BILL EVANS W. W. HAFFNER, E. MBAPP? & WD - The East End (Sealed) (CD)

A very special concert was on the horizon - one that was seldom experienced like this and that drew the audience in droves to the Stadtgarten in Cologne. The American saxophonist Bill Evans gave a guest performance with the WDR Big Band. The audience on location, expecting a great live experience, let the air in the concert hall shimmer, the temperature in the room rise and the atmosphere warm up. Evans has always loved it: When the audience focuses on what's going to happen on stage before the concert begins, when this concentration on the musicians and him is passed over, it brings him to operating temperature and spurs him on to peak performance on the tenor and soprano saxophones at the concert. With the German drummer Wolfgang Haffner and the French-born electric bassist Etienne Mbapp? from Cameroon, two real "groove masters" were invited to the WDR Big Band concert with Bill Evans. Only then did the stylistically so diverse music of Evans and the WDR Big Band begin to breathe - and become a living organism. Musicians: BILL EVANS (saxes), ETIENNE MBAPP? (electric bass), WOLFGANG HAFFNER (drums), WDR BIG BAND