Ariabesques - WDR Big Band Plays Bach (The Goldberg Variations) WDR Big Band

• 1 Aria 03:54
• 2 Variation 1 02:52
• 3 Variation 2 02:40
• 4 Variation 3 02:48
• 5 Variation 4 02:53
• 6 Variation 5 02:30
• 7 Variation 6 03:18
• 8 Variation 7 02:59
• 9 Variation 8 02:07
• 10 Variation 9 02:51
• 11 Variation 10 02:14
• 12 Variation 11 02:29
• 13 Variation 12 02:50
• 14 Variation 13 03:30
• 15 Variation 14 02:43
• 16 Variation 15 02:35
• 17 Variation 16 03:12
• 18 Variation 17 02:49
• 19 Variation 18 02:57
• 20 Variation 19 03:07
• 21 Variation 20 02:47
• 22 Variation 21 02:55
• 23 Variation 22 02:21
• 24 Variation 23 02:54
• 25 Variation 24 03:12
• 26 Variation 25 03:53
• 27 Variation 26 03:05
• 28 Variation 27 03:01
• 29 Variation 28 03:21
• 30 Variation 29 03:15
• 31 Variation 30 02:14
• 32 Aria (Finale) 03:44
• Total Runtime 01:34:00

Info for Ariabesques - WDR Big Band Plays Bach (The Goldberg Variations)

With "Ariabesques," Bill Dobbins and the WDR Big Band have brought Johann Sebastian Bach"s "Goldberg Variations" to life once again. Originally composed for the two-manual harpsichord, Dobbins has managed to create an impressive version for big band by swapping repetitive notes with short rests. By fusing the original melodies and the most important notes of the bass lines with impressive solos, the Bachian characteristics form a stringent basis that creates original sound impressions with funky jazz elements.

American composer, pianist, jazz educator and conductor Bill Dobbins has collaborated with several popular musicians* of different genres in his career and has taught several times at the Eastman School of Music. Bill Dobbins first came into contact with the renowned WDR Big Band in Cologne in the 1990s and led the band as principal conductor from 1994-2002. For years, the line-up of the WDR Big Band has included international star musicians such as Karolina Strassmayer and Ludwig Nuss.

In 2007, the WDR Big Band received its first Grammy and has many other recognized successes to its credit. The "Goldberg Variations" are not the first compositions by Bach that Bill Dobbins and the WDR Big Band have dared to tackle. Already in 2010, the conductor and the big band released a jazz version of Bach"s "Christmas Oratorio" with the well-known ensemble "The King"s Singers". With "Ariabesques" Bill Dobbins has succeeded in making Bach"s "Goldberg Variations" a new experience. The WDR Bigband takes you on a harmonic journey of sound that enchants music laymen and offers a musical challenge to music connoisseurs.

Bill Dobbins, piano, musical direction
WDR Big Band

Bill Dobbins
is professor of jazz studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he teaches the jazz composing and arranging courses and directs the award winning Eastman Jazz Ensemble and Eastman Studio Orchestra. As a pianist, he has performed with orchestra and chamber ensembles under the direction of Louis Lane, Pierre Boulez, Lukas Foss and Frederick Fennell, and he has performed and recorded with such jazz artists as Clark Terry, Al Cohn, Red Mitchell, Phil Woods, Bill Goodwin, Gary Foster, Dave Liebman, John Goldsby and Peter Erskine. He joined the Eastman faculty in 1973, and was instrumental in designing both the graduate and undergraduate curricula for Eastman’s Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media program. Many of his students have been heard in the big bands of Count Basie, Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Chuck Mangione, Maria Schneider, and Bob Brookmeyer’s New Art Orchestra.

From 1994 through 2002 Mr. Dobbins was principal director of the WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany, and he headed the jazz studies department at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne from 1998 to 2002. Concert, radio, television and tour projects under his direction with the WDR Big Band included internationally acclaimed soloists Clark Terry, Dave Liebman, Randy Brecker, Gary Bartz, Eddie Henderson, Kevin Mahogany, Art Farmer, Steve Lacy, Paquito D’Rivera, Mark Feldman, Gary Foster, Clare Fischer, Peter Erskine, Nicolas Simion and the Kings Singers. As guest director, he continues to write and direct programs for the WDR Big Band, the Netherlands Metropole Orchestra and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra.

Advance Music publishes Mr. Dobbins’ compositions and arrangements for big band, chamber music combinations and solo piano. Jazz education programs worldwide have adopted his volumes of transcriptions of classic jazz piano solos and jazz textbooks for use in their courses. These include Chick Corea: Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, Herbie Hancock: Classic Jazz Compositions and Piano Solos, Clare Fischer: Alone Together/Just Me, Jazz Arranging and Composing: a Linear Approach, A Creative Approach to Jazz Piano Harmony, How to Play Piano in a Big Band, Composing and Arranging for the Contemporary Big Band,Conversations with Bill Holman: Thoughts and Recollections of a Jazz Master, and a DVD, The Evolution of Solo Jazz Piano. Recent CDs include J.S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio, with the Kings Singers and the WDR Big Band, arranged and conducted by Bill Dobbins (Signum Classics), Balkan Jazz, with Nicolas Simion and the WDR Big Band, arranged and directed by Bill Dobbins (Big Band records) and Composers Series (solo piano): Volume 1 – music of Clare Fischer and George Gershwin, and Volume 2 – music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn (Sons of Sound).

This album contains no booklet.