30 years and still going strong

You could write the band’s history as a story of overcoming obstacles. In the case of the Zurich Jazz Orchestra, this would be the organizational struggle of keeping an almost 20-piece big band on track, finding stages that are large enough, and organizers who are not afraid of a lot of power. Or it could be the constant homelessness, the bankruptcy of the first regular performance opportunity, the “Incognito”, the repeated desperate search for a suitable rehearsal location.

But the story of the ZJO can also be told as a fairy tale. About musicians who set out to invest all their skills and individual styles in a project that did not yet exist in Zurich at the time. Experienced musicians, many of them music teachers, who came together because music thrives on the fact that you sound better together than alone.
In this fairytale context, one must also tell of the many guests, the incredible band leaders, the musicians who have shaped and at the same time further developed the sound of the orchestra over the course of three decades. Of a support association and fans, of a management for whom prudence and foresight are equally important.

And let’s not forget the role of the media, the reliable support of the former DRS2, the recording opportunities, the gigs at Moods, at Mehrspur, at the Kulturmarkt and at the Theater Rigiblick. And the opportunities to perform outside the city, such as the jazz clubs in Thalwil and Meilen or the Theater Winterthur, offered the big band a whole new range of homes and the audience regular opportunities to experience Zurich’s first and only professional big band live.

And because in a fairy tale all the trials and tribulations eventually come to an end, one must not forget to mention the jazz house. The building on Heinrichstrasse, rehearsal room, meeting point and recording studio all in one, is probably the nicest birthday present that the ZJO has given itself. In collaboration with the Dr. Stephan à Porta Foundation, which owns the house.

What happens next? That’s written in the stars. And in the program booklets that have already been printed and are yet to be printed. Only one thing is for sure: the ZJO has improved over the past 30 years. It will be worth staying for another 30 to hear what the band sounds like when it turns 60. Until then, there will be countless great concerts with exciting guests and a constantly changing repertoire. Because: the best is yet to come.

Read more about this in the March/April issue of JAZZ’N’MORE and Jazztime Magazin (March 2025). This link will take you to the article by KULTURZüURI.CH.