With a clear goal in mind, 22-year-old London-based singer, songwriter and guitarist Rosie Frater-Taylor blurs the boundaries between jazz, folk, pop and soul. It’s as if Joni Mitchell met George Benson or Lewis Taylor joined forces with Emily King. Rosie started playing drums at a young age and soon learned guitar, ukulele and bass. She discovered her roots in jazz and world music by attending workshops at Tomorrow’s Warriors, the Royal Academy of Music and the London Roundhouse.
With a penchant for DIY, Rosie began creating multi-layered guitar-based demos on Cubase at the age of 16. This resulted in her self-produced debut album ‘On My Mind’ (2018), a unique collection of songs, followed by her second album ‘Bloom’ (2021), also highly acclaimed.
Martin Wind (bass), Peter Weniger (tenor saxophone) , Jonas Burgwinkel (drums)
“Gravity”. A term for which dictionaries provide a whole range of possible translations. Among them “gravity”, “attraction”, “depth” and “solemnity”. They all describe the album title of Martin Wind featuring Peter Weniger and Jonas Burgwinkel perfectly – and on very different levels, explains bassist and bandleader Martin Wind. “Musically, the double bass is the centre of every ensemble. It is their foundation, where the threads come together rhythmically and harmonically. Comparable to the sun, which holds our planetary system together with its gravity.” At the same time, “Gravity” also works on a personal level. “There are people and places you feel drawn to. “Hamburg, for example. The metropolis on the Elbe is a starting point and stopover for me when I travel between the USA and Germany,” explains Wind, who has lived in Teaneck/New Jersey since the late 1990s.
Jona Hahn (piano), Kevin Hemkemeier (bass), Jonathan Schierhorn (drums)
A concert from the Young Talents series
The KNUD Trio consists of Kevin Hemkemeier on bass, Jonathan Schierhorn on drums and Jona Hahn on piano, and formed through their joint jazz studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. Their musical repertoire consists exclusively of original compositions, which focus on rhythmic variety in combination with beautiful, catchy melodies, and are generally oriented towards the sound of Scandinavian jazz. The joy of playing and musical communication of the protagonists invites to an exciting listening experience.
Jim Snidero (alto saxophone), Pietro Lussu (piano), Martin Zenker (bass), Rick Hollander (drums)
Building on his 5-star Downbeat Magazine review of Live at the Deer Head Inn (2021), alto saxophonist Jim Snidero brought in brilliant guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel for his latest album, Far Far Away (2023), which in turn was the subject of an article in the February/March issue of Jazz Thing magazine. New compositions from this critically acclaimed recording will be heard at King George with Jim Snidero’s long-running European Quartet.
In April 2023 the time has come – after accompanying Wolf Alice on their German concerts last year, Nalan is now going on tour herself with her current album I’m Good. The Crying Tape (Mansions and Millions/3-Headed Monster Posse) on tour for the first time. Seven European cities are on the programme. Nalan literally means “the screaming one”, and anyone who has experienced one of her powerful live outbursts knows how appropriate this name is. But it also means “the wailing one”, and so it goes right back down again, into intimacy, into silence. The critically acclaimed solo debut of the musician – who has previously released an EP as slimgirl fat, several albums as the singer of the Gaddafi Gals, and who also makes the dancefloors shake as part of the DJ collective Slic Unit – fell right in the middle of the pandemic. In fact, the first song was written on the very first day of the lockdown, when the musician, like so many, was wondering what to do next. Mashallah, it has moved on, and now the album is finally hitting the stages. Nalan – says live concerts give her so much herself, and she wants to give that back to the audience. “I like to take people on an unforgettable journey.” After stops in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig and Istanbul, where she will perform her Turkish-language song Son Kez for the first time ever, this journey will end in Hamburg.
From the series “Jazzthing At The King”
Pedal and lap steel guitar ace Roosevelt Collier, so accomplished that he is affectionately known as “The Dr”, has released his solo debut “Exit 16” on GroundUP Music. It’s a potent mix of blues, gospel, rock and, as he says, “dirty funk and swampy grime”, courtesy of producer and Bokanté bandmate Michael League (of Grammy-winning Snarky Puppy). Roosevelt grew up in the House of God Church in Perrine, Florida, developing his skills on the “sacred steel” guitar alongside his uncles and cousins in the band The Lee Boys, known for their spirited, rousing live performances. On his own, Collier has become a sought-after talent, both on record and on stage. He can regularly be heard at festivals as an “Artist at Large” alongside musical luminaries from the rock, blues and pop worlds, including the Allman Brothers, The String Cheese Incident, Buddy Guy, Umphrey’s McGee, Los Lobos, Robert Randolph, the Tedeschi-Trucks Band and the Del McCoury Band.
