Hans Koller Octet
with special guests Bob Brookmeyer and Kenny Wheeler

Hans Koller piano
Kenny Wheeler trumpet
Bob Brookmeyer valve trombone
Adrian Adlam violin
Mark Hanslip saxophones, flute
Julian Siegel saxophones, bass clarinet
Jim Rattigan French horn
Phil Robson guitar
Dave Whitford double bass
Jeff Williams drums

www.hanskoller.com

Hans Koller's forward thinking and sensitive compositions were excellently performed by his star-studded octet featuring Cheltenham Jazz Festival Artist In Residence, Bob Brookmeyer, and free jazz pioneer Kenny Wheeler. 

Press reviews and comments

“This is the most expansive, expressive and exciting new jazz orchestral sound to have appeared in this country since the late-lamented Loose Tubes.”

The Guardian, 2002

“An astonishing tapestry of angular riffs, ever shifting accents and skittish modulations, made all the more disorientating by a series of outlandish solos...  The cumulative effect is often thrilling, and it pins Koller's audience to the wall.”

The Guardian, 2005

What makes Hans Koller part of our Jerwood Jazz Generation

 “I have always loved the style of big band music that Gil Evans developed in the 1960s, notably with Miles Davis.  Mike Gibbs continued that tradition and added his own take and Hans Koller, a German born pianist/composer who has made the UK his base, has been a notable pupil of Gibbs'.  Hans has further developed that big band tradition and here collaborates with both Kenny Wheeler and Bob Brookmeyer with whom he has been studying.”

Tony Dudley-Evans

Where you’ve seen him before

Hans’ big band took part in the 2004 Jerwood series.

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