SWR Big Band & Sammy Nestico - A Cool Breeze (2017)

Seventeen musicians-one sound. And a very convincing sound, at that. The SWR Big Band has so far been nominated four times for a Grammy - the most important music award in the world. Also it received in 2015 a Jazz Award in Cold ffom German music industry. Enjoyed a great honor in 2011, when it was the first German band ever suggested for the "Premio da Musica Brasileira", Brazil's most important music award. In the face of so much fame, it seems almost modest to say that the SWR Big Band is one of the best big bands in the world.

Sammy Nestico is a composer-arranger whose accomplishments and credits have earned him legendary status in the music business. Today’s word that best describes him is “iconic.” He has done it all: a host of big band arrangements including those for the Count Basie Band, The Airmen of Note and Germany’s SWR Orchestra, movie and television scores, and a variety of commercials. Along the way, he has won a bunch of Grammy Awards and, judging by the smile that appears to never leave his face, he has had a great deal of fun doing what he loves to do. He’s a perfect example of the adage: “Do what you love and the rest will follow.”

On June 9, 2017, SWR Music released A Cool Breeze: Sammy Nestico and the SWR Big Band which documents more of the ongoing love affair between this brilliant, Stuttgart-based big band and one of the most accomplished composer-arrangers in the history of big band Jazz. Everything about this recording is simply splendid from the SWR’s technical execution of the arrangements, to the joyful and magical way Sammy’s charts play out on the listener’s ear to the audio quality which imbues the music with a rich texture and a warm sound. Listening to the music on this recording makes you realize why Big Band Jazz is a category apart and that when it’s done right, no other aspect of Jazz matches its majestic sonority.

TRACKLIST

01. Cell Talk
02. Along Came Betty
03. A Cool Breeze
04. I'll Follow My Secret Heart
05. Shirley
06. Close Enough For Love
07. Moonlight On The Ganges
08. Frankie & Johnny
09. Poor Butterfly
10. 'Round Midnight
11. Tippin' In
12. Toni
13. Softly From My Window
14. The Jazz Music Box