NDR Bigband / Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin / Wayne Marshall

Ensembles of border-crossers

»Perhaps the difference between us,« Leonard Bernstein once said to Duke Ellington, »is that you compose symphonic jazz and I compose jazz symphonies.« Neither artist was a fan of strict genre boundaries – for them only the pure quality of the music counted. However, Bernstein was already aware of the role improvisation played in Ellington’s orchestral jazz. When the NDR Bigband meets the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, it is not just about music at the highest level – it is also about a new, contemporary exploration of improvisation and composition.