From stage fright to bravura

Before the Jugendjazzorchester.ch (JJO) gets started with its concert, artistic director Christian Muthspiel talks about the future. Auditions will take place again in June this year. This will be the third time that the ensemble has had new members. Once again, talented musicians between the ages of 16 and 25 are being sought who are "already performing at a high level in terms of instrumental or vocal technique" and ideally have previous knowledge of jazz. According to the flyer, however, what is more important is the will to contribute to the collective through personal expression and to improvise.

However, attention is still focused on the second edition of the nationwide funding project: 16 musicians are waiting to perform live at the Jazzcampus Club in Basel. Christian Muthspiel, once a member of the Vienna Art Orchestra, wants to introduce the audience to the Basel Jazz Music School project first. "We want to pick up young people between music school and university," explains the Austrian. He also refers to the audition last summer, where interested people were given the chance to present themselves and their skills for ten to fifteen minutes. According to the trombonist and composer, he got to see and hear many great talents. Accordingly, the selection was difficult.

"My job is to write a new program every year," says Muthspiel. This should be based entirely on the skills of the participating musicians. "The whole thing is then a joint development of modules." The participants did not have much time together to come up with a convincing result: Three weekends and four days of intensive rehearsals in the week of the premiere had to suffice. Finally, it's time to get serious: Muthspiel turns away from the auditorium and towards his orchestra. Beforehand, he promises 90 minutes of music, two pieces and no break.

The beginning is alpine: accentuated slanting trumpets and saxophone evoke mountainous images. It is a cheerful jumble that gradually unravels and picks up speed. If you look at the faces of the young artists, their nervousness is unmistakable. No one wants to mess up or even miss their cue. This results in palpable tension and is reflected in many uneasy glances and wiped away beads of sweat. The stage fright is understandable, but unnecessary, because: The JJO quickly finds a convincing groove.

Christian Muthspiel only stays in his conductor's chair for a short time. Again and again he itches to get going, gives encouraging instructions and spurs his protégés on. Percussionist Lucas Zibulski often takes on the role of the starter: with his energetic playing, he drives right into the middle of the parade of musical events on this evening and thus achieves a reorientation of the sound. Flutist Nancy Meier is the first to take a solo; she elicits predominantly spring-like tones from her instrument, which also possess the power of the archaic. When bassist Valerio Wenger and pianist Tim Bond add their music, the joint effort quickly turns towards swing. And so skillfully that even Muthspiel murmurs his appreciation.

In addition to Valerio Wenger, there are two guitarists at the back of the three rows of musicians: the two offer very different sounds, but complement each other perfectly. While Dominik Zäch prefers fluid and smooth licks, Sidney Chopard shows his flair for the flamboyant. The nameless composition by Muthspiel turns out to be an almost ideal vehicle to present and prove himself. The piece meanders through a wide variety of styles and seems to bow to artists as diverse as Santana, Chet Baker, Lee Ritenour and Henry Mancini. The result is that the music is rarely pleasing, but is nonstop curious. The sound, which is sometimes plaintive, sometimes jubilant, leads over hill and dale, scales mountain peaks and occasionally gets lost in the darkness of confusion, only to get back on track again.

While the duet between Noah Eiermann on flugelhorn and Carlo Bechtel on trumpet has a liberating effect, the interplay between saxophonists Charlotte Lang, Marina Iten and Niels Pasquier is characterized not least by mutual and eloquent encouragement. With his program, Muthspiel even managed to incorporate two instruments, the marimba (Fabian Schürmann) and the violin (Gabriel Raiser), which usually lead a shadowy existence in jazz, but flourish in this ensemble context. Before the concert, the organizers had no doubt that the great challenge of the evening would lie in the tension between the collective process and the development of individual playfulness. After an hour and a half of intense music, it was clear to see: The Jugendjazzorchester.ch not only accomplished the task with obvious joy and bravura, but also grew with it.