Artiste: Orchester Erwin Lehn
Album: Color In Jazz
Spotlight Track: Fünf zu Vier
Label: MPS Records
Howdy people! The radio silence from HOT-4-U has beem a while but we’re back!
Today’s Zao Gng brings us back to The Black Forest, home of MPS Records and home too of Mr. Erwin Lehn. Jazzer extraodinaire. Big Band specialist, and now, active pensioner!
From the sleevenotes of this album, I read that with the advent of recorded music, many ballrooms closed and the number of swing orchestras declined, leaving a large group of jazz musicians jobless. However, some bands managed to carry on with concert tours, radio dates and recording sessions. The criterion was quality and only the best made it. Needless to say, Orchester Erwin Lehn was one of these.
Although Orchester Erwin Lehn boasts of some hardcore jazz soloist of it’s time – people like Bernd Rabe, Ack Van Rooyen, Rold Ericson – Erwin Lehn also expanded his musical responsibilities to more commercial dance music. This modus operandi alone makes this album even more meaningful as not too often does the orchestra let it all hang out, jazzzwise. Well folks, with Color In Jazz.. they do!
Like the name of the LP, the whole repertoire here is a showcase of strong jazz colours. Each song diffuses into different shades of the spectrum and really shows the top class standards of a big band led by jazz musicians. Swingin’ yo!
I chose “Fünf zu Vier” as the spotlight track because the arrangements here are pure class. You get a bit of the sleazy swing flavas, a touch of Latino, some spicy retro rhythms and some nice stylin’ beats. The mood is pretty reactive but yet groovy and good for tangkaping. Very tastefully done. Kerna lah folks.
BTW, before I sign off. I noticed that Erwin Lehn looks like Terence Stamp (as General Zod in Superman I & II). Kryptonite jazz yo! Freak out!!
Tangkap This!!!
-Crispian
