quintett MOONSUN, mixing the american tradition with new Jazz from Europe.”
O PUBLICO Portugal (3/15/04,) Moonsun 2004
„From MOONSUN we were offered fresh, innovative music which results from the
contact of American and European experiences. With the contributions of David
Binney (sax) and the astonishing drum technique of Dan Weiss, this resulted in
great music“
CORREIO DA MANHA, Lisbon (3/16/04), Moonsun 2004
“Excellent arrangements and beautiful music: Christophe Schweizer
has something to say in new Jazz”
EXPRESSO Lisbon (3/19/04), Moonsun 2004
ABOUT “5SIX7 PORTAS”
„The most innovative and exciting Jazz concert in Stuttgart in 2003 was beyond any
doubt Christophe Schweizers performance with 5SIX7.“
Concert preview, Stuttgart 2004, Moonsun 2004
„During the last few years, rarely a band has played in such an intricate way with
hidden spaces.“
SCHWEIZER ILLUSTRIERTE Hanspeter Vetsch (about Full Circle Rainbow: DUAL ORBIT“)
„Wonderful compositions, arrangements and resourceful solos throughout this entire gem“
DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY New York (about Normal Garden: PHYSIQUE)
“This is how Jazz in the 21st century is fun!“
JAZZTHETIK Nov. 2002, Henry Altmann (about Normal Garden: PHYSIQUE)
Passion in Jazz works differently: the quintet 5SIX7 dissects trombonist and
bandleader Christophe Schweizer’s compositions with coldblooded precision.(…)
All of this, and this is what’s the artistry of 5SIX7, without giving way to academic stiffness.”
DER TAGESSPIEGEL, Berlin, May 2001
„(..) A great relief amidst the ubiquitous „anything goes“ .Could this be the renaissance of modernism announcing itself ?“
Peter Ruedi,
DIE WELTWOCHE, 2001 (about 5SIX7)
„Schweizer’s performance with 5SIX7 is among the most exciting experiences to be found in modern Jazz has to offer.“ DER BUND, Bern, 2001
„…I count Schweizer, together with trombonists such as Nils Wogram and Conrad
Herwig, among today’s greats on his instrument….”
JazzNmore, 2001 (Johannes Anders