WINTER TOUR February 2024

“A Chain of Moments” - A Suite in five Movements for Piano, Strings & Jazz Orchestra

Barbara Bruckmüller Big Band feat. Aruán Ortiz

Aruán Ortiz Residency with the Barbara Bruckmüller Big Band plus Strings

Cuban pianist, violist and composer Aruán Ortiz will join the Barbara Bruckmüller Big Band for a ten-day residency in mid to late February 2024. For this period and this project, the jazz orchestra will be expanded to include a string quartet.

Barbara Bruckmüller's five Movement Suite will feature Aruán on the piano. “A Chain of Moments” is the musical implementation of metamorphoses of interpersonal relationships. Five stages of a love in the flow of changing feelings and time. A chain of events linked by harmony, meter and theme variation.

There will also be presented other compositions by Aruán Ortiz himself written for Barbara Bruckmüller's jazz orchestra.

Dates available between Feb 15 - Feb 25
 

click for downloadble press release and press photos or go to end of page

“Ortiz is an experimentalist and a tonal provocateur, influenced by European modernism and contemporary jazz as much as by Afro-Cuban tradition” - Giovanni Russonello

— New York Times

“Barbara’s writing has so much imagination and sophistication. She has instantly become one of my favorite composers and arrangers, and I look forward to watching her rise to stardom in the music world. She’s one of the very best.” - Christian McBride

biographies

Aruán Ortiz

Short Bio

Cuban pianist, violist and composer Aruán Ortiz has been an active figure in the progressive jazz and avant-garde NY scene in the US for more than 20 years. His music spans a range of musical styles and has been interpreted by contemporary classical and jazz ensembles, dance companies, and in feature films and multimedia works. As a conceptualist and music researcher, Aruán’s music consolidates his Afro-Cuban and Haitian heritage, with avant-garde and progressive jazz, and contemporary classical language. 

(photocredit by Michael Novak)

His pianism has been lauded as
 -a solid and unique new sound in today’s jazz world,- by Matthew Fiander in PopMatters; 
-a genius exercise in the exploration of depth and perception that reveals a bright new wrinkle in the relationship between music and mathematics, reimagining Afro-Haitian Gaga rhythms, Afro-Cuban rumba and Yambú into heavily improvised meditations on modernism that recall John Cage and Paul Bley,- Ron Hart, The Observer; 
-one of the most creative and original composers in the world-, Lynn René Bailey, The Art Music Lounge; and 
-Ortiz is an experimentalist and a tonal provocateur, influenced by European modernism and contemporary jazz as much as by Afro-Cuban tradition-, Giovanni Russonello, New York Times. 

Since his arrival in the United States, Aruán’s has played, toured, or recorded with jazz luminaries such as Wadada Leo Smith, Don Byron, Greg Osby, Wallace Roney, Nicole Mitchell, William Parker, Adam Rudolph, Andrew Cyrille, Henry Grimes, Marshall Allen, Hamiet Bluiett, Oliver Lake, Rufus Reid and Terri Lyne Carrington. His recent albums as a leader released by Swiss label Intakt Records, have been featured with rave reviews in major publications in the US and worldwide.

Barbara Bruckmüller

Short Bio

The Viennese composer, arranger and big band leader Barbara Bruckmüller founded her own orchestra in 2009. The jazz ensemble consists of some of the best Austrian and international jazz musicians. Barbara wrote music for a silent movie for a small ensemble, realized a program with traditional Viennese songs arranged for big band and vocals, wrote music for piano, strings and jazz orchestra, composed a suite for the 100th birthday of Thelonious Monk and realized a joint project with the spoken word artist Wadud Ahmad from Philadelphia. 

(photocredit by René Stemeseder)

- with the courage to use her own handwriting, she has written magnificent cabinet pieces of nuanced arranging art. - Marcus A. Woelfle (For the jury; German Record Critics' Prize 2013); 
- she's deeply embedded in the jazz tradition, but is by no means bound by it. Her compositions happily embrace other influences; the sounds that she creates are fresh, gorgeous, soulful. (...) - John Edwin Mason; 
- Barbara’s writing has so much imagination and sophistication. She has instantly become one of my favorite composers and arrangers, and I look forward to watching her rise to stardom in the music world. She’s one of the very best. - Christian McBride;

