Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra
The Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra is a company incorporated in Germany Big Band of free jazz and European improvised music.
The Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra was founded in 1988 by Alexander von Schlippenbach. The first concert was the BCJO in May 1988 on radio station RIAS Berlin; In the following period allowed the transmitter to the orchestra frequent opportunities to work in their studios at about seven year anniversary of the formation. In May 1989, the first album of BCJO, which was released on the ECM label was born. Richard Cook and Brian Morton comparable in The Penguin Guide to Jazz music of the Orchestra with Barry Guy London Jazz Composers Orchestra, but note that the BCJO played more formally structured, broad-based pieces with set times for improvisations by the band members. The first album contains the long piece " Ana " by Kenny Wheeler, with solos by Thomas Heberer, Aki Takase and Gerd Dudek and two shorter by Misha Mengelberg, " Reef And Kneebus " and " salt" ( with a solo by Benny Bailey ).
The BCJO consisted of German, Dutch, English, Japanese and U.S. players; In 1995 she included the trumpeter Henry Lowther, Thomas Heberer, Axel Dörner, Bruno Leicht, the saxophonist Felix Wahnschaffe, Gerd Dudek, Evan Parker, Claas Willeke and Walter Gauchel, the bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall, the trombonist Dan Gottshall, Marc Boukouya and Jörg Huke, Bass trombonist Utz Zimmerman, pianist Aki Takase and the Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Nobuyoshi Ino and drummer Paul Lovens to. In 1996, the band toured Japan; while the permanent staff of the orchestra was mixed with Japanese musicians, such as Haruki Sato, Eiichi Hayashi and Hiroaki Katayama was played, among other things, a Dolphy Medley, reminiscent of similar projects of the Vienna Art Orchestra. In June 1997, the BCJO occurred in Berlin and Hamburg with compositions by Manfred Schoof.