In 1960, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn arranged their own virtuoso adaptation of Tchaikovsky's ballet “The Nutcracker” for the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Klaus Henner Russius reads E. T. A. Hoffmann's “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” more...

Dave Taylor has been the world’s most influential bass trombonist since he emerged on the New York music scene in the late 1960s. If you’re not a brass player, you may never have heard his name, but you’ve certainly heard his playing. Dave Taylor’s distinctive bass trombone sound can be heard on hundreds of albums, […]

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30 years Jazzclub Thalwil The Thalwil Jazz Club is 30 years old. It is therefore fitting that the Zurich Jazz Orchestra has been planning a no less impressive anniversary for some time: Sarah Vaughan, who was born in 1924, would have turned 100 this year. 1924 was a good year for jazz: Sammy Nestico was […]

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«Female Composers»-Series Some time ago, the ZJO launched the “Female Composers” series. This October, composer and pianist Nikki Iles will be visiting the Zurich Jazz Orchestra. “Iles is one of the most refreshing personalities to emerge on the British jazz scene in recent times, with a fluid sound and a supple, quirky phrasing as an […]

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A Duke Ellington best-of program In recent years, the Zurich Jazz Orchestra has specialized in the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn and performed the original arrangements of the albums “Far East Suite”, “Such Sweet Thunder”, “The Nutcracker” and “And His Mother Called Him Bill”. Now the time has come and we present a […]

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When we played the “Far East Suite” at the Kulturmarkt a year ago in June, the interest was huge. So we promised then that we would come back with a new Ellington program. We are now making good on that promise – with a program that we have never played before. “Billy Strayhorn was my […]

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Yumi Ito, a Swiss singer with Polish-Japanese roots, moves effortlessly between genres and her roles as singer, pianist, composer and improviser. She has performed with the ZJO twice before, and this experience will benefit the third collaboration. Ed Partyka says: “I’m really looking forward to arranging some of Yumi’s brand new compositions. I now have […]

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The art of jazz arranging has been around for 100 years, and the Zurich Jazz Orchestra will explore some of the most interesting and important arrangements written for big band in this first century of the art form’s development – a kind of best-of program as a retrospective of the season’s theme «The Art of […]

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Almost exactly ten years have passed since Thomas Gansch’s first appearance with the ZJO. Today he is a good friend of the band and a favorite of the ZJO audience. The basic concept of the evening therefore remains the same: musical fireworks, fun, unconventional, crazy. Gansch and the ZJO have already performed everything imaginable together: […]

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*** Unfortunately, Theo Bleckmann had to cancel his performance on February 9 due to illness. Fortunately, Matthias Knoche from Berlin has agreed to interpret the Georg Kreisler songs. Many thanks to Matthias for standing in! We wish Theo a speedy recovery! So it remains an evening full of fine humor, biting satire and fat big […]

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