With Electric Poetry & Lo-Fi Cookies, JAZZ BIGBAND GRAZ combines elements of Bigband-, Pop-, Minimal- & African music in a unique and appealing way.

The Jazz Big Band Graz is one of those large jazz formations that brought a fresh breeze to the big band landscape a few months before the turn of the millennium. On their new CD they simply call themselves JBBG. If that perhaps recalls the reduction of the name Esbjörn Svensson Trio to EST, it is perhaps not entirely unintentional. The logo JBBG symbolizes a new beginning in the virtual age and yet continuity on the basis of modern big band history. Electric Poetry & Lo-Fi Cookies does not exactly sound like jazz purism. On the very first track the listener is hit with hefty electro beats. The winds lie above it like astonished clouds of ambience. On the second track theremin master Barbara Buchholz gives wings to the pack. Gil Evans would have enjoyed this interpretation of big band. 'We are aware of the disparity between the name and the content of the CD,' notes saxophonist Heinrich von Kalnein, who together with the trumpeter Horst-Michael Schaffer has been leading the ensemble to new shores since late 2002. 'We believe that it is important here to bring out the consistency of the big band. But we also want to establish a trademark with the new logo. JBBG stands for an orchestral group that you can call a big band but that also allows for very different kinds of freedom.'
The two visionary orchestra leaders have achieved with their reformed big band something that appears to be impossible in politics. They prove to be diplomats without having to distance themselves from the fray. And they can orient themselves along two sides without having to seek compromises. They can say goodbye to the cliché of the big band but without sacrificing its advantages. Those who never liked big band music, and had their reasons, will be able listen to Electric Poetry & Lo-Fi Cookies without ever thinking of making their ears circle around a big band floor.

Track Listing

• Trancefactor
• Some Days Ago... In The Future
• The Smile Of Smiles
• Shades Of Tango
• Meshell's Dreamland

Additional Details

Label: Intuition

Genre: Jazz

Run Time: 56:34 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 07/25/25

UPC: 750447340725