German Jazz Philharmonic
GJP featuring Brenda Boykin
The German Jazz Philharmonic is very much interested in working together with international Jazz, Blues, Rock and Pop artists. When the great Brenda Boykin moved from California to Wuppertal, a meeting was inevitable. To hear Brenda sing a Traditional like “Deep River”, accompanied by the warm sound of the orchestra, is a revelation, a Standard like “The Man I Love”, interpreted by Boykin and the German Jazz Philharmonic, becomes enormously powerful, and an up-tempo swing like “Cheek to Cheek” tells a story of unalloyed joy.
After Manuel Speth’s and Enrico Delamboye’s arrangements had proved their worth with Brenda Boykin as the soloist in front of a big audience in a concert in February 2005,
56 members of the Wuppertal Symphony and other first-rate German symphony orchestras met on Sunday, April 17th 2005, in the Wuppertal Symphony’s rehearsal hall together with Boykin, conductor Enrico Delamboye, arranger Manuel Speth, Jazz pianist Ulrich Rasch and recording engineer Thomas Mueskens in order to record a Demo-CD: German Jazz Philharmonic featuring Brenda Boykin.
“It was a wonderful experience”, sais Daniel Haeker, founder of the orchestra, “and actually, after the successful concert with Brenda, it was simply the next logical step. We have something very special to offer and need a record to present ourselves. Everybody involved saw this as an investment, nobody asked to get paid, and it was a real pleasure to all of us to record Manuel’s and Enrico’s beautiful arrangements.”