Album reviews and interviews
Reviews and interviews for our new album “Witchy Activities And The Maple Death” are coming in!
➜ A wonderful English review written by Terry Craven for Velvet Thunder. He has this to say: “Haunting, fragile, powerful and all-encompassing this truly is a work of sheer genius.”
➜ Another UK album review courtesy of Freq Magazin. Mr. Olivetti describes our music like this: “It feels a little like being poked in the chest as someone makes a strenuous point while travelling on a roller coaster.” We couldn’t agree more!
➜ German broadcasting station BR-Klassik made us their album of the month! “Gripping, exquisitely played and idiosyncratic in a modern way.”
➜ We sat down with Fifteen Questions for an in-depth interview.
➜ Independent magazine OUTSIDELEFT did an interview, too!
➜ German prog and art rock magazine “eclipsed” made us their album of the month! For them, we already are a contender for album of the year, calling it a “frenetic fusion of the cosmic kind”
➜ German review hub “Plattentests.de” made us their album of the week and awarded 9 out of 10 stars. In their wonderful review they say: “Sounds like a circus troupe that took just the right drugs before the show. This is a masterpiece.”
➜ Public broadcaster podcast BR-Klassik said: “An immensely powerful, urgent and wildly satisfying album”
➜ Berlin broadcaster “Radioeins” did an in-depth talk about the record on the “Soundcheck” podcast – the four participating journalists unanimously awarded a “hit” verdict and celebrated the “unbelievable vigor and freedom” on the record
➜ SWR2, another public broadcaster, had this to say about the music: “deeply sincere, exciting and enchanting”
➜ Süddeutsche Zeitung says that big band music like this is unprecedented, calling it a “Gesamtkunstwerk”
➜ German jazz magazine “Jazzthetik” describes the albums as “a trip through a thousand musical worlds, zappesque in the best sense of the term”
New Single: Firebird 🦋
Our album release is only two weeks away and we have one final single for you! “Firebird” is pure ecstatic energy, a flight through a warm summer’s night, exploding colors and beams of light all around you!
We are so happy that the artist Sascha Banck created the music video for us!
Here you can stream the new song.
Enjoy!:)
All the best,
Monika and Bigband
New single is here! 🌋
“A Taste Of The Apocalypse” is our latest single and it dropped today, we hope you enjoy the video! The album will be released on May 5!
The apocalypse alluded to in the song’s title is not one of mayhem and destruction, but rather one of change beyond recognition. A song about urgent questions asked by technological breakthrough developments that make it necessary to rethink and maybe to redefine what makes us human. Musically, the song embraces the optimistic take on our digital-looking future, wide-eyed, full of pathos and with heroic trumpets leading the way!
Album artwork
Here is the cover artwork of our upcoming album “Witchy Activities And The Maple Death”! The painting used is by Sascha Banck from Fürth, Germany – I’m a big fan of hers! Tobias Koark-Haberl created the witchy font from scratch and merged all elements into the artwork you see! You can pre-order the album here on our homepage (CD/Vinyl).
You can check out Sascha’s other works here, but the painting “rosa Wasserfall” / “pink waterfall” is already mine and I won’t give it away no more! 😍
Best wishes, Monika + Bigband
New Single: Unbewegte Sternenmeere
The story of someone staring into the stars and their reflections in the middle of the ocean. Losing all fear but also some of his mind. A journey that is expressed musically by letting mysterious and eerie sounds having a ghostly conversation – narrow intervals in the low frequencies, a strange and stumbling electronic beat and a peculiar trombone solo. When a breezy, laid-back guitar solo erupts mid-song, I feel like I have woken from a dream, just to find myself still in another dream, in a dimly-lit bar in some David Lynch movie. The song’s title “Unbewegte Sternenmeere” means: “unmoving seas of stars.”
Pre-order new album
You can now pre-order our new (physical) album here in our Band shop.
All the best, Monika and Bigband
Bigband LIVE: Tour 2023
München, Ampere 05.05.23 here
Langenzenn, Kulturhof 12.05.23 here (sold-out)
Mainz, Frankfurter Hof 13.05.23 here
Dortmund, Domicil 19.05.23 here
Stuttgart, Theaterhaus 20.05.23 here
Karlsruhe, Tollhaus 21.05.23 here
Idar-Oberstein, Jazztage 28.05.23 here
Hannover, Pavillon 29.05.23 here
Berlin, Kesselhaus 14.06.23 here
Nürnberg, Z-Bau 15.06.23 here
Ravensburg, Zehntscheuer 17.06.23 (soon)
Singen, GEMS 21.09.23 here
Würzburg, Jazzfestival 28.10.23 (Mail an: [email protected])
Music video out now: Queen Of Spades ♠️
Here you can check out our new music video, enjoy!:)
New Single: Queen Of Spades ♠️
Our new single “Queen Of Spades” arrives tomorrow! You can find it here from midnight on, and there also will be a music video on YouTube. For a change, this one ain’t a 9-minute-mammoth but three and a half straightforward minutes of fierce and fun big band rock! 😉 It’s about the eponymous Queen Of Spades having her sweet revenge! Enjoy!
Cheers, Monika and Bigband
📸 Emanuel Klempa
Back from Brelingen! 💜
Brelingen, we had a wonderful time playing in the St. Martini church! 🎺
Thanks to the organ building society and the amazing team, we had so much fun!
