Zurich Jazz Orchestra Featuring Robben Ford (git) at Burghausen Jazz Festival at Wackerhalle Burghausen

He’s almost 74. Robben Ford, an exiled Californian living in London with a big heart for all things blues. And yet he doesn’t just play simple three-chord music. He feels just as comfortable on a Strat as he does on a Tele or a Les Paul. On stage, he combines the musical knowledge of a thoroughbred jazz musician with the charisma of a rock star. If you wanted to copy the list of his musical collaborations from the internet, one A4 page would never be enough. The shortest version: Chick Corea, B. B. King, Kiss, Joni Mitchell. But Ford himself says that the most formative and instructive of all was his time in Miles Davis’ band. And then there are more than 30 albums and five Grammy nominations....

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He’s almost 74. Robben Ford, an exiled Californian living in London with a big heart for all things blues. And yet he doesn’t just play simple three-chord music. He feels just as comfortable on a Strat as he does on a Tele or a Les Paul. On stage, he combines the musical knowledge of a thoroughbred jazz musician with the charisma of a rock star. If you wanted to copy the list of his musical collaborations from the internet, one A4 page would never be enough. The shortest version: Chick Corea, B. B. King, Kiss, Joni Mitchell. But Ford himself says that the most formative and instructive of all was his time in Miles Davis’ band. And then there are more than 30 albums and five Grammy nominations.

Exactly 30, to be precise. The Zurich Jazz Orchestra, or ZJO for short, is led by Ed Partyka, who comes from Chicago but now lives mainly in Austria when he is not in Helsinki or Zurich.
The orchestra, which never forgets its traditions but focuses on the present, is a fixture in the German-speaking jazz scene. Robben Ford and Ed Partyka have been friends for ten years. Ford, the brilliant composer, trained saxophonist, and guitarist; Partyka, the congenial arranger and trombonist.

At the time, Partyka was the leader of the hr-Bigband, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra. And he arranged Ford’s music for a big band. Both have fond memories of this first collaboration: “For me, it was a real luxury: the band sounded great, Ed had written some really fantastic arrangements, and he was super easy to work with. I felt really comfortable,“ recalls Robben Ford. Ed Partyka returns the compliment: ”Robben’s singing and his incredible guitar playing are, of course, an asset. He also has the rare gift—or talent?—of raising everyone he plays with to a higher musical level.”

It took a while for Robben Ford, who usually performs with smaller ensembles, to get used to the power of a big band, with which Partyka’s arrangements of his pieces came across and which carried him as a soloist into other musical spheres. “I was a little nervous at first. But with the years and the routine came relaxation, and now I just enjoy the sheer size.” Nineteen musicians, plus Robben Ford. Quite big, this band.

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