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,…