We never played in the area before, but now we will make a quick return! On May 29 we are playing at the Pavillon, Hannover! This will be a different set, with shorter reverb tails… always special to play in churches! Free epic reverb!:)
Thanks to hjweiss and Helmut Dobratz for the beautiful photos!
See you soon,
Monika and Bigband
New single “Starlight Nightcrash” is here!
✨We are so happy to show you our new single, its video and a 3D-mix! ✨
It’s going to get orchestral, dark, atmospheric and quite a little bit dramatic. Maybe the most intense piece on the new album. I’m so glad that animation artist Patrick Buhr created the music video for this song! There also is a 3D-mix available on Apple Music, created by Peter Brümmer.
➜ You can find all streaming links here: Linktree
“Starlight Nightcrash” is about the beauty of the natural world as well as its frighteningly destructive power. It was written like a constant breaking of waves with an ebb and flow capable of crushing everything in the blink of an eye. Coincidence holds the reins too: the mangled sounds of a circuit-hacked Casio keyboard flicker through the song. The brutal, the tender, the loving, the destructive, everything is inextricably connected.
Enjoy!:)
Cheers, Monika and Bigband
First Single
Our first single and its music video are finally released!
Thanks to all who were a part of it, this was a wild ride! 💜
Best,
Monika
New Album coming up 🤩
We’re so happy to announce our new album “Witchy Activities And The Maple Death”! The single “8 Prinzessinnen” will be released on February 3rd. It will be wild! We will post news and updates, I am very excited! 🤩 Here is a pre-save link. And we have more tour dates coming up as well,
all the best,
Monika and the Bigband
Live dates incoming! 🤩
Save the date, on November 19 it’s time for us to hit the stage again! We’re playing at Hubertussaal in Nuremberg, ticket pre-sale has already started, you can get yours 👉here. Also, on December 26 we’re playing at Jazzclub Regensburg.
We are looking forward to seeing you again and can’t wait to play some new tunes for you!
See you soon!
Monika and Bigband
We’re still at it!🤪
In case you’ve wondered why it has gotten a little quiet recently, this has everything to do with us working full time and with all the energy we have on the new album! 🎧 It’s still going to take a little while until it will be released, but from now on we will take you along the ride a little more, dropping some sweet nuggets and info in the near future! Here’s Mats Leichtle and me during one of our recent mixing sessions! We’re excited and hope you are too! ✌️
…staying home today…
Hi everyone, today is the award show of the @deutscherjazzpreis, unfortunately I must stay at home with #@!?%#! Omikron, arrrgh!I was looking forward to meeting so many musician friends and colleagues, but I am so happy that my Bigband players Hannes and Vincent will be there representing us, thank you guys!I got my setup ready to tune in live later tonight;)
Deutscher Jazzpeis 2022 Nomination
We are thrilled to be nominated by Deutscher Jazzpreis in the category “best public broadcasting production of the year” for our live performance at BR Studio 2! Big thanks to Beate Sampson, Ralf Weigand, Harald Schulze, Felix Hentschel and the whole team at BR for this great experience!
Here is a link to a song of the nominated Set.
See you soon!
Live Concert in Nuremberg!
What a joy we had playing in Nuremberg last saturday! Nothing beats playing live, especially in front of such a wonderful audience! We brought quite the light show and tons of tinsel with us, which you can have a look at soon when it’s time for dropping some videos… stay tuned!:) But for now we are looking forward to next saturday when we are heading to Delmenhorst!
Concert announcements
Attention please! Important announcement: We have CONFIRMED LIVE DATES again!
🎸 November 20 – Nuremberg, Hubertussaal
🎸 November 27 – Delmenhorst, Jazzfest
🎸 December 26 – Regensburg, Jazzclub
We will play some brand new tunes from the new record, so be sure to stop by! We are looking forward to seeing you again in person!
MRBB live @BR Studio 2 (Stream) 🚀
After a long, long pandemic hiatus we finally got back together again for a few days of rehearsals, having chats and heavy bean grinding! After practicing the new pieces we immediately went to German tv and radio broadcast company Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) and recorded a live set which will be available for on demand viewing in their online library from Nov 5 on! Take a look, we had a blast!!
TMTxplosif live
We had a great time playing with my trio TMTxplosif at Jazz & the City Festival in Salzburg and NUEJAZZ festival in Nuremberg!
Munich Composers Collective live
Gregor Hübner’s Munich Composers Collective (MCC) finally came together again to play a live concert at Milla Club! I was excited to contribute a few pieces – as always it was a great pleasure to play with this very special formation!
3 premieres for orchestra
In October I was invited as a composer to the Sonic Visions Festival in Reutlingen! Three new pieces for orchestra and electronics had their premieres there under the direction of Chatschatur Kanjan, accompanied by live visuals made by Timo Dufner. Here are some impressions!
See you soon, Monika
TMTxplosif live @Theresienwiese
Yesterday was probably the hottest gig of the year! Thank you all for showing up in these Death Valley temperatures, we’ve enjoyed being grilled on stage and playing our music at Kunst im Quadrat. We had a blast! Summer tan inclusive! TMTxplosif!;)
Camp Festival 2021
Here are some impressions from Camp Festival 2021, a “visual music” festival in Stuttgart!
12 artists from all over the world, with backgrounds in music, dance, performance and visual arts, shut themselves in for one week to create something together, resulting in many amazing performances by different collaborating teams – it was a feast for the senses and mind to work with these inspiring and fascinating people!