Pedal and lap steel guitar ace Roosevelt Collier, so accomplished that he is affectionately known as “The Dr”, has released his solo debut “Exit 16” on GroundUP Music. It’s a potent mix of blues, gospel, rock and, as he says, “dirty funk and swampy grime”, courtesy of producer and Bokanté bandmate Michael League (of Grammy-winning Snarky Puppy). Roosevelt grew up in the House of God Church in Perrine, Florida, developing his skills on the “sacred steel” guitar alongside his uncles and cousins in the band The Lee Boys, known for their spirited, rousing live performances. On his own, Collier has become a sought-after talent, both on record and on stage. He can regularly be heard at festivals as an “Artist at Large” alongside musical luminaries from the rock, blues and pop worlds, including the Allman Brothers, The String Cheese Incident, Buddy Guy, Umphrey’s McGee, Los Lobos, Robert Randolph, the Tedeschi-Trucks Band and the Del McCoury Band.
The King Georg Bigband
Jörg Achim Keller (drums & arrangements), Heinz Dieter Sauerborn (Alto Sax 1), Paul Heller (Tenor Sax 2), Stefan Weber (Tenor Sax 3), Wim Both (Trumpet 1), Ruud Breuls (Trumpet 2), Günter Bollmann (Trombone 1), Uli Plettendorff (Trombone 2), Jürgen Neudert (Tenor Horn), Richard Hellenthal (Tuba), Henning Gailing (Bass), Billy Test (Piano)
“DREAMBAND!” – this was the word he used to describe the hand-picked line-up of his KING GEORG 12 before the premiere 2 years ago – before the pandemic then brought this exciting project to an abrupt end after only one performance. Now the concert series is finally being resumed. The arranger and long-time chief conductor of the big bands of the hr and NDR will regularly write new music for the band’s monthly concerts, which will always be premiered by this all-star ensemble of German big band jazz on the third Wednesday of each month. Original compositions and arrangements of standards that leave room for the ensemble’s outstanding soloists, in which the swinging rhythm section can unfold freely and in whose ensemble sound the energy of a big band is combined with the flexibility of a combo, the sharpness of the hottest bands with the velvety smoothness of the coolest. “A new sound is born!”
In the work of New York singer and guitarist Steve Gunn, one recognises the influence of blues, folk, ecstatic free jazz and psychobilly. In 2016, Steve released “Eyes On The Lines”, his first album for Matador Records, which the Washington Post called “so intimate and so mysteriously distant at the same time”. His breakthrough album “The Unseen In Between” followed in January 2019 and “Other You”, his best work to date, arrives in August 2021. It was recorded during two visits to Los Angeles in late 2020 and early 2021. The album was recorded with veteran producer Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith, Cass McCombs, Kurt Vile) at his Mant Studios, along with musician and co-producer Justin Tripp, whose credits include Gunn’s “Time Off” and “Way Out Weather”.
Album Release-Concert
Lange ist es her, dass die Singer/Songwriterin Hanna Fearns ein Konzert in Köln gespielt hat. Jetzt kommt sie ins King Georg um ihr neues Album WHEN/IF vorzustellen. Und welcher Ort könnte für die Album-Release Show besser geeignet sein, ziert doch der ehemalige Kronleuchter des King Georg das aktuelle Albumcover. Musikalisch hat Hanna Fearns mit ihrer Barritone Gitarre und am Klavier einen dunklen aber nicht düsteren Sound für sich gefunden, der gepaart mit ihrer tiefen, ausdrucksstarken Stimme ein tolles Konzerterlebnis verspricht. »We’ll be fine« – wir werden da durchkommen – so heißt der Opener von Hanna Fearns neuem Album When/IF. Das Versprechen: Trost. Seit einiger Zeit beschäftigt sich die Kölner Singer Songwriterin mit diesem großen Thema und veröffentlicht auf Ufer Records ihre neue EP mit vier prominenten Coversongs und einer Eigenkomposition – verbunden mit mehreren kleinen Interludes, die Raum schaffen, um sich einzulassen und durchzuatmen. Mit ihren dunkel gefärbten, stark reduzierten Versionen von Smash Hits wie Bridge over troubled Water von Simon/Garfunkel oder Make you feel my love von Bob Dylan lädt uns Hanna Fearns zu diesem inneren Rückzug ein und bietet an, für uns da zu sein. Die weichen Tönen ihrer Barritone Gitarre, verhallte Klaviertupfern und die tiefe, angerauhte Samtstimme der Künstlerin geben Trost und hüllen uns ein in eine warme Umarmung, wann immer wir sie brauchen.