“What the world needs now is more swinging and less skirmishing; long live Swinging Europe and the EYJO!"
With these words of praise Jack Bowers, writing for the webmag “All about Jazz" pays tribute to the EYJO in his review of their latest CD from last year and continues:
“What a great (one is almost tempted to say “civilized") idea: an orchestra composed of young musicians from European countries, touring the Continent for three weeks and presenting a series of concerts under the aegis of the Danish-based organization Swinging Europe and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Each year, new musicians, composers and conductors are singled out as mentors."
On the 7th of May - 18 professional musicians, all under the age of 30, will meet together in Jutland for an intensive 4 days of rehearsing. The compositions are written solely by the Danish bandleader Lars Moller and will be performed on a 3-week tour that will take them through Denmark, Germany, Sweden and China. The tour will end in Brande on the 26th of May and will be recorded by the Danish Radio (DR) to be used for broadcasting worldwide and eventually a CD. Whilst the band rehearses, 30 EBU jazz producers will hold their annual meeting to assess the bands accomplishments and to discuss new plans.
DR is this year's co-producer and therefore it falls to DR's jazz editors and the jazz producer- representative in the EBU, Morten Vilhelm to describe the year's conductor and composer:
“Lars Moller (tenor saxophonist, composer and band leader) is 40 years old. His education encompasses, amongst others, studying under Dave Liebman, the BFA Jazz New School in New York, studying abroad in India and taking compositional studies under Bob Brookmeyer. For the last 20 years he has played an active roll on the Danish jazz scene leading his own groups, and as a member of i.e. Sound of Choice Ensemble, Katrine Madsen Quintet, 'Composer in residence' with the Danish Radio Big Band and is Artistic Director of The Orchestra. Moller is regarded as one of the most all-round musicians of his generation, which is reflected in his compositions for a wide range of ensembles. He has recorded under his own name since 1988 and in 2006 received the prestigious three year work grant from the Danish Arts Foundation."
The two people behind the whole project are Erik Moseholm and Birgit Vinge. This will be the 10th time that they have organized the “Swinging Europe" concept. In 1998 they commissioned Pierre Dorge from Denmark to conduct, followed by Francois Theberge (France), Helge Albin (Sweden), Benjamin Herman (The Netherlands), Django Bates (UK), Bruno Tomasso (Italy) and Pedro Moreira (Portugal). Then in 2005 the EBU Big Band and “Swinging Europe" were merged, forming what is now known as the EBU-European Youth Jazz Orchestra (EBU-EYJO). Since then the worldwide network of jazz producers from the National Public Radio stations, organised under the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), have taken turns in choosing the composers and conductors - Vic Vogel (Canada) 2005 and Barrie Forgie (UK) 2006.
The project is supported partly by the EU-commission, the Central Jutland Region, the Danish Ministry of Culture , the Ikast-Brande Municipality and, on top of which, this year, we will be collaborating with the Danish Cultural Institute , who is the co-producer of the China tour. Further information can be obtained from the Artistic Director Erik Moseholm tel: +45 3961 6135 or the Administrative Director Birgit Vinge tel: +45 9718 3394. The press community is invited to experience the band on a more personal level by joining us on the bus for a period of one day. If you wish to come along for the ride please contact the tour manager and press agent Ib Jensen on tel: +45 2511 5464 or mail The European Youth Jazz Orchestra 07: Composer and conductor Lars Moller Line-Up: Trumpets: Guitar: Durk Hijma/Dutch, The tour: * Jack Bowers complete review of the last two years cd releases can be read here: For further information please contact Ib Jensen +45 2511 5464 or mail.
Antonio Gecek/Croatian,
Jean-Paul Estivenart/ Belgian,
Novak Mijovic/Serbian,
Lukas Thoni/Swiss,
Brice Moscardini/French.
Trombones:
Magnus Wiklund/Swedish,
Colm O'Hara/Irish,
Scott Annison/UK,
Ivan Platner/Serbian.
Saxophones:
Jaka Kopac/Slovenian,
Maria Faust/Estonian,
Chet Doxas/Canadian,
Jorgen Mathisen/Norwegian,
Robert Mitrega/Czech.
Piano: Aki Rissanen/Finnish,
Double bass: Stanislavs Judins/Latvian,
Drums: Jonas Burgwinkel/German.
11. May: General Rehearsal at the Klovborg Kino 1-2-3, Ikast-Brande, Denmark
12. May: Debut Concert at NIRAS, Aarhus, Denmark
13. May: Flensborghus, Flensborg, Germany
14. May: NIRAS in Allerod, Denmark (+The Django dOr awards ceremony)
18. May: Star Live, Beijing, China
19. May: Zhongshan Culture & Arts Center, China
20. May: Foshan Theater, China
23. May: Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg, Sweden
24. May: Copenhagen JazzHouse, Denmark
25. May: Musikskolen, Herning, Denmark
26. May: RemisenBrande, Ikast-Brande, Denmark
For more information contact All About Jazz.