I wish you all a pleasant summer!:)
We have a new home!
Big news everyone, after a two year odyssey of ups and downs, dilligence, and sweat, poring over contracts and gaining important experiences, the Monika Roscher Bigband has a new home: Zenna Records – we founded our own label! 🎉🚀🌈
Which also means that our music is available again on streaming services:
Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal and Bandcamp.
A sign of life!
The world is spinning out of control – this ferris wheel is not. It’s reminding me and my lead trumpet player Felix that the production of the album is slowly but unceasingly moving forward! We stay focussed and calm and hope you can too!
TMT Trio Video “PSALM”
We recently shot a video for the trio I play in – TMT – and I’m happy to share it here with you!
I hope you are all doing fine, thanks for all the replies to our last newsletter, made me smile a lot! Hopefully we see you soon, maybe at a live gig, fingers crossed!
Recording update
Slowly but steady… ????️
The recording of our new big band album is moving ahead, one step at a time! The latest Corona lockdown doesn’t make things easier to make a studio recording with 19 musicians, but we accept the challenge and are working on the new songs with great attention to detail – time is plenty right now, since all concerts have been cancelled.
Unfortunately, our annual christmas concert on December 26th in Regensburg has been cancelled too – the stage is just too small for us to follow the required distancing rules. This one is especially sad for us, because playing there has become a big band tradition – we hope that we can return again in 2021!
It’s not that there will be no live music though, because I will be playing with my trio TMT instead!
See you soon and take care!
Monika
New video with TMT Trio
Happy first day of Cultural-Lockdown in Germany Nr. 2!
We were getting ready to play our first trio tour with our band TMT (which is: Tom Jahn on Hammond organ, Tilman Herpichböhm on drums and myself on guitar and vocals), but it is not going to happen because of the lockdown in November.
But hey, we’ve recorded a video a couple of weeks ago with Hook Sessions, here it is !:)
We’re looking forward to playing live again soon!
Stay healthy and see you soon!
Best,
Monika
No gigs, but new merch!:)
Our first band shirts have arrived!
Its design is a little circuit with symbols that play some role in our band!
I’ve tried on both colored versions of the woman shirts and I love them!:)
The shirts are now available in our band shop on this site!
*All shirts and bags are locally printed by Andreas Kräftner.
We decided tu use ecological and environmentally sustainable materials.
Design by Tobias Karl-Haberl.
All the best,
Monika
Trio gigs in November 2020
All big band concerts this fall have been cancelled now due to Covid. We are just too many people to be on one stage… but we are psyched to keep working on our new album!
And lucky me, I can still play concerts with our trio TMT and there are still some venues that allow smaller concerts!
These are the dates:
November 11th 2020 Jazz Club Hirsch e.V. // Moosburg
November 12th 2020 Leerer Beutel // Regensburg
November 13th 2020 Alte Kaserne // Landshut
November 14th 2020 Stadttheater // Landsberg am Lech
——> this is our homepage: https://www.tmttmttmt.com/
See you soon and stay healthy!
Monika
P.S. Photo credit: Svenja Tietze
Upcoming concerts in fall cancelled
We were so looking forward to seeing you this fall – but sadly our concerts at BR München (a public broadcasting radio station) on October 28th and in Nuremberg on November 21st were canceled due to Covid.
We’re gutted, but there’s no doubt about putting everyone’s health first.
Thankfully we have our third album to work on which we want to release next year, when the band can celebrate its 10 year anniversary!
If you want us to keep you updated please consider subscribing to our newsletter (right here in the sidebar), so you won’t miss when we are finally heading out to play some concerts again!?
Digital Festival Zappanale 30,5
Playing at Zappanale festival in the summer of 2018 is still a very special memory to us – great weather, fantastic crowd and amazing vibes! You can revisit the festival this coming weekend, when this years digital edition of Zappanale takes place. Selected concerts of the past years will be streamed and put online for on demand viewing. For more information go to www.zappanale.de.
We’re looking forward to seeing you in the real world soon:)
Stay healthy and have fun with the online Zappanale!
Best, Monika and the Bigband
Fotocredits: Bernd Hentschel, Foto von Angela: Steffen Schindler
Sounds of former times…
Found this little snippet from our release concert 2016! Almost forgot what it’s like to play live with the big band! “Sounds of former times” (the piece is called “A Walk in the Park By Night”) – just what it feels like right now… I’m so looking forward when we can hit the road again! Keep your fingers crossed for the dates this fall!
Lockdown? Mixdown!
Dear friends, we hope you are all doing fine! It’s been some time since we posted anything, but we did continue working on our new album, time just flew by, all of a sudden it’s june, and the world is burning… Let’s stand together for a peaceful society and work towards a future where everybody can feel at home and at peace, with respect for humanity and nature!
We hope that we can play with the full line-up again soon, but as of now it looks like this still has to wait a little. But keep your fingers crossed!
Missing my band and you guys,
Stay healthy!
Monika
Big band in the Time of Corona
Dear friends,
our concert at the Philharmonie Munich was cancelled due to the Corona pandemic… as so many other concerts have been. This is a hard blow for us musicians, but we know how to handle rough times… I guess this is our lot;) If you want to support us you can buy a CD, Vinyl or bag at our shop.
Stay healthy!
