GERMANY: ECHOES OF SWING at world's largest and most renowned PIANO FESTIVAL

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

GERMANY: ECHOES OF SWING at world's largest and most renowned PIANO FESTIVAL

ECHOES OF SWING

Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes

- at world's largest and most renowned piano festival -

Ruhr Piano Festival draws 50.000 listeners in 65 concerts

Concert at 'Klavierfestival Ruhr' (Germany): May 16th, 2015

Hailed as “the most important piano festival in the world” (FonoForum), the Ruhr Piano Festival annually presents about 65 concerts from early May to late July, drawing an audience of more than 50.000 people and featuring artists of top international standing in an unrivalled quantity and frequency. The great masters of their craft - including Daniel Barenboim, Alfred Brendel, Chick Corea, Hélène Grimaud, Herbie Hancock, Abdullah Ibrahim, Keith Jarrett, Lang Lang, Maurizio Pollini, André Previn, Grigory Sokolov - regularly honor Festival Director Franz Xaver Ohnesorg’s invitation to perform a multifaceted series of unique recitals and concerts in the Ruhr region.

For the first time the renowned festival is presenting a classic jazz ensemble. There are only a few remaining tickets available for the ECHOES OF SWING concert on May 16th, 2015 at the Monforts Quartier in Mönchengladbach, Germany.

More information:

http://www.klavierfestival.de

http://www.klavierfestival.de/EchoesOfSwing

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Recent ECHOES OF SWING Album:

BLUE PEPPER (ACT music)

>THE TOP 15 JAZZ CDs OF 2014<

Scott Yanow

>One of Europe’s truly great small jazz ensembles<

CD HOTLIST, Rick Anderson

>Breath taking - these cats are the soul of professionals with heart. A killer jazz outing that you just have to hear to believe, this is a winner throughout!<

MIDWEST RECORD, Chris Spector

>If there is one group from Europe that deserves to do a stateside tour, it is ECHOES OF SWING - majestic music<

JERSEY JAZZ, Joe Lang

>A supercharged John Kirby group with Dizzy and Bird sitting in while at intervals the Lion shoves Al Haig off the piano stool. I've always liked the band and their swinging intricacies, but now they seem even more adventurous - the 'Echoes* are dedicated to something more expansive than recreating already established music<

JAZZ LIVES, Michael Steinman

>Authentic, relaxed, joyful and highly musical - if this music doesn’t brighten your day, well, you may need a prescription of sorts<

JAZZSCENE, George Fendel

>Vintage music without a hint of Brylcreem, punctilious arrangements with an effervescent sense of swing.<

THE SUNDAY TIMES

>There's evidence all the way through this album of clever thought. The foursome's collective swing expertise is a joy to hear.<

JAZZWISE, Peter Vacher

>It's hard to believe at first that there are only four instruments here. The arrangements are so ingenious, and the playing so nimble, that it could be at least twice that number. But listen closely and you will discover just a quartet of trumpet, alto saxophone, piano and drums – with absolutely no electronic tricks. The style is sophisticated small-band swing, the material a judicious mixture of originals and swing-era numbers and there is not a hint of whiskery nostalgia in any of it. It's about time this idiom received some fresh attention and here's the perfect curtain-raiser.<

**** 4 star review ****

THE GUARDIAN/THE OBSERVER, Dave Gelly

>The playing on this album is of a very high standard and the 15 tracks cover a lot of ground. So you’ll find Bechet, Ellington, and Fats Waller songs here and picks for me include Paolo Conte’s perky ‘Azzurro’, and an inventive arrangement and performance of ‘Blue Moon’ and a lovely take on 'Blue River' with the line Dawson sings softly against honky-tonk piano, Catlett-like drums and Benny Carter-like sax 'Do you hold the memory of a vanished dream?' the burning question you imagine all four players want to ask throughout the album.<

MARLBANK, Stephen Graham

>How would swing have evolved if bebop had never come along? Echoes Of Swing, a superb quartet gives a few possible clues on Blue Pepper. The music of Echoes Of Swing is never predictable and always thought-provoking.<

LOS ANGELES JAZZSCENE, Scott Yanow

>A wonderful collection, each track is a gem! 'Echoes of Swing' collectively presents an approach like no other quartet, while individually each player is a master.<

Dick Hyman