Zurich Jazz Orchestra featuring Sandy Patton (voc)
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 also born then. The arranger and composer worked for Count Basie from 1970. Nestico was also the recording director for many Basie albums, four of which won a Grammy. Sammy Nestico also arranged for artists such as Phil Collins, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.
Sammy Nestico also wrote arrangements for Sarah Vaughan and the Basie Band, such as “Just Friends”, “When Your Lover Has Gone” and “Indian Summer”. Count Basie would have been – it really is the year of anniversaries – 120 years old. The Zurich Jazz Orchestra pays tribute to one of the most famous jazz bandleaders in history with a set of his pieces.
In the first set of the concert, the ZJO presents Count Basie’s “Kansas City Suite”. It was this unerring timing and incredible drive that made the Count Basie Orchestra the epitome of swinging joie de vivre back then. The 10-movement “Kansas City Suite” was composed by Benny Carter especially for Count Basie and the outstanding soloists of his orchestra, which at the time included Marshal Royal, Frank Wess, Frank Foster, Thad Jones, Snooky Young, Al Gray and Sonny Payne. The individual song titles all pay homage to places, streets and clubs in Kansas City, where Basie began his career in the 1920s.
The second set of the evening is dedicated to the songs of Sarah Vaughan, whose 100th birthday we are celebrating this year. Sandy Patton will be on stage with the ZJO on vocals. Patton comes from Michigan, was on tour with Lionel Hampton for three years and performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Cab Calloway, Paquito D’Rivera and many others. She has lived and worked in Switzerland since the early nineties and taught singing at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern. Sandy Patton received the arrangements for the songs she interprets with the ZJO directly from the arranger Sammy Nestico. Sandy will hopefully reveal how this came about at the concert.
Jazzclub Thalwil in collaboration with kulturüschlikon
