Composition/arrangement of the year
“8 Prinzessinnen” (won)
Album of the year
“Witchy Activities And The Maple Death (nominated)
“A stunning album – a bustling, restless witches sabbath charged with feminist superpower“
“A fascinating magic potion of metal and jazz“
ALBUM OF THE MONTH
„A magnificent fusion of the cosmic kind“
„Music for the mind and for the soul“
„Fans of indie, jazz and prog will be equally delighted“
JAZZ ALBUM OF THE MONTH
„Cinematic widescreen music of a mystical world“
„Gripping, exquisitely performed and idiosyncratic in a modern way. Jazz that underscores the endless possibilities of ithe genre: between monumental rock, capricious electronica, and circus music with a wink“
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
„You won’t find a lot of music as intriguingly crafted and realized at a comparable level of complexity. Mindblowing moments of opulence stand next to minute intricacies, rigor and meticulousness go hand in hand with intuition and total freedom that sometimes verges into mania. The band combines Miles with Meshuggah, Zappa with Zorn, Julias Eastman with The Dear Hunter … and a lot more“
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
„Sounds like a circus troupe took just the right drugs before the show. Make no mistake: this is a masterpiece“
„With this album Monika Roscher and her band fulfill the high expectations“
„A Gesamtkunstwerk“
Concert review: Frankfurter Hof, Mainz
„The opener is met with enthusiasm right away“
„Beyond comparison“
„Groovy rockers and arrangements full of ingenuity and grandeur are taking turns“
„Deeply honest, exhilarating and enchanting“
„Unbelievable vigor, unbelievable freedom“
Radio Eins, Andreas Müller / Fanny Tanck / Martin Rabitz / Christian Schröder, April 2023
„An immensely powerful, urgent and wildly satisfying album“
„This band is a monster. Her bandleader might be one as well“
„These are extremely complex pieces that are still grooving hard and are downright exhilarating“
„Big band sound as fresh and exciting as you can find“
„Head and gut, heart and mind are seldomly brought as elegant as here“
„Such power, such imagination, so many colours, so much fire!“
„An inimitable sound“
„This band and her fabulous singer and guitarist are such an experience. For Witchy Activities And The Maple Death they deserve the highest grades“
„Feels like a trip through a thousand musical worlds, zappaesque in the best sense of the word, as distinctive as Carla Bley or Sun Ra on steroids – or like Charles Mingus in 3D“
Concert review: Z-Bau, Nuremberg
„Snickering saxophones, escalating trumpets, wild guitar riffs and trombones from hell. If Hieronymus Bosch was a jazz musician, his music probably would have sounded just like that“
„After the concert you feel like awoken from a frenzy“
„Subsonic club basses bump into a beer festival Tex-Mex band, who are heading into the exploding sky, riding on a broom – alongside Tom Waits and Björk“
„Elements of folk, jazz and atonality, everythings falls into place – a revelation“
„Thrilling, unpredictable, fascinating – a wonderful album!“
„How she manages to write and arrange for so sprawling a collective is a feat in itself, but Witchy Activities And The Maple Death is a roaring success and well worth investigation“
„Haunting, fragile, powerful and all-encompassing this truly is a work of sheer genius“
„A bloody brilliant big band somewhere near the gap between Battles and Bjork“
„They sound huge. They are huge. But they are also capable of moments of incredible delicacy“
„The rich tonal palette of a jazz orchestra mixed with avant-garde symphonic intensity, dissonance with swing, and acoustics with electronics“
„A well-recorded and beautifully-packaged piece of boundary bashing“
Concert review: Theaterhaus Stuttgart
„An pretty much perfect blend of intellectually and emotionally stimulating music“
„You probably won’t see stuff better than this this year“
Concert review: Leerer Beutel, Regensburg
„The extraordinary jazz musician and her band bring the club to a boiling point“
„Monika Roscher is a rare talent. […] She conducts, sings and narrates through the set. The audience is electrified by her charme and passion.“
Concert review: Hubertussaal, Nuremberg
„The concert is over, my notebook is empty. Why? Because you do not bother with taking notes while riding a fire-spitting dragon through phosphorescent galaxies in the company of eight hallucinating princesses“
„A sound that is building up to monstrous magnitudes through stormy grooves and raucous riffs, before imploding and then picking itself up again to do mischief in a forest full of chirping birds“
„So nimbly walking the tightrope between genius and madness, as if all this were nothing more than a sunday stroll“
„Thunderous applause at the end and one agrees: avantgarde is rarely this much fun“
67th Critics Poll, Rising Stars, Category: Big Band
DownBeat (US), August 2019
Concert review: Philharmonie Köln
“The highlight [of the festival gala] though, to me, was the music, which was provided by the Monika Roscher Bigband.”
“Monika Roscher entered the stage, guided her 18-piece band and played and sang, like I’ve never seen nor heard before”
“This woman conducted her band with the help of starry twinkles and polar lights. Pure magic!”
