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Dancing

Echoes Of Swing

Dancing

Format: CD
Label: ACT music
UPC: 0614427910325
Catnr: ACT 91032
Release date: 30 October 2015
Buy at PlatoMania
1 CD
Buy at PlatoMania
 
Label
ACT music
UPC
0614427910325
Catalogue number
ACT 91032
Release date
30 October 2015

"A CD for the connoisseur in short, for those who like subtle, adventurous, classic jazz and living jazz."

Doctor Jazz Magazine, 01-7-2016
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
Press
EN

About the album

Early jazz was first and foremost dance music, a fact which is all too easily forgotten these days. As each new dance craze arrived on the scene – from Charleston andRagtime, through Foxtrot and Lindy-hop, and then on to Jive – the development of jazz music moved along with it. Only later, beginning with ‘Swing’ and ‘Bebop’ was jazz finally established as music for the concert hall. The quartet ‘Echoes of Swing’ have put a clear marker down with their latest album ‘Dancing’. This band has been at the crossroads of such currents and developments for many years now. The pianist Bernd Lhotzky, alto saxophone player Chris Hopkins (aside the ‘Echoes’, like Lhotzky, a world class ‘stride’ pianist), the trumpet player (and vocalist) Colin Dawson and drummer Oliver Mewes are however, certainly anything else than a ‘dance band’, and although they have their roots in classic jazz, they have nothing in common with ‘retro’ trends or ‘neo-swing’. With their zeal for the unrivalled exhaustless – and unexhausted harmonic and melodic wealth of material, they bring the music itself to a merry dance.

The album ‘Dancing’ is more an anthology which takes a wry look at the theme of dance in jazz, occasionally heading off at a tangent, and making some very surprising connections. This is a waltz through the history of jazz. As demonstrated by other ACT colleagues such as Joachim Kühn or liro Rantala, it begins at the very beginning with Johann Sebastian Bach. A Gavotte from the English suite No. 6, a baroque dance, is transformed into a melodic platform for an effervescent drum feature. A journey through Scott Joplin’s ‘Ragtime Dance’, James P. Johnson’s ‘Charleston’, Cole Porter’s ‘Dream Dancing’, or Sidney Bechet’s ‘Premier Bal’ to Pixinguinha’s Brasilian Choro ‘Diplomata’, Bernd Lhotzky’s Cuban Bolero ‘Salir a la Luz’ or the exotic Ellington-like timbre of ‘Ballet Of The Dunes’ from Chris Hopkins.

This is dance in jazz, but not as we know it. For a start, a third of the tracks are original compositions (more than on any other ‘Echoes Of Swing’ album) from Lhotzky, Hopkins and Dawson.As a group, the four maestros have taken the other selections and have created something discretely and entirely original. Nothing here is re-enacted. Chris Hopkins’ work on the Rodgers/Hart standard ‘Dancing On The Ceiling’ has, by using clever rhythmical displacements and audacious interwoven voicings, rendered it an almost completely new tune.

Artist(s)

Echoes of Swing

Colin T. Dawson - trumpet & voc, Chris Hopkins - alto sax, Bernd Lhotzky - piano, Oliver Mewes - drums Free from any museum nostalgia, the four musicians take their inspiration from the gigantic treasury of swinging jazz, from Bix to Bop, from Getz to Gershwin, while constantly searching for the hidden, the unexpected, the exquisite. The Great American Song book and the immeasurable recordings of great Jazz pioneers form the humus for the creativity of the combo, with astonishing arrangements, virtuoso solos and expressive compositions of their own. Two horns, drums and piano. This unique, compact formation permits the greatest in harmony and flexibility and allows freedom for an agile, exact ensemble.  The group thrives on a mixture of clever arrangements and interaction of improvised dialogue,...
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Colin T. Dawson - trumpet & voc, Chris Hopkins - alto sax, Bernd Lhotzky - piano, Oliver Mewes - drums Free from any museum nostalgia, the four musicians take their inspiration from the gigantic treasury of swinging jazz, from Bix to Bop, from Getz to Gershwin, while constantly searching for the hidden, the unexpected, the exquisite. The Great American Song book and the immeasurable recordings of great Jazz pioneers form the humus for the creativity of the combo, with astonishing arrangements, virtuoso solos and expressive compositions of their own.

Two horns, drums and piano. This unique, compact formation permits the greatest in harmony and flexibility and allows freedom for an agile, exact ensemble. The group thrives on a mixture of clever arrangements and interaction of improvised dialogue, performing for, and with one another.

The contemporary interpretation of an enormously varied repertoire and not last the humorous moderation and spontaneous stage presence, has helped gain ECHOES OF SWING great popularity and made the ensemble a much renowned and celebrated attraction on the international jazz scene.

Sixteen years of touring have led the ECHOES all across Europe and the USA, to Japan, New Zealand and even the Fiji Islands. The exceedingly diverse musical development of the band is in the meantime impressively documented on five CDs. The last ECHOES OF SWING album ‘Message from Mars’ received the ‘Prix de l’Académie du Jazz’ in Paris, and in Germany was awarded the ‘German Record Critics' Award’.
In 2013 ECHOES OF SWING signed a contract with 'ACT Music & Vision'.


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Chris Hopkins (saxophone)

Oliver Mewes (drums)

Colin T. Dawson (trumpet)

Composer(s)

Press

A CD for the connoisseur in short, for those who like subtle, adventurous, classic jazz and living jazz.
Doctor Jazz Magazine, 01-7-2016

Play album Play album
01.
Hipsters Hop
04:10
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
02.
Gavotte I, English Suite No. 6
03:00
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
03.
Charleston
03:42
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
04.
Dream Dancing
04:38
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
05.
Diplomata
03:50
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
06.
Lion’s Steps [dedicated to Willie ‘the Lion’ Smith]
04:00
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
07.
Ballet Of The Dunes
04:58
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
08.
All You Want To Do Is Dance
02:38
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
09.
Sandancer
03:03
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
10.
Carioca
03:36
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
11.
Premier Bal
04:08
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
12.
Ragtime Dance
04:05
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
13.
Moonlight Serenade
04:40
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
14.
Salir A La Luz
04:13
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
15.
Original Dixieland One Step
03:10
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
16.
Dancing On The Ceiling
03:45
Echoes of Swing, Colin T. Dawson, Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky, Oliver Mewes
show all tracks

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