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!?

Stay healthy!
Monika

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!