Concert review: Jazzfest Bonn
“The evening began with a look on the future of big band culture: agglomerated prowess, a singular sound, fantastic arrangements and outstanding soloists all created a sonic experience that is almost impossible to put into words – but maybe into images, the kinds you know from the cinema greats”
“The whole thing is undercoated by a tenebrous, musuclar and archaic sound, crowned by sporadic solos that bring some light into this diabolical dark.”
“An experience – not just regarding the evening but the whole festival”
Concert review: Hubertussaal, Nuremberg
“You could say that Monika Roscher is head of the most insane and virtuoso brass band around”
“Since quite some time now the 33 year old composer, singer, guitarist and conductor is part of the German Jazz spearhead”
“You couldn’t wish for a more electrifying season opening than this incredible big band concert.”
“It’s her unpretentious, narrative vocals, the interchange of melodies, curious details and sweeping musical arcs that account for their unique position among big band ensembles.”
“The song ‘Full Moon Theatre’ left the audience holding its breath in amazement, witnessing Roscher’s and her musicians cabilities. Roscher doesn’t only play guitar, she also sings her own lyrics, bringing to mind Björk, Laurie Anderson and Daft Punk among others. Readjusting all this into her very own personal style, her music equals a musical revolution.”
“From then on you could only marvel at a perfect musical performance revolving around a glowing and glittering and at the same time singing entertainer, pulling the strings perfectly. There are no words.”
“It’s not surprising at all that this band already played at Elbphilharmonie and hopefully this is just the beginning of a sizzling career”
“Monika Roscher and her big band, we should state right from the start, is one of the most exciting and insane things German music has on offer right now”
“Cerebral tendencies notwithstanding: fun reigns unequivocally, which never escapes you when you’re watching these young and across the board excellent musicians”
“The next female multimedia Gesamtkunstwerk is on its way!”
Concert review: Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
“The Monika Roscher Bigband successfully passed the acoustic challenge posed by the Elbphilharmonie”
“The guitarist and singer Monika Roscher and her fablous crew played an unconventional big band sound with a piercing brass section and Leonard Kuhns distinct electronically generated sounds. This experiment of Indie pop, Rock and improvisation is an all around success”
“At the end the audience was giving standing ovations”
Concert review: Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
“The Franconian independent musician ignites an emotional rollercoaster ride between birdsong imitations and psychedelic effects. Gripping, bewitching, demanding for all the senses – and above all unpredictable.”
Concert review: JazzBaltica
“The all crowning pinnacle of female musicality is Monika Roscher’s closing concert. She’s a paragon of exuberant passion and her band offers a panoply of styles, rocky rythms, danceable grooves, punk energy, psychedelic pop and other soundscapes”
Concert review: JazzBaltica
“There was a fulminant exclamation mark at the end of this years Jazz Baltica, struck by the Monika Roscher Bigband. A concert buzzing with creative energy that shook the audience from their seats for frenetic ovations two times in a row”
“Her musical magic bag is filled to the brim with ingenuity, as if Björk, Frank Zappa and the Flaming Lips had started a big band”
“A brilliant concert, one like there hasn’t been before at Jazz Baltica”
Concert review: Theaterhaus, Stuttgart
“The 33-year old and her young ensemble unleash a musical force of nature with complex compositions that ensnarl you, because they are Indie rock pieces at their core”
“Jazz couldn’t be more varied in shape and form”
Stuttgarter Zeitung, B. Haasis / A. Kachelrieß / T. Staiber, April 2017
Cover story
“The music on Of Monsters and Birds is, again and again reminiscent of jazz due to heavily and intelligently deployed brass, it unfurls modern carnivalesque qualities, it’s danceable and satisfies the demand for contemporary entertainment, and always holds some surprises up its sleeve”
“Of Monsters and Birds is a challenging indie album with the know how of jazz and elements of minimal and modern concert hall music”
“Together they are creating the prototype of an unorthodox genre: indie big band”
Concert review: Thalia Theater, Albstadt
“Unexpected rhythm changes and minimalist sound layering coin a completely new type of music that continually subverts usual listening habits while staying thrilling and infectious throughout. Complexity and compositoric consistency join forces with sanguinity and esprit”
“Many things can happen to you during a Monika Roscher Bigband concert, save one: being bored. “As good as it gets,” many Jazzfans reported upon leaving the theatre.”
