Vienna Art Orchestra
In the jazz world, Vienna is about as far from New York's Lincoln Center as you can get. It follows that Mathias Rüegg's Vienna Art Orchestra has about as much in common with Wynton Marsalis' Lincoln Center big band as a Sacher torte has with a Hostess Cup Cake; while they share some ingredients, the Austrian product satisfies on a more profound level. By the turn of the century, the Lincoln Center paradigm defined the jazz big band as a finished concept -- locked into the past, serving mostly as a repertory ensemble. The VAO, on the other hand, while hardly ignoring traditional jazz verities, lives in the present and looks to the future. Rather than relying on a narrowly interpreted version of jazz history, they make their own, combining elements of jazz (mainstream through avant-garde), classical (Erik Satie is a Rüegg favorite), and vernacular music with intelligence and not a little humor. Rüegg was born in Zurich, Switzerland. He discovered jazz in secondary school and he moved to Austria and attended the Musikhochschule in Graz in the early '70s. He moved to Vienna and worked as a solo pianist in a nightclub. Solo became a duo with the addition of saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig. The ensemble grew further; eventually it was comprised of as many as 16 musicians, and the VAO was born. The band never adhered to conventional big band instrumentation. Rüegg regularly incorporates instruments such as marimba, bass clarinet, piccolo, tuba, and even alphorn into his arrangements and compositions. Neither does the band stick to a typical performance format; for example, they've worked with choirs and brass bands, for television and film. By 1980, the band had developed a reputation, receiving invitations to perform at festivals in Cologne and Zurich; that year, the band also signed their first recording contract with the Swiss hatART label. In 1984, they toured the U.S. and finished first in the Down Beat magazine critics' poll for Talent Deserving Wider Recognition. By the late '80s, they were firmly established as one of the world's finest large ensembles, a status they maintained into the next century. Rüegg was the band's sole writer for the first 15 years of its existence. In 1992, he began contracting work to other composers and arrangers, although the band continued to bear his indelible stamp.
© Chris Kelsey /TiVo
Discography
18 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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The Big Band Years
Jazz - Released by Universal Music GmbH on 1 Jan 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Rhapsody: A Tribute to George Gershwin
Classical - Released by RCA Victor on 1 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Minimalism of Erik Satie
Free Jazz & Avant-Garde - Released by hatOLOGY on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Notion in Perpetual Motion
Free Jazz & Avant-Garde - Released by hatOLOGY on 24 May 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Duke Ellington's Sound Of Love
Jazz - Released by TCB - The Montreux Jazz Label™ on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Artistry In Rhythm
Jazz - Released by TCB - The Montreux Jazz Label™ on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Dreams - Portraits of 13 American Women
Jazz - Released by Universal Music GmbH on 1 Jan 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ballads: Quiet Ways
Jazz - Released by Universal Music GmbH on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
All That Strauss Vol. 2
Jazz - Released by Art Records on 7 Nov 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Duke Ellington's Sounds Of Love Vol. 2
Jazz - Released by Universal Music GmbH on 1 Jan 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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From No Time to Rag Time
Contemporary Jazz - Released by hat ART CD on 11 Apr 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concerto Piccolo (Live)
Jazz - Released by hat ART CD on 19 Oct 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Swing & Affairs
Jazz - Released by Universal Music GmbH on 17 Oct 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Minimalism of Erik Satie
Free Jazz & Avant-Garde - Released by hatOLOGY on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
All That Strauss
Jazz - Released by TCB - The Montreux Jazz Label™ on 1 Nov 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Big Band Poesie
Jazz - Released by Universal Music GmbH on 1 Jan 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Suite for the Green Eighties
Contemporary Jazz - Released by hat ART CD on 1 May 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo