Stefan Schultze Large Ensemble

CD Release Konzert »Ted The Bellhop«

Wenn Stefan Schultze die Bühne betritt, dann ist nur die Ungewissheit ganz gewiss. Wenn er es zudem mit seinem Large Ensemble tut, dann gewährt er einen großformatigen Blick in fremde Welten, in der sich akustische Achterbahnfahrten, Wiegenlieder und beherzte Grooves die Hand reichen. Der Komponist und Pianist Schultze ist immer für eine Überraschung gut. Hat er gerade noch Jazzsongs mit deutschen Texten geschrieben, macht er im nächsten Moment improvisierte Computermusik, schwelgt mit dem Backyard Jazz Orchestra in Balkanrhythmen oder bearbeitet Duke Ellingtons »Caravan« für sein Large Ensemble. Von wilden Tutti bis zu filigranen Ensemblepassagen, von Minimalistischem und Rockigem bis zu schräg dahinrumpelnden ungeraden Metren. »Seine Musik gehört zum Originellsten, was die internationale Big-Band-Szene zu bieten hat.« (DLF-Jazzfacts, Odilo Clausnitzer)

Unexpected things are happening behind closed doors. But more and more of these doors are opened. This is where the title of this new entertainment program comes from. Ted is the page boy in the episodic movie “Four Rooms” from 1995. During one of his night shifts, the four directors send Ted to various hotel rooms where unbelievable things are happening.
Ted is the central theme in the elaborate, again and again stunning compositions of the new album by Stefan Schultze. A man in his mid-thirties, he has been socialized with various forms of music: jazz, rock, pop, new music, classical music, ethnic sounds, minimal, noise etc. He is part of the “click culture” generation, but it is exactly against this generation that he competes. His elaborate, again and again stunning compositions draw from a great pool, but they require a detailed examination that YouTube cannot offer.
With all its voltes and twists Stefan Schultze‘s music remains extremely alive, agile, full of catchiness and piercing force. And all of this without losing itself in simplicity. The power and contagious vitality of these big screen sounds result from this accurately built agility. This is by all means music from today that has not forgotten about its roots.
And it is exactly the way Ted navigates through this mess, arising from it as a rewarded winner in the end, that shows parallels to these big band adventures. A number of souls in one chest and off we go to a courageous and emotional roller coaster ride, rougher this time and, as a matter of principle, less clean, almost like a live session. Afterwards it does not matter anyway how much of this pressure wave was planned and how much improvised. Important are the emotions and how deeper dimensions are written into what is happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVdr8gq-rkk