„It is the authenticity, music constantly on the move, full of energy, lightness, and melancholia, that I find so fascinating about Sidney Bechet. His spirit, which transforms music into wonderful images, seduced me to delve into his cosmos. Given a contemporary arrangement by Rainer Tempel and played by a large band, a unique dynamic emerged that makes Bechet's music seem timeless.“ (Christof Lauer)
Only very few of today's jazz musicians and fans still know who Sidney Bechet is: one of the founding fathers of jazz. He played the soprano saxophone like no other, and with his French-Creole-inspired compositions, he was a forerunner of jazz's openness to all musical styles. More than ten years ago, ACT owner Siggi Loch, whose passion for jazz was aroused by a Bechet concert that he attended at the age of 15, asked Christof Lauer whether he could imagine doing a project that focused on this jazz pioneer. What Loch was hoping for was an entirely new way of looking at the genius of this New Orleans native, born in 1897, interpreted by someone from a free-jazz background who had developed his unmistakable sound playing with Albert Ayler and Stan Getz, collaborating with the Frankfurt School of Albert Mangelsdorff an...
BesetzungChristof Lauer / soprano & tenor saxophone
Hubert Nuss / piano
Patrice Héral / drums
NDR Bigband conducted by Rainer Tempel
Recorded at Studio 1 at NDR Hamburg, 16.09. - 20.09.2013, except September recorded by Hrólfur Vagnsson at Kehreinstudio Frankfurt, 02.04.2014
NDR recording team:
Recording engineer: Michael Plötz
Tonmeister: Hrólfur Vagnsson
Sound technician (recording): Jens Kunze
Mixed by Sven Kohlwage
Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann
A Norddeutscher Rundfunk production, 2013
Producers for NDR: Axel Dürr & Stefan Gerdes
Cover art by Imi Knoebel / ACT Art Collection
