Sunrise by Stefan F. Huber & Jazzbirds

The first album by the Munich group Jazzbirds, founded in 1996 by the composer and guitarist Stefan F. Huber, was recorded in two sessions, the “summer session” (1999) and the “autumn session” (2000). The band successfully creates its own, emotional style, which can best be described by the title “Urban Melodic Jazz”: a blend of contemporary jazz, spiced with a pinch of Latin. The members of the band are all professional musicians in the Munich jazz scene. The band’s individual sound is emotional and exciting, encompassing jazz harmony and the rhythms of Latin, Swing and Fusion music. The big-city atmosphere characteristic of the band’s music arises from the driving grooves of drums and bass, the Big Band arrangements and the dialogue of trumpet and saxophone. The music is composed and arranged by Stefan F. Huber. He studied composition with the main emphases on counterpoint, arrangement and instrumentation for six years with Dr. Alfred Goodman. Recommended listening for the stylistic variety of the band: the songs “Dance thru’ the night” and “Cruisin’ in Silence” for Fusion, “Café La Luna” and “Look in the Mirror” for Latin, and “Sunrise”, composed and arranged by Stefan F. Huber in the style of a classic Burt Bacharach ballad. Line-up: Summer Session: Karl Lehermann (tp,flh), Tobias Schöpker (ts,ss), Martin Bischof (p, keys), Stefan F. Huber (g), Hans Austermeier (b), Wolfgang Mathias (dr, perc), special guest: Regina Mück (acc), Autumn Session: Karl Lehermann (tp, flh), Tobias Schöpker (ts, ss), Leonhard Schilde (p, keys, acc), Stefan F. Huber (g), Andreas Urich (b), Wolfgang Mathias (dr, perc), special guests: Naomi Isaacs (vocal on “Look In The Mirror”), Kathrin Seider (vocal on “Sunrise”), Dieter Götz (bj)