Swiss Jazz Orchestra & Christoph Irniger

Christoph Irniger and the Swiss Jazz Orchestra? Actually, one rather associates the saxophonist with handy formats. In bands like Pilgrim, Cowboys from Hell or the Christoph Irniger Trio he prefers smaller formations from trio to quintet, in which he brings out every voice, intention and interaction in full balance. All the more surprising now is the compactness and density that his collaboration with the Swiss Jazz Orchestra achieves.

One feels the power of a colossus whose cauldron is heated to bursting point with great melodies. The pressure of the unconditional desire to tell keeps the engine constantly running. You can't listen as fast as the ideas flow. Irniger has certainly brought this lust for fabulating and painting variable sound pictures with him from his small bands and translated it into an unpredictable game with tension and release.

The Swiss Jazz Orchestra, in turn, plunges into this sonic world with audible glee, following the composer's ideas in seconds from powerful compact orchestral sound into finely chiseled narratives full of inspiration and surprises. With subtle full power, the master of small formations and the hyper-agile jazz orchestra completely reinvent large-scale jazz.

The Swiss Jazz Orchestra & Christoph Irniger is an exciting coming together. Together they will present their joint recording "The Music of Pilgrim" this fall, which will be released by nWog Records in October 2022: music written by one of Switzerland's most distinguished jazz instrumentalists and composers, played by one of the country's top big bands.

Musicians

Christoph Irniger, Tenor Sax / Composition / Lead

Christoph Irniger, born 1979, is a Swiss saxophonist, composer and bandleader. According to the Sunday edition of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung he is “undoubtedly one of the greatest talents of his generation.” In recent years, Irniger has made a name for himself in a range of line-ups, playing jazz, rock and related musical styles. Irniger is leader of the band Pilgrim and the Christoph Irniger Trio which between them have released several albums (mostly on Intakt Records) so far. From 2000 to 2006 Irniger studied music education at the Zurich Jazz School, and performance at the Lucerne School of Music with Christoph Grab and Nat Su. In the following years he took lessons from Dave Liebman, Mark Turner and Ari Hoenig. He won the Friedel Wald Foundation development award in 2004, received the Borsa di Studio for Siena Jazz University in 2006 and achieved third place in the 2010 ZKB Jazz Prize with the Cowboys from Hell. Between 2015 and 2017 his band Pilgrim were awarded high priority act from Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council. His work has been documented on twenty albums to date. He has played concerts and tours throughout Europe, Asia and the USA. His regular visits to Berlin and New York have led to a number of diverse collaborations, including: Nasheet Waits (No Reduce Jaywalkin’ (nWog, 2013)), Don Philippe (Freundeskreis) and the band Counterpoints with Ohad Talmor. He has also played with Dave Douglas, Dan Weiss, Nils Wogram, Michael Bates, Claudio Puntin, Max Frankl, Stefan Rusconi, Mats Spillmann, Christian Weber, Chris Wiesendanger and Vera Kappeler. He was a member of the Lucerne Jazz Orchestra for seven years and can be heard on four of their recordings. He is also co-leader of the prog-rock band Cowboys from Hell. Irniger teaches at Zurich University of the Arts and the Musikschule Konservatorium in Zurich.

Swiss Jazz Orchestra

The Swiss Jazz Orchestra is the busiest professional big band in Switzerland. Every year, the orchestra performs around 50 concerts - an extraordinary performance record for a Swiss big band. The core of its activities is a weekly concert series at the Bierhübeli in Bern, which runs from mid-October to the end of May and comprises about 30 concerts. Attendance has been consistently high, averaging 125 people over the past 5 years - this despite the fact that Monday evening is the least convenient day of the week and jazz is not a particularly good seller. In addition, there are 10 to 20 concerts a year by invitation and the engagements of small bands, small formations for private events. Including all external engagements, the SJO has already performed nearly 600 times. In addition, the SJO performs with projects of various styles, which are documented on 10 CDs so far.

The SJO cultivates a specific musical tradition. The entire repertoire comprises more than 1000 arrangements, including many by band members and original compositions. At the same time, the SJO demonstrates musical innovation: witnesses to this are the Lucidity and Tanzendes Licht projects documented on CD, but also Paul Klee, Close Encounter and, in a different way, the two Buebetröim projects.

The SJO has performed with internationally acclaimed artists such as Joshua Redman, Donny McCaslin, Miguel Zenon, Peter Erskine, Mike Mainieri, Paquito d'Rivera, Joey DiFrancesco, Jeff Hamilton, John Clayton, Grégoire Maret, Anat Cohen, Ben van Gelder, Alex Sipiagin, Chico Pinheiro, Torun Eriksen, Claudio Roditi, Shannon Barnett, Roberta Gambarini, Jerry Bergonzi, jazz legends Phil Woods and Buddy DeFranco, composers/arrangers Jim McNeely, Bob Mintzer, Bert Joris, George Gruntz as well as national greats such as Andy Scherrer, Franco Ambrosetti, Matthieu Michel, Nat Su, Domenic Landolf, Houry Dora Apartian, Michael Zisman or Pepe Lienhard.

In 2010, the SJO was awarded the great cultural prize of the Burgergemeinde Bern for its services. www.swissjazzorchestra.com

Reeds:
Reto Suhner, as I Reto Anneler, as I Cedric Gschwind, ts I Jürg Bucher, ts I Matthias Tschopp, bs

Trumpets:
Dave Blaser, tp I Lukas Kohler, tp I Sonja Ott, tp I Thomas Knuchel, tp

Trombones:
Maro Widmer, tb I Andreas Tschopp, tb I Silvio Cadotsch, tb I Reto Zumstein, btb

Rhythm Section:
Sonja Huber, vibes I Philipp Henzi, p I Samuel Leipold, g I Lorenz Beyeler, b I Rico Baumann, dr