Monika Roscher Big Band - Failure In Wonderland (2012)

It was during a composition class at Munich’s academy of music that Monika Roscher’s Big Band first came into being. An original composition for big band ensemble was met with heaps of appreciation and praise, encouraging the Jazz guitarist (born 1984) to further pursue this line of musical adventure. Gathering friends and fellow students around her, who to this day form the band’s core, Monika’s graduation recital in summer 2010 was quickly transformed into her big band’s celebrated debut concert. Things moved forwards rapidly from that point. The band leader had barely left the backstage area when hugely impressed producer Philipp Winter approached her with an offer to record a debut CD. The resulting five-track-LP saw the band being awarded with the renowned Leonhard und Ida Wolf grant scholarship – a mere six months after the band’s inception.

Sufficient time to defy virtually every musical expectation normally associated with a traditional big band line up. Whoever is thinking of swing in the spirit of Count Basie or Duke Ellington is flat out wrong. Roscher’s compositions may be firmly rooted in Jazz regarding spacious harmonizations and extensive improvisational parts. But her attention to aural texture and the emotionally accessible, pictorial vividness of her music suggest a deep connection with contemporary artists attributed to the indie, electronic and triphop scene. Taking her own musical experience as a starting point Monika Roscher thus creates a synthesis of different styles that neither feels contrived nor calculating.

Rather ‘dangerous’– at least this is what musician and poet Thees Uhlmann of German indie giants „Tomte“ had to say upon listening to the band during a newcomer programme on Radio Zündfunk. His verdict: „this shit is berserk!“ Then followed a „sensational“ headliner set concluding the Regensburger Jazzweekend 2012 and a cover story in the German music journal Jazzzeitung. The latter deemed the band too big for genre labels and certified them a great deal of inimitability. December 2012 will prove this anew when the band’s first official LP will be released under prestigious German Jazz label Enja records. The release party is set for December 8th at Munich’s hot and hippest indie temple, the Atomic Café.