SWR Big Band Plays the Music of Sammy Nestico: More Than Just Friends
2021
05/ 2025
Harold Arlen
Ted Koehler
Bob Carleton
trad.
Sammy Nestico
John Klenner
Richard Rodgers
Oscar Hammerstein II
Ben Bernie
Kenneth Casey
Maceo Pinkhard
Victor Herbert
Al Dubin
Harry Warren
Jack Brooks
Johnny Mandel
et al.
Tutu Puoane (voc)
Marc Godfroid (dir)
SWR Big Band
1. Ill Wind 3:52
music by: Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler
feat. Tutu Puoane (voc)
2. Ja-Da 5:44
music by: Bob Carleton
soli: Jürgen Neudert (trb), Bastian Stein (trp)
3. Frankie & Johnny 4:31
music by: trad.
soli: Andreas Maile (ts), Ernst Hutter (trb)
4. A Pair of Aces 6:24
music by: Sammy Nestico
soli: Jakob Manz (as), Chris Mehler (trp)
5. Just Friends 3:11
music by: John Klenner
feat. Tutu Puoane (voc; scat) / solo: Matthias Erlewein (as)
6. D´Ann 5:54
music by: Sammy Nestico
soli: Chris Mehler (flh), Frank Kuruc (g)
7. My Favorite Things 3:03
music by: Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II
solo: Axel Kühn (ts)
8. Shirley 4:16
music by: Sammy Nestico
soli: Klaus Wagenleiter (p), Loreen Sima (b)
9. Sweet Georgia Brown 3:22
music by: Ben Bernie, Kenneth Casey, Maceo Pinkard
soli: Bastian Stein (trp), Frank Kuruc (g)
10. Indian Summer 3:49
music by: Victor Herbert, Al Dubin
feat. Tutu Puoane (voc)
11. That´s Amore 5:01
music by: Harry Warren, Jack Brooks
soli: Marc Godfroid (trb), Andreas Maile (ts)
12. Close Enough for Love 5:10
music by: Johnny Mandel, Paul Hamilton Williams
solo: Jakob Manz (as)
13. King Porter Stomp 3:47
music by: Ferdinand Joseph Morton, Sydney Robin, Sonny Burke
soli: Martin Auer & Bastian Stein (trp), Klaus Graf & Matthias Erlewein (as)
14. Out of the Night 7:07
music by: Sammy Nestico
soli: Frank Kuruc (g), Axel Kühn (fl), Decebal Badila (b), Guido Jöris (dr)
Founded in 1951 by Erwin Lehn, the SWR Big Band has been nominated for a Grammy several times and received the German Jazz Award (Gold) in 2015. Over the course of the years, it collaborated with artists like Quincy Jones, Pat Metheny, George Benson, Gary Burton, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Curtis Stigers, Jacob Collier, Patti Austin, Roy Hargrove, Sammy Nestico, Ivan Lins, Paula Morelenbaum, Joo Kraus, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Bob Florence, Rob McConnell, Slide Hampton, Maria Schneider, Frank Foster, Bill Holman and Bob Mintzer. The album SWR Big Band live at the Elbphilharmonie from 2018 is one of the longest running bestsellers of the label.
The collaboration between Sammy Nestico and the SWR Big Band began 2004, when the composer was already 80 years old. Soon it developed into a real friendship. No less than five albums have been released in the years until his death, all of them bestsellers of the SWRmusic catalogue. They additionaly made a key contribution to raising international awareness of Nestico’s late creative phase.
The music he wrote for the SWR Big Band sports both funky sounds and elements of fusion, combining swing, a pinch of soul and an emotional orchestral expression. The music moves artfully between reduced combo sounds and opulent textures. This sense of mutual understanding was created during the decade-plus period of collaboration between the composer and the orchestra, a collaboration built not only on notes, but also on intuition.