PS: … and when we hit the road again, we’ll play even louder!;)
Concert on Saturday, 29 Feb 2020
On saturday we are playing at Evangelische Akademie Tutzing – the whole weekend there will be exciting debates and talks under the rubric “The Power of Women” with great guests, like journalist Mesale Tolu! We are excited to participate as musical guests!:)
Doors: 7 pm – Concert: 7:30 pm
(Foto: Emanuel Klempa)
Theatre: Woyzeck at Residenztheater Munich
Since its premiere on January 31 Woyzeck is playing at Residenztheater Munich!
The play is directed by Ulrich Rasche and I wrote its live music for bassoon, viola, grand piano, electronics, bass and drums. We have a band that’s really killing it: Alexander Maschke, Mariana Beleava, Josef Reßle, Tadiija Mincic, Heiko Jung and Fabian Löbhard! The cast is amazing too!
If you’d like to have your face melt away, come and watch!:)
Here you can find all scheduled performances.
2020: working on album number three!
Slow food music – or – slow and steady wins the race!:)
Here are some impressions from our last recording sessions. It’s coming together, it’s taking shape! I’m already excited and can’t wait to present you some new pieces, but you have to be patient a little more!
Happy new year to you all! ???
When I was little, I wanted to become a rock guitarist!:) … feels like yesterday! Back then, I didn’t think I could rock with a big band, too!
Nuremberg and Regensburg gigs: “Avantgarde rarely is this much fun”
Bigband cyborgess between “8 hallucinating princesses in phospohrescent galaxies” …
We played our final concert of 2019 in Regensburg and it was a special one – thanks to everyone who stopped by, it was our pleasure! Next year we’ll continue working on our new album and playing live for you! We’re looking forward to seeing you and wish you a wonderful transition into the new decade!
Few weeks earlier we played in Nuremberg, two song premieres in the repertoire! We were delighted that Peter Gruner at the Nuremberg newspaper seemed to have enjoyed it: “There is Monika Roscher in front of her 17-piece mammoth band, conducting an overwhelming sound that is so nimbly walking the tightrope between genius and madness, as if all this were nothing more than a sunday stroll.”
Photos: Martin Cseh and Jürgen Petroff
It’s on! Third album in the making! ?
In case you wondered why it has become somewhat quiet around us… it has been for a reason! During the last months I withdrew into my rehearsal room and now we moved into the studio – and we can’t wait to tackle our third album!
Here you can see some impressions from the recording process: Tom Friedrich, Ferdinand Roscher, Josef Reßle and Hannes Dieterle – live in action!
Stay tuned, we’ll keep you updated with little bits here and there!
Award from the cultural department of Middle Franconia 2019! ?
Leaving your mobile switched off for once…
Strolling around in beautiful Franconia unsuspectingly and all of a sudden being congratulated for a an award – which I know nothing about yet. Fake news?? Mobile switched on again: fact! It’s true!:)
Thanks a lot to the cultural department of Middle Franconia for their award, such a pleasure!
(Photo: Emanuel Klempa)
DownBeat 2019 Rising Star Big Band
Dear friends, what an honour! We are listed among the 22 Rising Stars in the latest issue of DownBeat magazine!:)
Jazzfest Bonn and summer break
We had a wonderful time playing the closing concert at Jazzfest Bonn!
What an amazing audience, thanks for the fantastic night at the Telekom Forum! WDR will air a broadcast of our concert on TV, on June 28th at 1:25 AM – prime time, baby!;)
Now we are fully committing to our new album and make use of the summer break for writing, tinkering, rehearsing and conspiring.
We’ll keep you up to date!
Enjoy some sun,?
Monika and band
MRBB @ Lange Nacht der Musik Munich
It was a beautiful long night in Munich!
You can listen to some impressions (and also two pieces we’ve played) here: BR Sweet Spot did some live reporting!
See you soon, our next stop is at Jazzfest Bonn on May 31, come around!
Southern Germany Mini Tour
We had a blast on our mini tour through southern Germany:
Theaterhaus Jazztage Stuttgart and Veitsbronn, thanks for coming!
See you soon, we’re now tinkering with some new song material that we’re already looking forward to presenting to you!
MRBB @ 45. Freiberger Jazztage
Freiberg, thanks for having us!:) We were allowed to play in the worlds oldest (!) municipal theatre! You gave us such a warm hearted welcome, we didn’t want to leave again!
See you soon in Stuttgart or in Franconian Veitsbronn,
Monika and band
MRBB @ Philharmonie Cologne
Cologne, it was our pleasure! Thanks for a spectacular night.
We also had the great honor to meet author Frank Schätzing – naturally, being a team of 20, we didn’t have much trouble “convincing” him to do a selfie with us!:)
Frank Lorentz wrote a wonderful piece for the Welt am Sonntag – here are some of his memories:
“The best thing though, to me, was the music. Played by the Monika Roscher Bigband.”
“[…] she conducted her band and played and sang like I haven’t seen or heard before.”
“Pure magic!”
Bigband Rehearsal Days
We had some bigband rehearsal days, it was super fun. Getting psyched for Cologne on wednesday!
Springtime awakening 2019 ☀︎
We can’t wait to get on the road again for our 2019 concerts:
27.03.2019 Cologne, Philharmonie, lit.COLOGNE (literature festival)
13.04.2019 Freiberg, Freiberger Jazztage
19.04.2019 Stuttgart, Theaterhaus Jazztage
20.04.2019 Veitsbronn, Halle 96
04.05.2019 Munich, Lange Nacht der Musik, Carl-Orff-Saal
31.05.2019 Bonn, Jazzfest (closing concert)
30.11.2019 Nuremberg, Hubertussaal
We’re looking forward to seeing you! Best,
Monika Roscher Bigband
First tour dates 2019!
