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Bill Laurance & WDR Big Band: 'Live at the Philharmonic, Cologne' album - Jazzy Hour, January 14th, 2020

Album released on November 9th, 2019

If we add "Snarky Puppy" to the name of this exceptional keyboard player, we get the perspective of a modern musical work, in that sophisticated-accessible note of jazz that included many new elements in the last half of the century. Bill Laurance goes a step further by teaming up with one of the best and most flexible European orchestras, the WDR Big Band, for arecording in a concert, in front of a loyal and enthusiastic audience.The perfect place, the concert hall of the Cologne Philharmonic, plays an important role in forming the intimate, distinguished environment, in which the public-artist flow doesn't suffer any disturbance. Bob Mintzer conducts the orchestra of 18 musicians and Bill Laurance brings again some of his favourite compositions to another scale, in much the same way that Snarky Puppy recorded along the Metropole Orkest in 2015, winning his first Grammy with that album.

Each page of the score brings a surprise, each piece unfolds as an intense short film and the protagonist has the right attitude for the most important achievement in his career. If attention to jazz must be maintained in the generations to come, then artists like Bill Laurance are needed for more and more relevance.

Berti Barbera