Richard Strauss and jazz? If anyone can build a musical bridge here, it is Günter Baby Sommer. No less a piece than "Also sprach Zarathustra" forms the musical basis for this. The first introductory bars alone are world-famous. Sommer, one of the most important representatives of contemporary European jazz, and his fellow players approach this music by Richard Strauss in an improvisational way and combine the symphonic poem with jazz music. (Press release)

Where should an improvising jazz musician reach for, or rather, where should he listen when he wants to express himself musically on Richard Strauss? This cornucopia of Strauss compositions is almost inexhaustible and unmanageable. The solution is not to go poaching in the operas, symphonic poems or chamber music, but to approach the general style of Strauss's compositions with one's own playing possibilities and individual musical material. Loud & quiet, painting in tones and musical images that tell stories - these are the possibilities that we improvising jazz musicians have to connect with the sound world of Richard Strauss. (press release)