Zappanale 2018 – Videos!
We played at the wonderful Zappanale this summer – here are some live videos: the first one is our song “Wüste”, where our soprano saxophone player Jan Kiesewetter rips it up!
The second video is “Illusion”, with our key master of enchantment, Josef Reßle, who is introducing the song with a magical solo, and Burning Man Michael Schreiber on tenor saxophone who is setting the stage ablaze fueled by some fired up drumming by Silvan Strauß!:)
The third one is “Terror Tango”. It’s one of my favorites and is about the unnerving constant sonic exposure of today that you can’t escape from. Wonderful solos by Jasmin Gundermann, Jakob Grimm, Alistair Duncan, Leonhard Kuhn and Matthias Lindermayr!
Hubertussaal Nuremberg
It was amazing to play at Hubertussaal Nuremberg again, thanks to everyone who showed up! We played two new pieces, one with an infernal drum and bass battle (Leif and Ferdinand) and we are so happy about the great concert review by Nuremberg Nachrichten …”the most crazy and virtuoso Brass Band around“:)
Zappanale #29
It was a great pleasure to play at Zappanale Festival – „Don’t accept any substitute !“ A Big Thanks to Bad Doberan, an awesome festival, and a wonderful audience! Have a lovely summer, and see you in Nuremberg on Sept.15 at Hubertussaal!
Monika und die Bigband
p.s. Our pianist Josef has a similar beard,…
Fusion Festival 2018
Truelly one of the most inspiring places to be!
Thank you Fusion Festival 2018!!
This was such a pleasure to be part of it and meet so many different people, a variety of music, visual artists and people with great ideas and visions!
This were some beautiful, wild and enchanting days!
Summer Festivals 2018
Bingen Swingt 23.6.
Fusion Festival 27.6.
Zappanale 22.7.
Nürnberg 15.9.
We are so excited to be playing this great Festivals in the Summer!
MRBB in St Petersburg: The opening concert of the 15th „German Week“ in St. Petersburg
Its been an amazing Russia Tour with this Band!
We played in one of the craziest concert locations ever, a burned down church, St Petersburg is just stunning. We had a very exciting time there, from Germany to St Petersburg with Love!
(more tour fotos hier)
The opening concert of the 15th „German Week“ in St. Petersburg
After our concert on April 14th in Gauting close to Munich we will head to Russia with the whole band for the first time!
We will play two concerts in St Petersburg and we are so excited!
Check it out if you are close to St Petersburg!
18.4. Arkadi-Rajkin-Theater 19:00 Uhr
19.4. St. Annenkirche Kirotschnaja 20 Uhr
Monika
Curt interview with a carnival polonaise
This was a great interview with Anders Radlmaier from Nuremberg Curt magazine about Music and Theatre, Politics, Freedom and Arts. There was a super fun moment during the interview when a bunch of people dressed up for carnival came walking through the place like a polonaise, singing and screaming german carnival songs! Photos are by Cris Civitillo.
Regensburg: the last concert in 2017
We love this place and it is fun to play there every time!
Later I met with Michael Scheiner for a really nice chat about music, he wrote the article about the concert in Regensburg at Leerer Beutel. It was a great evening!
Monika Roscher steigt in Leuchtdiodenanzug und tanzt die „Starlight Night“
New video: live @ JazzBaltica Festival 2017
Here’s a new live video for our brand new song “Starlight Nightcrash”:
Elbphilharmonie Hamburg: Photos
We are still stoked!!:)
Elbphilharmony Hamburg
This Interview was taken befor the concert and you can see some impressions of the concert and the concert hall! Thank you Elbphilharmonie Hamburg!
Woyzeck in Basel (Switzerland)
On September 15th there was the world premiere of Woyzeck by director Ulrich Rasche.
I was composing the music for this play, for viola, bassoon, piano, bass, and drums.
Three hours of minimal music and one break. Ulrich Rasche created an impressive stage for the play!
If you want to check it out in live, here are the dates.
„Talking opera“ (der neue Markur)
„A mind blowing disgrace“ (Tageswoche.ch)
JazzBaltica Festival
We’re back from JazzBaltica Festival, what a weekend!:)
Here are some impressions, e.g. our great trombone section with Nils Landgren;)
Thanks to the wonderful festival team! Here is a press link. Our train journey was very relaxed, as you can see. And last but not least a small celebration pic with Gregor Hübner, the best teacher in writing music, what a wonderful surprise!:) We will now get ready and prepare to play at Elbphilharmonie on August 26th. Good times.
Crankily creative spectacle!
We had a great time playing concerts in Munich, Burghausen and Stuttgart! Once we were said to be a “crankily creative spectacle” (Burghauser Anzeiger) and even a “force of nature” (Stuttgarter Zeitung)!
Now we are looking ahead to our next concerts: Jazzbaltica Festival in the far north. Nils Landgren already welcomed us via Facebook! We will hit the stage on June 25 at 8pm!
Fall 2017:
22. September Hubertussaal Nuremberg
20. October 41th Leipziger Jazztage
21. October 31st Musikwinter Gschwend
Sunny regards,
Monika Roscher Bigband
Chirp Chirp!
