Swiss Jazz Orchestra

History

Members of the Big Band of the Swiss Jazz School (SJS) in Bern grew tired of losing the graduating and now excellent musicians decided to create a Big Band to continue playing together later on. That’s when the Swiss Jazz Orchestra (SJO) was founded. During the first season, orchestra performed at Marian‘s Jazzroom in Bern.

Organisation

One of the reasons this anniversary can be celebrated is also thanks to the roots that the Bernese surgeon and Jazzinsider Ulrich Althaus planted for this orchestra: It was he who founded the “Association Swiss Jazz Orchestra” (Verein Swiss Jazz Orchestra (VSJO)) on February 9, 2004. The main purpose of the association is to lay a financial and administrative basis for the SJO. Althaus caught attention and support for that project amongst the general public. Following Ulrich Althaus, Hans Rudolf Isliker took on the role as president of the Association Swiss Jazz Orchestra (VSJO) until in 2012 Peter Knutti was elected as the current president of the VSJO. For many years, musicians from the band did the management themselves (Till Grünewald, Klaus Widmer, Johannes Walter and Thomas Knuchel), until in 2012 Angela Schenker was hired as the manager in part-time. Together with Peter Knutti and the musician’s deputies they form the business administration.

Monday Big Band Jazz Nights

The Monday Big Band Jazz Nights are a series of concerts that takes place every Monday night at the Bierhübeli in Bern. The series has a rotation of different themes (Latin-, Tribute-, Gala- and Groove-Night), which give the orchestra the opportunity to practice its skills in different grooves and styles. The Swiss Jazz Orchestra is the only Bigband (in Switzerland) that performs a series of concerts on a regular basis. It means great effort to work on an at least partially new repertoire each week. The Monday Big Band Jazz Nights form the backbone and help realize other advanced projects that include CD-productions and touring within Switzerland) and abroad. The program of the Monday Big Band Jazz Nights contains a rotation of four different themes: The Groove-Night focusses on tricky and unusual rhythms, the Latin-Night takes the audience to Latin-American spheres. Furthermore, the SJO has obtained a diverse repertoire of the most different stylistics by all kinds of well-known composers. Once each month, a particular artist or a more general subject that derives from the history of Jazz is featured in the so called Tribute-Night. The fourth category of concerts is the Gala-Night: for these concerts, a special guest-musician or guest-band-leader is invited, who enriches the program through his or her own music, expertise and personality.

Division of Powers and musical direction

It is very unusual for an orchestra to have not one, but multiple leaders who derive from the orchestra itself. Philip Henzi explains the reasons for that as follows: “Why there is not only one musical leader goes back to the early days of its foundation: The orchestra has been founded by three people. Because we appreciate and depend on the impetus, the motivation and ideals of each band member, we try to have all interests of the band represented democratically amongst the musical leaders. Presumably that is the reason for the consistency in the line-up of our musicians. Furthermore, the large number of tasks (concerning the preparation of programs, the communication with guest-soloists and also the coordination of the rehearsals) makes it almost impossible for one person alone to manage it.“

Current musical leaders: Stefan Schlegel, Johannes Walter, Philip Henzi , Lukas Thöni , Dave Blaser , Andreas Tschopp , Jürg Bucher

