The Modern Jazz Quartet

1957 Cologne Gurzenich Concert Hall (2xLP)

Release date: December 09, 2022

Label: Jazzline

Especially in the early years of the modern jazz quartet, Europe proved to be a rewarding terrain. Here the band landed their first successes, while in the USA they are still met with a certain reluctance. On the occasion of the 1000th edition of Joachim-Ernst Berendt's Jazztime Baden-Baden concert series in 1956, they performed with Kurt Edelhagen and Miles Davis. On a Birdland All Stars tour, the MJQ presents itself in other German cities - and shares the stage with Davis, Lester Young and Bud Powell. Playing directly after the ailing bebop pianist, the enthusiasm for the cultivated quartet is all the greater. Dieter Zimmerle, founder and then editor of the magazine Jazz Podium: If anyone was able to lift the oppression felt after Powell's performance, it was the four musicians who then performed in the truest meaning of the word. If the idea of a serious appearance also resonates latently, then the MJQ more than lived up to it. In the run-up to the forthcoming European tour in 1957, during which the band would only give single concerts, the leader asked the organizers: At the special request of John Lewis... the concerts will largely take place in smaller halls reserved for chamber music. This is not only intended to give the music of the MJQ the appropriate framework, but it is also hoped that this will attract a concert hall audience that has previously been on the sidelines because the group could usually only present itself in inappropriate surroundings. whose premises and ambience appear to be appropriate includes, among other things, the Mozarteum in Salzburg. ....

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