Here you can get our CDs and double-LP directly from the Christmas-Bird:
https://www.monikaroscher.com/eng/music/
Merry Christmas!!:)
Release concerts “Of Monsters and Birds”
After almost one year and a long epic voyage we can finally present our new CD and double LP “Of Monsters and Birds” to you!
We had two overwhelming album release concerts in Munich and Nuremberg, thank you all for making this weekend a blast! Special thanks to the City of Munich and Initiative Musik! The CD/LP is available under “Shop”.
All the best,
Monika Roscher and Bigband
Here some concert impressions:
pictures Ampere © Emanuel Klempa (www.emanuelklempa.de)
Music video “Illusion”
Here it is… *drumroll* … the music video for „Illusion“! It’s our first high-end blockbuster production! We did all the stunts ourselves, some monsters were unfortunately severely harmed during the making of this video;) Thanks so much Oliver Mohr (director) and Zeno Legner (DOP) and your whole crew! Enjoy!
Video premiere: “Full Moon Theatre”
Our first video for the new album is here! The piece is called FULL MOON THEATRE and you can see us during the recording of OF MONSTERS AND BIRDS at Bauer Studios Ludwigsburg. As you can see and hear, we went a little cuckoo in there, but that didn’t stop us from having a blast! This won’t be the last video for the new album, so stay tuned…
Don’t forget to get tickets for our release concert on April 15 at Ampere Munich here!
Album Release April 15, 2016
April 16. Hubertussaal Nuremberg
Monster Music Video
We finished filming our music video last night and had a wonderful time! There will be evil white waddling sausages, which we have to defeat! Here are some pictures of the process, and we can’t wait to show you our video in 2016!
We got something brewin’…
For all of you who want to see us before the end of the year: we’re playing at Jazzclub Regensburg on December 26! And now for those of you who want to see us NEXT year, you can do so THIS year too! We’re playing at Silvestival Nürnberg on December 31, welcoming the new year with a lot of (brass) fanfare and helicopters!
Keep checking back here for news regarding our new album… we got something brewing!
Altdorf Concert
There was a lot going on lately (more on this later)! We played a concert in Altdorf, huge thanks go out to the Soulbuddies Altdorf and their crew for making this wonderful evening possible!:)
Here are some great shots of our concert, thank you Felix Röser for the photos! See you soon!
Initiative Musik Sponsorship
Is it christmas already? We were awarded a sponsorsip by the Initiative Musik, an arts sponsorship programme of the German Federal Department for Culture and the Media. This means a huge boost for us and the production of our second album which is slowly taking shape… you will learn more about it right here, soon!
Fusion Festival 2015
We’re back from Fusion Festival and it’s been a blast! What a wonderful festival, what a wonderful audience – and the backstage crew is a league of its own, some of the nicest people on the planet! Had it been up to us, we wouldn’t even bothered to make the trip back home:)
Fusion Festival, we hope we’ll meet again!
(Thank you Oliver Mohr for the pics!)
Dobrý večer Prague!
What a weekend at the “Mladi Ladi Jazz Festival” in Prague! Dobrý večer, and
See you soon!
Singen/Nuremberg 2015
We are back from our first two concerts 2015 – Singen and Nuremberg, we had a lot of fun !! It was very exciting for us because we played several completely new pieces such as Caribbean Delirium, the Bird Suite: Full Moon Theatre and our techno song Ghosts of the Century. The audience was overwhelming, (was it because of the incredible outfits of the trumpet players?:) – now we can not wait to play our new set live again! We are in the middle of planning concerts for 2015, new dates will be announced here soon,
We look forward to seeing you,
all the best!
( Photos: M. Reiling , M. Cseh , J. Petroff )
Bavarian Art Sponsorship Award
Jazz & the City
We had a blast in Salzburg, thanks to the awesome audience! We hope to come back to Austria soon!
Hello John Scofield and hello Sons of Kemet!
We’re looking forward to play in Saarbrücken, Germany, on the 8th of November,
See you around!
Monika and Bigband
New Video online!
Our new video “Future 3” is finished and we are happy to show it to you here! It is a compilation of on-stage and backstage impressions of our latest concerts in 2014!
(Thanks to Patrick Bethke, our cameraman and editor)
Coming up: Burghausen Big Band weekend on September 19th at 7 p.m.
Here are more infos.
See you!
Echo Jazz 2014
We received this wonderful trophy for our first album „Failure in Wonderland“ as „Newcomer of the Year national“ at the Echo-Jazz gala in Hamburg!
Thanks to Enja (our Label), thanks to Initiative Musik, and thanks to the city of Munich for the support!
Here is our first band portrait in English!
Jazz Echo 2014
We have been awarded the Jazz Echo in the category “Newcomer of the Year National”! Yay! The award ceremony will be on May 22 in Hamburg.
We are also looking forward to these concerts coming up:
Jazzfrühling Kempten on 26.4.
Landsberg am Lech on 27.4.
Idar Oberstein Jazzfestival on 31.5.
Agratamagatha Festival on 26.7.
See you around!
Downbeat and Tour Dates!
We are happy to announce to be featured in the February edition of Downbeat magazine! You can read about our “auspicious entry” at last years Berlin Jazz Festival and everything else Dan Ouellette has to say about us in the “Reviews” section or right here: Downbeat, Feb 2014.
If you would rather see us on stage than on page here’s some other good news: for the first time we are visiting the far north of Germany to play the MIBNIGHT Jazzfestival in Bremen on February 22 and Hamburg’s MOJO club on March 2.