“The classic big band sound gets stirred up and is significantly expanded with influences from rock, pop, electronic and Latin American music”
“Monika Roschers band is impeccable. Listening to them evokes the images of a fictional cinematic score”
“This is precisely calculated madness”
“She’s skillfully moving between jazz, indie rock and electronic music, has no fear of crossing over boundaries and draws from the repository of would-be opposites”
“There’s a competent and original songwriter at work here who is thinking bigger sonically”
“Just as remarkable as her terrific and much noted debut”
“Overwhelming in every way”
“Probably the most intriguing music conductor in the up-and-coming jazz arena”
“Put on Of Monsters and Birds and you can experience cinema for the ears. The ensemble acts like a chameleon, continuously changing its tinge”
“A surprise coup”
“On their second album Monika Roscher and her musicians succeed in uniting piano solos, exhilarating brass parts and stupefying melodic arcs into vig band arrangements, without succumbing to frumpy swing or hard bop”
“A surprisingly mature effort”
“An album like a jazzy road movie: restless, searching, a vivid cycle of melodies, steep falls and soaring flights, popcorn and red wine. Meet monsters and birds in its twilight zones, dreadful terror and the divine spark. Pop suspense a la Hitchcock”
“The soundtrack for a yet unfilmed monumental movie”
“Of Monsters and Birds ist not jazz in its classical sense but in its natural sense: freedom as the founding principle, presented by a young big band with a charming avant pop appeal.”
“After the surprise success of Failure in Wonderland you could rightly ask: will this singing newcomer, tagged as a “Rising Star” by DownBeat, accomplish another record with her big band? Now we know: she did it – and surpassed its debut in many respects”
“A day for the annals of music history. At least if I could write them”
“Most importantly, despite all its technical prowess and theoretical finesse, the Monika Roscher Bigband never succumbs to sophistry. Emotion is on display here, not mathematics”
“Deeply honest, deeply humane”
“Loads of emotions, culminating in an exceptional musical crossover, exceeding boundaries at full speed”
“A magnificent evening, dedicated to musical freedom and youth”
“Her mix of indie and punk, fiery brass arrangements, rocking guitar licks and mystical voice offers delirious, sometimes psychedelic roller coaster rides”
“A sensational big band project”
“A fully unique, surprising sound, challenging both heart and brain”
“There’s not the slightest doubt about her composing and arranging skills”
“While impossible to assign to a distinct genre and being miles away of the easygoing swinging nostalgia of many big bands, it’s inventive above all else”
“The young musicians focus and energetic devotion can take a whole audience to a boiling point”
62nd Critics Poll, Rising Stars, Big Band
Concert review: Kemptener Jazzfrühling
“Altogether inspiring and enthusing was Monika Roschers big band and her timely rejuvenation of the genre“
“Once more providing a festival highlight“
Concert review: Kemptener Jazzfrühling
“Revolutionary”
“Monika Roschers and her bands appearance was like an elementary force of nature”
“It’s hard to believe just how inventive her compositions and colorful her arrangements are. Gil Evans sends his regards, just as Pink Floyd or John Zorn”
“This big band is a revelation in many regards”
Concert review: Jazztage Idar-Oberstein
“One of the most exciting concerts in the festivals two-decade history”
“Her sinfonic crossover of jazz and rock had the audience raving“
Concert review: Leerer Beutel, Regensburg
“Ordinary big bands do turn pale a bit when compared to the genre-hopping and style-breaking compositions, relishing in their musical imagery”
“Orchestral Jazz in the here and now. Gorgeous“
Echo Jazz award: Newcomer of the year 2014
Concert review: Jazzfest Berlin
“A high point came on the final evening with black-masked guitarist Monika Roscher”
“Her electronics-treated arrangements told compelling, jagged, sad and frightening stories”
“In her first major festival appearance, Roscher made an auspicious entry, fueled by her bare-bones lyrics, her effects-laden guitar riffs and her ability to imagine how an orchestra can bring full voice to her rapturous music”
Concert review: Jazzfest Berlin
“The surprise of the season in Germany is the Monika Roscher Big Band”
“The technical level of the young graduates: unbelievable”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Ulrich Olshausen, November 2013
Concert review Jazzfest Berlin
“29 year old singer, guitarist and big band leader Monika Roscher provided a vehemently acclaimed high point at the Jazzfest Berlin”
“An 18-piece jazz ensemble with the power of a stadium rock band”
“Sonically exuberant arrangements and oppressive harmonies converge in Monika Roscher’s compositions – organized and unrestrained at the same time”
“a magnificent ensemble”
“a wonderful discovery”
“unbroken imagination, music full of expression”
“intoxicating sound”
“the immediacy and unpredictability of improvisation over the crystalline power of technical precision”
“The band’s ability to shift from righteous clatter to spare instrumentation is impressive”
“could aptly accompany a car chase in a cinematic thriller”
“Is it jazz? Or is it rock? Does it even matter as long as it is good?”
“defies every genre description”
“Definitely different. And stunningly good”
“This odyssey is one little marvel, chaos restructured”
“her splendid debut album is a fusion of contemporary pop smoothness and jazz nostalgia”
“like the impending doom of a psychological thriller”
“A big band like there has never been before”
“One of the crankiest funeral marches ever put to tape”
“Aggressively inventive”
“Defies classifications of genre and form”
“A cracking dose of inimitability”