Former leaders: George Robert, Stephan Geiser, Daniel Woodtli

CDs

The versatileness of the orchestra is reflected in its numerous CD-productions. Different musical leaders contributed to the making of really different albums, ranging from live concerts conducted by the Swiss Jazz legend Pepe Lienhard (Live mit Pepe Lienhard, (Mons Records , 2005)) to collaborations with pop-singers with a nation-wide reputation, such as Sina, Polo Hofer and Kuno Lauener (I schänke dir mis Härz) on (Buebetröim, (2007/2009)). The project Paul Klee (2006) in cooperation with the American pianist and composer Jim McNeely has been the most challenging for the orchestra so far. The compositions were inspired by the drawings and paintings of the Bern-based artist Paul Klee and the CD gained national and international appreciation. For the album Buebetröim ("Boys' dreams"), the SJO asked singers like Büne Huber and Sina to join their production. In 2008, the SJO recorded another CD with Camerata Bern, Markus Stockhausen and Philip Henzi which bears the name Tanzendes Licht & Trimorphum ("Dancing Light & Trimorphum") (Aktivraum AG). The guest-soloist on Close Encounter (Mons Records, 2009) was the Swiss/Argentinian bandoneon-player Michael Zisman. It almost seems like the orchestra tried to quote itself or to recall its roots, when, in 2012 Bert Joris resumed to play a big role in leading the band for the recording of Lucidity – 25 years after he obtained the leadership of the Jazz-School-Conservatoire Big Band. Concerning all the recordings, it is important to draw attention to Philip Henzi: Each and every CD of the Swiss Jazz Orchestra contains arrangements, most of the albums also compositions of his. Lucidity has entirely been composed by him, a humorous element apparent in many of the titles. Two CDs were released in 2013: one is a live-CD that has been recorded during the 38th International Jazzfestival Bern at the venue Marian‘s Jazzroomand features the Argentinian-Swiss bandoneon-player Michael Zisman, the Cuban saxophonist Paquito d’Rivera and the Brazilian trumpet-player Claudio Roditi. The second CD that has been released in 2013 named „Sincerely Yours“ offers a cross section of the repertoire from live-concerts during the last couple of years. The title aims at the audience, being the ones that make the anniversary of the band possible at all and ensures the continuation of the band’s ambitions.

Cultural Award 2010 of the „Burgergemeinde“ of Bern

Kulturpreis 2010 der Burgergemeinde Bern

The cultural prize of the Burgergemeinde (engl. Inherited Citizen Community) of the city of Bern is awarded once a year to a group or an organization or a cultural institution for outstanding contribution to the welfare of cultural life in Bern. In 2010 the prize was awarded to the Swiss Jazz Orchestra. The committee especially honored the success story of the SJO, which is founded on the Monday Big Band Nights at the venue Bierhübeli in Bern. During a period of eight months of each year, these concerts are performed in a unique frequency and quality. Two other aspects were honored: first the international reputation of the orchestra, resulting from the long lasting cooperation with famous bandleaders, composers and musicians, second the fact that the musicians – despite earning a humble salary – play top-class concerts, a sign for their commitment. The cultural award also influenced the Swiss Jazz Orchestra itself, planning an ambitious future. On one hand, the prize can be considered as a reward, on the other hand the orchestra is bound to invest in a sustainable future. The SJO wants to increase its offering of being a platform for the very best young Jazz-musicians, so that they can demonstrate their abilities as artists in a segment, that has gained a higher reputation by the modern system. Also, the orchestra makes the invitation of more special guests of sounding name their business to attract more people. Future projects are planned to strengthen the role of the orchestra in the top league.

Lineup

The lineup of the Swiss Jazz Orchestras changed a lot throughout the ten years since it was founded: While some chairs still bare the original musicians that started the band in the first place, some positions had quick changes. The list of former band members is therefore pretty diversified:

Saxophones

Trumpets

Trombones

Rhythm-Section

Piano: Philip Henzi Guitar: Nick Perrin (since 2006), Nikolay Karageorgiev (2010-2012) Double Bass: Lorenz Beyeler E-Bass: Wolfgang Zwiauer (2004-2008), Antonio Schiavano Drums: Tobias Friedli (since 2003), Fabian Kuratli (2004-2007), Rico Baumann (since 2007) Percussion: Roland Wäger (since 2010)

Substitutes

Following musicians have played as subs for one or more concerts of the SJO, some of them for entire projects: Saxes: Reto Anneler, Florian Egli, Dave Feusi, Thomi Geiger, Cédric Gschwind, Rolf Häsler, Matthias Kohler, Simon Stirnimann, Corinne Windler Trumpets: Sandro Häsler, Julian Hesse, Linus Hunkeler, Nolan Quinn, Balthasar Streit Trombones: Dirk Amrein, Lukas Briggen, Justin Clark, Dave Montreuil, Pavel Pisanko, Jan Schreiner, Nina Thöni, Adrian Weber, Maro Widmer, Lukas Wyss Piano: Stefan Aeby, Florian Favre, Oliver Friedli, Andy Harder Guitar: Marco Figini, Max Frankl, Fabio Pinto, Thomas Sauter Double Bass/E-Bass: Giorgos Antoniou, Hans Ermel, André Pousaz, Christoph Utzinger Drums/Percussion: Pius Baschnagel, Peter Haas, Christoph Mohler, David Stauffacher

Sound-Engineers

Michael Fink, Kaspar Hochuli, Marco Jeger, Raphael Ochsenbein, Martin Ruch, Jan Stehle, Christoph Utzinger

Discography