If you are closer to our Bavarian homebase don’t miss us at Jazzclub Regensburg on February 23. Check out the “Concerts” section for more infos!
End of the year finish
The year draws to a close, but we’re still far from taking a rest!
This week we are featured in two radio programs: on Wednesday, 10pm, WDR 3 takes a close look at the German big band scene in «Young & Big» and the day after at 9pm I’m part of an interview panel on BR Klassik’s «taktlos».
And finally on saturday it’s your last chance to see us live this year when we are playing at Jazzfest Munich!
If you are still looking for a christmas present, click on “shop” where you can order our CD “Failure in Wonderland” directly from us.
Jazzfest Berlin
This was a truly wonderful evening!
Thanks to Bert Noglik and to Jazzfest Berlin for everything. Playing with John Scofield and his Überjam was an honour, but receiving compliments from the legend himself and his band after the concert was even better!:)
For us it was the first time playing such a big international festival and being broadcasted live on several radio stations. An amazing experience and definitely a highlight for us as a band!
Now we are already looking forward to playing Jazzfest Munich on December 14 and hope to meet some of you again soon,
Best wishes
Monika and Bigband
Photos: © Petra Basche, Martin Hufner, Hupe-Kollektiv 2013
Jazzfest Berlin
We’ll be playing Jazzfest Berlin on the 3rd of November and we’re looking forward to this big concert. It will be a double gig with John Scofields Überjam, here you find more information, see you!
Tour Diary Pt. 2
No, this is not us at Abbey Road Studios… this is the village square of Bezau, a lovely little town in Austria! There we played our mild summer nights slot at Bezau Beatz Festival, incorporating the village fountain and church bells to great success: Matthias Schriefl bubbled a refreshing underwater trumpet solo and Hannes Billich went all duet during his piano solo with the church tower clock striking the hour – unfortunately we had to leave both the clock tower and the fountain in Bezau. Saying our goodbyes was hard, we hope to be returning some day! Thanks for everything Alfred, it was amazing!
Lott festival was another highlight!:) Sunshine, camping tents in every colour, right next to the small village of Raversbeuren and bands from all over the world! We seized the chance and made friends with “Yes Sir Boss” (Hello to Bristol!), “Corebeaux” (Salut to France!) and many greetings to Dan of “Skindred” (Cheers to Newport!)!
And since there are almost no pics of our live sound engineer to be found, here’s a pretty series of him and our bass player, trying to out-grimace each other… and failing to do so at the same time.
We went on to Hafensommer Festival in Wurzburg, the last gig of our summer tour. We couldn’t have expected more! You can find some impressions right here (© Foto: Ulf Cronenberg, Würzburg, www.flytotherainbow.de).
So maybe we’ll see each other on September 26 when we are playing at Bluval Festival in Straubing, the next day when we are playing at Kulturhof Langenzenn or on November 3 at the Jazzfest Berlin where it is an incredible honor for us to share the stage with the legend himself, John Scofield! We can’t wait!
Cheers!
Monika and Bigband
Tour Diary Pt. 1
Our first time in the capital… it was a blast! Just what are the odds of letting 18 musicians loose in Berlin and have them walk into each other eventually? And why do Berliners jump off this house at Alexanderplatz? Or are these just disappointed tourists? Thanks to our catering team and our bus drivers (a job that is seemingly best suited to our brass section:)
Back in Munich: playing the Milla was once again amazing. It is quite possible that we play there more regularly from autumn on… we would be thrilled to do so!
We were headed back north just after that to play Fusion Festival… and what a festival it was! The most lovingly put together works of art, visual installations, optical illusions, just mindblowing. Our piece „Irrlicht“ would have felt right at home in an art forest full of lights and colors. Alice in Wonderland was ever present somehow and our visual artist Sascha Bank could run riot to her hearts content with the 3D artists of Urban Screen.
The journey continued.
Our next stop was Alto Adige Jazz Festival in Italy. We had to supply ourselves with 18 reflective vests (it’s the law) in order to use the motorway. So why not turn this utter useless stuff into shiny stage outfits? No sooner said than done:) We play castle Sigmundskron in Bozen and the dome square in Brixed. The atmosphere was sensational! Oh you delicious „Schlutzkrapfen“, we already miss you!
Right now, we are rehearsing new music and hope to see you in Bezau, Austria on July 30, at Lott Festival on August 3 or at the Hafensommer Festival in Würzburg on August 9. Can’t wait! See you soon!
Buona Giornata!
Moni and Bigband
Television debut @ BR Puls
We made our television debut! BR Puls named us Band of the Week along with an invitation to their studio to do an interview and to shoot two live performances (and let us drink impressive amounts of coffee)!
By the way, we easily set a new record by cramming 18 musicians and visual artist Sascha Bank into the recording studio and beat German rap veterans Blumentopf by
doing so…
You can watch the results on the BR Puls site or on Youtube. Have fun!
see you soon,
Monika und Bigband
June Tour!
June is packed!
On Saturday we kicked off our summer tour with an open air concert at Munich Marienplatz, heart and center of the city. But already on Friday we are heading to Berlin, our first time in the capital, to play a double gig (June 22 and 23) at the B-Flat!
For our last summer gig in Munich we will be returning to the wonderful Milla Club, that already hosted us in May. We immediately felt at home there and the acoustics were fantastic, so we are really looking forward to playing there again on June 23!
