UNRELEASED WDR JAZZ RECORDINGS 1957/1974

Description

About ten meters below the stage of the main hall of the WDR Studio in Cologne, in the catacombs, a treasure of jazz music has been hidden for decades, and it is time to reveal it to you. This anthology of Kurt Edelhagen seeks to portray the development of the Edelhagen Big Band at WDR Cologne and its reactions to changes in the world of jazz over time - from cool jazz and hard bop to free jazz. This portrait of Edelhagen’s Orchestra is also something else: a history of the mainly European jazz musicians who composed and arranged for the ensemble. It is thanks to Jimmy Deuchar, Derek Humble, Stuff Combe, Rokovic and other members of the orchestra that Edelhagen’s early repertoire in Cologne was transformed into music for larger ensembles, breaking away from the traditional American Big Band. Great European arrangers, such as the Dutch trumpeter Rob Pronk or the Belgian pianist Francis Boland, worked with the Edelhagen group. They all played their part in shaping and restructuring this orchestra over the years. An essential 3-CD and 3-vinyl box set by the Master of German and European Jazz.