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Concerts in 2008: Strangers in the Night – The Music of Bert Kaempfert
We are now pleased to announce more concert dates for 2008:
12 February
Frankfurt/M. – Alter Oper
13 February
Hamburg – CCH 1
14 February
Düsseldorf – Tonhalle
15 February
Berlin – Main Hall RBB (Radio concert)
This time the fabulous Berlin Jazz Orchestra, with Jiggs Whigham at the helm, will be presenting Bert Kaempfert’s internationally renowned compositions live in concert in 2008, once again along with the soloists and special guests who took part in the 2006 concert tour.
Jiggs Whigham is not only one of the world’s leading trombone players but is also a band leader and teacher. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he was playing in the Glenn Miller Orchestra under Ray McKinley when only seventeen and, two years later, with Stan Kenton, in both instances as soloist and lead trombone. He came to Germany in 1965, and although it is not easy to list all of the stations in his musical career, he was, for example, director of Berlin’s American Sector Radio (RIAS) big band for five years.
As solo trombonist, Jiggs has performed both live and for studio recordings with all the jazz greats around the globe, as well as frequently guest-conducting a wide variety of big bands. He was elected professor and head of the jazz department at the Cologne conservatory and ultimately appointed Professor for Life and head of the popular-music department at the Hanns Eisler conservatory in Berlin. In the USA he is Artist in Residence at the Cape Cod conservatory, and presently also conductor of the BBC’s big band in Britain and director of the Berlin Jazz Orchestra.
Jörg Achim Keller, born in Zurich in 1966, was a young boy when he first discovered his love for orchestral jazz. He was still at college, studying composition and arranging, when renowned orchestral directors began commissioning his services, and this was then followed up with work for many international stars. He has conducted the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg as well as orchestrating music for films. When he took over the direction of Hessischer Rundfunk’s big band in 2000, he was just thirty-four and thus the youngest chief conductor of a German radio orchestra. And, as from the start of the 2008/09 season, this illustrious conductor and arranger will take up a new post at the helm of North German Radio’s big band.
For this concert event Jörg has taken on the task of arranger, a challenge which he has performed in masterly fashion. For the instrumental numbers he has created transcriptions of Bert Kaempfert’s original arrangements, and for the special guests has written fresh arrangements, without, however, departing from that “Kaempfert touch”. Jörg has thus succeeded in lending the music a wholly new dimension, demonstrating yet again the versatility of this outstandingly innovative musician.
The Berlin Jazz Orchestra was founded by Marc Secara in 2000, and the following year Jiggs Whigham took over as artistic director. As their chief conductor he has moulded this orchestra into a vibrant entity, which has since become one of the most famous ensembles of its type in Germany, treating audiences to exceptional concerts with a wide variety of on-stage programmes.
In 2004, for example, the orchestra was invited by the German government to tour Europe for several weeks as the Federal Republic’s “musical calling card and cultural ambassador” with the aim of extending a harmonious welcome to the new EU member states. This was followed by an invitation from German President, Horst Köhler, to attend his summer reception in 2006. Over the years the orchestra has given countless radio concerts, with many a top-class singer collaborating with this Berlin all-star ensemble.
In order to reproduce Bert Kaempfert’s authentic and distinctive orchestral sound, the Berlin Jazz Orchestra will be augmented for this special concert event by the Frankfurt Strings and the Berlin Voices.
Herb Geller, a native of Los Angeles and only fourteen when he decided to take up the alto saxophone, had his first professional engagement just two years later. He has played with innumerable jazz greats and enjoys worldwide recognition. His career led him via Brazil, Portugal and France to Germany in 1962, where he played with the American Sector Radio (RIAS) big band for three years, before then moving to Hamburg.
For twenty-eight years he was one of the outstanding musicians who helped form North-German Radio’s dance band into the station’s avant-garde big band of today. From 1968 onwards he was also soloist with the Bert Kaempfert orchestra both in the recording studio and on tour. Today, in addition to projects of his own, Herb is professor for saxophone at the Hamburg conservatory.
Ladi Geisler, was born in Prague, but the events of World War II brought him to North Germany. And it was at that time, when both men were doing the rounds of the night clubs, that Ladi met up with “Fips”, as Bert Kaempfert was affectionately known to his friends.
