Graz Mumuth

Carmen Bradford and a jazz summer like back then

(Bild: Andrew Phillips)

Grammy winner Carmen Bradford captured the hearts of the audience on the first evening of Big Band Bang with the big band RTV Slovenija and the JM Jazz World Orchestra at the Mumuth in Graz.

Don't look out of the window. Spring is hiding in the keys, strings and valves of the Big Band RTV Slovenija! Bob Florence's "Emily", which blossoms delicately from the piano into the wind instruments, is the opening piece by the ensemble, led by Sigi Feigl, and sets the tone in terms of playful nuance: you can hear the delicate budding of muted surfaces as well as the wild proliferation of a rich sound.

It really becomes summer when the recently Grammy-winning US singer Carmen Bradford takes to the stage. The program includes old classics by Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, for example, which the former Count Basie singer spices up with verve and volume.

Bradford's very direct, rhythmically driving, sometimes powerfully pressing intonation makes fast swing numbers rush by with ear-splitting force. But ballads such as "Day Dream" are also given an unusually sharpened contour and grain.

Bradford then hands over completely solo to Luis Bonilla and the youthful JM Jazz World Orchestra with a smoothly accentuated "What a wonderful world": from "summer like back then" to the artists of tomorrow.