John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

Funky Friday with Barbara Bruckmueller: Big Band Album of the Year, 2013

And the Big Band Album of the Year for 2013 is...  The debut recording of the Barbara Bruckmueller Big Band.  Yes, 2013, and I'm only half joking.

I've been a fan of Barbara and her band for a couple of years.  I love her sensibility as a composer.  She's deeply embedded in the jazz tradition, but is by no means bound by it.  Her compositions happily embrace other influences; the sounds that she creates are fresh, gorgeous, soulful.  Not surprisingly, her band attracts fantastic musicians.

 

Barbara Bruckmueller Big Band, Vienna, Austria, August 2012.

In the video above, Barbara talks about her band's new album, which will be released in March 2013.  I'm betting right now that it will be my favorite big band recording of the year.

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I've written about Barbara twice before.  You can read those posts here and here and listen to a couple of terrific arrangements -- one is an original tune, the other is by Duke Ellington.  Fine and funky playing, straight from Vienna, Austria.

Soulful Sunday: Duke Ellington, "Come Sunday," Barbara Bruckmueller Big Band

One of the happiest things that happened to me in 2011 was being introduced to the music of Barbara Bruckmüller.  Barbara is a young Austrian composer, arranger, and conductor who's been leading a big band in Vienna for the last several years.  She's been following two related paths -- reimaging the music of jazz greats and her developing own funkified, rocked-out sounds.  I wish I'd stumbled across her sooner.

This reworking of Duke Ellington's great hymn is terrific.  I love it.  I bet that you will, too.

 

 

Come Sunday:  Written by Duke Ellington / arranged by Barbara Bruckmüller

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 The Barbara Bruckmüller Big Band:

Soloists on "Come Sunday":  Cédric Gschwind, tenor saxophone; Karl Sayer, bass.

Barbara Bruckmüller:  composer, arranger
Andi See, Viola Falb, Cédric Gschwind, Martin Harms, Florian Fennes:  saxophones
Andi Pranzl, Bastian Stein, Simon Plötzeneder:  trumpets
Hermann Ebner, Michael Handler:  French horns
Robert Bachner, Mario Vavti, Martin Grünzweig:  trombones
Hepi Kohlich:  piano
Peter Panayi:  guitar
Karl Sayer:  bass
Wolfgang Kendl:  drums

Recorded at Porgy and Bess, Vienna, Austria, 3 January 2012.

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PS  You can check out more of Barbara's music on her website, here.

Funky Friday: "Tigger's Bounce," Barbara Bruckmueller Big Band

Funky Friday from Vienna, Austria?  You bet.

For the last few years, the young Austrian composer, arranger, and conductor Barbara Bruckmueller and her band have been cooking up a tasty musical gumbo in the wilds of central Europe.  All sorts of good things go into their pot -- ballads, New Orleans styles, odd meters, the Great American Songbook, Brazilian music, funk, rock, punk, and a little chanson.  That list might look like a mish-mash, but, like good Louisiana chefs, Brockmueller and company bring it all together.

The video below is a terrific example.  It's from a gig just a week or so ago at Porgy and Bess, a club in Vienna.  It starts slow, and it ends big.

 

 

 

The Barbara Bruckmueller Big Band:

Andi See, Viola Falb, Cédric Gschiwnd, Martin Harms, Florian Fennes:  saxophones

Andi Pranzl, Bastian Stein, Simon Plötzeneder:  trumpets

Robert Bachner, Mario Vavti, Martin Grünzweig:  trombones

Hermann Ebner, Michael Handler:  French horns

Hepi Kohlich:  piano

Peter Panayi:  guitar

Karl Saye (subbing for Gina Schwarz)r:  bass

Wolfgang Kendl:  drums

Barbara Bruckmüller:  composer, arranger, leader

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Yes, it's Friday the 13th.  If anything's going to bring you luck on this trickster rabbit of a day, it's good music.  Spend the day listening, that's my advice.