Although Ladi had a solo career as “Mr Guitar”, from the outset he was a firm member – for thirty years no less – of Kaempfert’s orchestra, and, through his unique bass-guitar style, that legendary plucked-suppressed bass beat, he made a decisive contribution to the typical Kaempfert sound. Ladi Geisler today has many irons in the fire, for, as he says, “Work keeps me young.”
Ack van Rooyen, who hails from the Netherlands, can look back on a memorable career and today is writing European jazz history, with simply no end to the list of renowned artists and big bands he has performed with all over the world.
In 1974 Bert Kaempfert succeeded in persuading this grand master of the flugelhorn to join his orchestra as featured soloist, with the result that Ack’s inimitable style helped Kaempfert make his arrangements even more exclusive. As Ack’s brother Jerry once summed it up: “It’s as if the flugelhorn had been invented just for Ack.” Today Ack works with his own jazz quintet as well as with the Dutch Jazz Orchestra, makes guest appearances at major venues throughout Europe, runs jazz workshops and teaches at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
→ www.jazzmasters.nl/ackvanrooyen.htm
Sylvia Vrethammar: Born on the west coast of Sweden, her musical career began when she started singing at amateur music festivals at the tender age of sixteen, and through a combination of talent and hard work very soon became a singer of international repute. As the “queen of samba”, she toured countries as far apart as Brazil, Scandinavia, the former Soviet Union, Argentina and China, at the same time finding time not only for recordings and successful excursions into the world of popular music but also for TV specials of her own.
Her passion for singing both swing and jazz is documented through her collaboration with well-known artists and big bands in Germany, Britain, Scandinavia and the Netherlands. It was in 1979 that Sylvia was first invited by Bert Kaempfert to guest-star on a TV special of his, and this creative partnership continued over week-long tours of Germany, Switzerland and Britain right up until Kaempfert’s untimely death.
Marc Secara was fifteen when he formed his first band. He studied at the Hanns Eisler conservatory in Berlin, was awarded a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and at the age of twenty was already going on his first major tours as guest star and soloist, taking part in record productions and giving concerts on the radio in the USA and throughout Europe. Marc founded the Berlin Jazz Orchestra in 2000, which has since established a firm place for itself in the big-band world. Born in 1976, this versatile young artist not only has a remarkable musical career to his credit already, but can definitely look forward to a great career in the future as well, for his singing appearances, wherever they may be, are met with quite sensational success.
Marc is a singer who performs songs from the Bert Kaempfert repertoire in such a way that he can easily be ranked alongside other illustrious interpreters of Kaempfert’s music like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat King Cole.
Joja Wendt is a person who again and again takes up new challenges, not least because this star pianist has music in his veins and no end of playful whim in his head! As a virtuoso on the grand piano and a master of many different styles of music, he plays simply everything: from jazz, ballads and boogie-woogie to inspired arrangements of the classics. Just four years old when he discovered that the piano was the instrument for him, he later studied music at the Hilversum conservatory in the Netherlands and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, and with his motto, “Playing piano’s fun”, has been filling major concert halls for several years now.
He also finds time for composing, for TV specials and CD productions – and for an excursion to join the “Strangers in the Night – The Music of Bert Kaempfert” concert tour, where he will be guiding the audience through the evening in his own charming manner as well as performing some of the composer’s numbers in his quite inimitable style.
The Berlin Voices – Esther Kaiser (Sopran/Alt), Sarah Kaiser (Sopran/Alt), Marc Secara (Tenor) und Kristofer Benn (Bariton) – combine the influences of modern jazz with elements of the styles to be found in popular music, soul and gospel, yet remain true to the tradition of such magnificent vocal groups as Manhattan Transfer and Take Six.
For Bert Kaempfert, this group of singers was an essential part of his sound, and at this concert they will be offering proof not only of their qualities as backing vocalists but also as solo performers. Two male singers and two female singers — four voices blending together to form one vibrant whole.
The Frankfurt Strings, a group of outstanding young string players, who have come together for this concert.
Concertedly with the singers of Berlin Voices they complete the Berlin Jazz Orchestra to a large orchestral ensemble to recreate the authentic and unmistakable sound of the Bert Kaempfert orchestra.
Information on the 2006 concert tour → here.