Minatur Orchestre @ b-Flat, Berlin 9/25/12

I came to Berlin first when I saw it was cheaper to fly there and knew it would be a good place to de-jetlag.  There's always music options and it's a fun place to explore.

I wanted to stay in a different area this time, but next time I should just stay close to b-flat again.  It's a great fallback can't miss place.

I think this band is Czech.  The instrumentation definitely appeals to me:  2 drumkits, tenor sax, trombone, trumpet/flugelhorn, clarinet and bass clarinet.  The quartet at A-Trane looked good, too, I just felt more of a pull for this show.  I knew why when I saw the lineup.  I enjoyed it a lot, especially the tune with the long bass clarinet solo and the drum solo.  It was all so good.

There was another piece that featured the trumpet in the 2nd set that I enjoyed a lot. He mainly played flugelhorn when I was there and I kept wondering if I was going to hear the trumpet.

Actually, I enjoyed all of it a lot.  I got there in the middle of the first set and table front and center was one of the few open, just for me.

The drummers often played the same thing together and it was very powerful.  They also played different things at times.  There was one part where they were playing the same thing with different tools - one had sticks while the other had brushes.  Gotta love a band with 2 drummers.

Here's an a google translate of the listing:

Modern Jazz
Araxi Karnusian...Tenorsaxophon / composition / / Simon Fankhäuser...Schlagzeug / composition / / Lukas Bitterlin ... drums / composition / / Domenic Landolf ... clarinet / / Lukas Roos ... bass clarinet / / Matthias Spillmann ...Trompete / flugelhorn / / Silvio Cadotsch trombone ...
The pattern is a miniature orchestra musicians collective to Araxi Karnusian & Simon Fankhäuser. The art of interpreting musical styles from Latin means Balkan Groove to dixie-swing-like blues ballads manage the group to twinkle in his eye stroke of genius! The music is full of innuendo and irritation of classical, jazz and world music, and just fun to listen to. Rhythmic patterns, melodic metaphors, collages and harmonious collective home-feelings of all parties to form the primordial soup in which has developed a highly explosive mixture. It does not stand on it jazz, but it's a lot of jazz in it in this bottle. Plop! We should let the genie just the Schaffhausen stage.
"It's a brilliant debut album of the formation. Composed "The miniatures of the saxophonist / composer Araxi Karnusian on the created by the two stroke machine operators Simon Fankhauser and Dominic Egli beats, tie a colorful bouquet of rare Stilabsurditäten and lyrical collective plants: Shrill clarinets meet inclined plate, a quirky saxophone and two rumbling drums to ignite a colorful, full of percussive fireworks rapid mood changes. "It says in the liner notes, and simultaneously hear you should, even if it your truth. it meets my" Concerto
"" Dixie Balkans Impro World Beat "called the miniature orchestra his own concept. Whoever thought behind it but another hip, but musically rather schmalbrüstiges project, is quite wrong. On the 17 miniatures" Pro Specie Rara "are rather demanding, highly intelligent and musically mature compositions at the interface of contemporary improvised music and classical music tradition. Araxi Karnusian, saxophonist and "guiding spirit" of the two drums and five horns quite exotic occupied formation has developed from beats of the drummers rhythmically, melodically and harmonically complex pieces where jazz changes, swing, Latin and chorale-like passages as on and start a new dive as folklore set pieces, in the impressionist or strawinskyeske sounds. An exciting, varied and remarkably mature album with great solo performances. Hopefully this new species is rapidly spread beyond Switzerland. "Jazz Thing