Once again we are headed north, playing Fusion Festival on June 26! How great is that? Sadly we cannot stay to see some other acts, but Alto Adige Jazz Festival in Italy is waiting, a truly one-of-a-kind festival with loads of fresh and exciting bands doing insane stuff. I already had the chance to visit Bolzano last week, one of our two festival-stops there, and it is such a gorgeous city!
We can’t wait to play all these concerts and hope to see you there!
Cheers
Monika and Bigband
CD-Review in “Le Monde”!
We are happy to present to you our first CD review from France! It’s “Le Monde”!!!
Bisous,
Monika et Bigband
“Chanteuse et guitariste allemande, Monika Roscher, 29 ans, est à la tête d’un formidable orchestre, à la fois classiquement dans l’instrumentation du big band et groupe de rock par l’apport de sonorités électrico- électro et une manière de pousser la rythmique vers le binaire. L’écriture de Monika Roscher est aussi pour une part nettement inscrite dans la culture pop-rock. Son chant sera parfois évocateur de celui, voilé, de l’Islandaise Björk. Avec un grand plus de chaleur et de naturel en faveur de Monika Roscher. Cet orchestre, issu d’un projet de fin d’études de la jeune femme au conservatoire de Munich, et sa musique sont une superbe découverte. Une grande claque même. Avec dans les parties chansons (Future3, Human Machines…) de quoi en remontrer à des groupes pop bien plus en vue, et dans les parties instrumentales, une inventivité constante pour une musique de pleine expressivité.” Sylvain Siclier
Editors Pick at the Downbeat Magazine
Our CD ” Failure in Wonderland” was chosen for the editors pick in the
US Jazzmagazine “Downbeat” in April. You can find the whole editors pick here under “reviews”.
Cheers, Monika und Bigband
Hafensommer Wuerzburg 09.08.
We are going to play at ” Hafensommer Wuerzburg” on August 9th. It will be a double show with Nik Bärtsch’s RONIN. Bring your goggles, fins and swimming trunks, because it’s a floating stage…we already prepare for a stagedive during our song “die Parade” which is about a collective jump off a cliff!:)
Thank you, Initiative Musik!
We are happy to announce that the national artist support program “Initiative Musik” is supporting our 2013 tour!
Thank you very much, you’re great!
White Noise /Black Silence Festival in Munich
It was wonderful in Munich at the White Noise/Black Silence Festival!
Our live-video of that show will be coming out soon, cheers!
Tourstart in Nuremberg
Thanks to all of you who where at the soldout MUZ
in Nuremberg, we had such a great time with you! Thanks a lot!:)
We are looking forward to play in Munich on Sunday at the White Noise and Black Silence Festival at Gasteig,
See you soon!
Monika and Bigband
Interview with Bushwah!
This news is a little belated, but definitely worth a post! Wilhelm Wisenheimer from bushwah.com did this wonderful interview which you can read below. Be sure to check out his blog, too!
Concerts in March: Nuremberg and Munich
On March 27th we are playing at Musikzentrale in Nuremberg, doors open at 8pm.
On March 31st, Easter Sunday, we are playing the White Noise/ Black Silence Festival at Gasteig, Munich. We are happy to be sharing the stage with Moop Mama. So when you have finished (or frustratedly called off) your Easter Egg hunt, head over to the Gasteig!
Here’s the trailer for the festival!
White Noise / Black Silence-Festival Trailer 2013 from Open Video Medien Labor on Vimeo.
New concerts confirmed and US-release!
We are happy to play Bezau Beatz, Austria, Lott-Festival near Koblenz, Bluval Festival in Straubing and we are looking forward to returning to Langenzenn in September, home sweet home!:) For more details check out “gigs”.
You can still order our new record here on our site, (“shop”) and support us directly as a band.
The US-release month is March, but if you want to be faster, send us an e-mail.
Cheers,
Monika Roscher
Prize at the BuJazzO competition 2013
We’ve been awarded the third prize for “Schnee aus Venedig” (Snow of Venice) at the Federal Jazz Orchestra of Germany (BuJazzO) Composition Contest 2013! I’m looking forward to the rehearsal in march and am curious how this great band’s interpretation of our piece will sound like. See you soon!
CD Release Concert
Happy New Year everyone!:)
We had a great CD release concert at the sold out Atomic Cafe, Munich. You can check out some pics in the gallery.
During the coming weeks we will be working on new material and are planning concerts for summer. Already confirmed is a double-gig on June 21./22. in Berlin and we are really looking forward to visit the capital!
Hope to see you around sometimes,
Cheers,
Monika
Youtube-Video Live and in Color
Here is a video collage accompanying our song “Human Machines”, impressions of our release concert and our rehearsal, enjoy:)
Our CD is finally released!
It’s a digipack and has more than 60 minutes of music on it. I hope you enjoy it and if you are interested in ordering one, you can find it under “music”.
Thank you for your support!
Monika and Bigband
Here is an early taste of our new album
It’s called “Irrlicht” in german and means “will o the whisp” in english, and it’s kind of scary but also very gentle – out of the view of the ghost light which enjoys its play, but out of the perspective of the estray it’s a pretty fatal game. Matthias Lindermayr plays the distorted trumpet. Enjoy the journey!
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/68346124″ iframe=”true” /]
The first english blog post
This is our first english post and we are happy to show you our first cover-story! (well… still in german, but hey, first things first:)