Her debut album "Barbara Bruckmüller Big Band" was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize in 2013. In 2017 Barbara Bruckmüller received a composition grant from the Austrian Federal Chancellery. The latest album release was in 2022 - a live concert recording on vinyl. 
In August 2023 she and her orchestra were invited to record the “Trumpet Tales” by guitarist and composer Klaus Wienerroither at the ORF RadioKulturhaus in Vienna, which will be broadcast in a radio session on OE1 (oe1.at) in 2024. 
Over the years she has collaborated with musicians such as bassist Christian McBride, Peter Herbert, singer Tony Hewitt or trumpeter Thomas Gansch.

videos

music

Serranías Sketchbook for Piano Trio

ARUÁN ORTIZ TRIO with Brad Jones and John Betsch

Buy album
Intakt CD 392

Aruán Ortiz, acclaimed as a piano cubist, excellent jazz improviser and wayward stylist who strays far from Cuban music while remaining so deeply rooted in Cuba’s musical tradition, presents an impressive trio album with two congenial collaborators Brad Jones and John Betsch. Cuban influences from toques, rumba and Afro-Haitian
Intakt CD 392

Aruán Ortiz, acclaimed as a piano cubist, excellent jazz improviser and wayward stylist who strays far from Cuban music while remaining so deeply rooted in Cuba’s musical tradition, presents an impressive trio album with two congenial collaborators Brad Jones and John Betsch. Cuban influences from toques, rumba and Afro-Haitian music blend with European art music and modern jazz. “Serranías is a special album for a double anniversary: the 20th anniversary of the recording debut as a leader in the United States and the 50th birthday milestone of Aruán Ortiz, a pianist-composer from Santiago de Cuba who has become an undisputed protagonist of the New York avant-garde jazz scene thanks to the original processes of abstract Cuban creative crossfertilization that he composes with unusual Afro-Cuban/Haitian accents,” writes Gian Franco Grilli in the liner notes.

Reviews: www.intaktrec.ch/rev392.htm
(Please note that reviews usually come in after the official release date)
Read more…
0:00/???
  1. 1
    Shaw 'Nuff (Siento un bombo) 9:58
    0:00/9:58
  2. 2
    En forma de Guajira 6:18
    0:00/6:18
  3. 3
    Memorias del monte 5:10
    0:00/5:10
  4. 4
    Los tres golpes 8:27
    0:00/8:27
  5. 5
    Canto de tambores y caracoles (Solo) 4:30
    0:00/4:30
  6. 6
    Huellas… (Interlude I) 1:34
    0:00/1:34
  7. 7
    Serranías 5:26
    0:00/5:26
  8. 8
    Black Like a Thunder Stone (one) 4:18
    0:00/4:18
  9. 9
    Like a Changüi (Montuno) 6:02
    0:00/6:02
  10. 10
    … and Shadows (Interlude II) 1:59
    0:00/1:59
  11. 11
    Lullaby for the End Times 5:27
    0:00/5:27

Barbara Bruckmüller Big Band

0:00/???
  1. 1
    Brazilian Flavoured Coffee 4:02
    0:00/4:02
  2. 2
    A Track 1 The Blackbird Knows Them All 5:36
    Info
    0:00/5:36
  3. 3
    A Track 2 & Track 3 Silence Is Not An Option / Hymn To Freedom 9:03
    Info
    0:00/9:03
  4. 4
    B Track 1 Hans From Germany or Are You Inspired Now 6:39
    Info
    0:00/6:39
  5. 5
    B Track 2 My Mr. Always Right 8:28
    Info
    0:00/8:28
  6. 6
    Tigger's Bounce 7:33
    0:00/7:33
  7. 7
    Come Sunday 7:53
    0:00/7:53
  8. 8
    Illusionista 5:25
    Free
    0:00/5:25
  9. 9
    Strange Angel With His Trumpet 6:21
    0:00/6:21
  10. 10
    When New York Meets Barcelona In Vienna 7:58
    0:00/7:58
  11. 11
    Das Silberne Kannderl (The Silver Jug) 4:47
    0:00/4:47
  12. 12
    Arrivederci Gertschi 2:52
    0:00/2:52
  13. 13
    Dein ist mein ganzes Herz (Yours is my heart alone) 5:22
    0:00/5:22

downloadable press photos

photo by Luciano Rossetti

photo by Michal Novak

photo by Michal Novak

photo credit Barbara Bruckmüller

photo by Elisabeth Kolomaznik

photo by Veronika Kolomaznik

photo by Rene Stemeseder

booking contact

for bookings please contact:

Barbara Bruckmüller - BicoloriousMusicRecords/Klanghaus
Unterdürnbach 34
3721 Maissau
AUSTRIA - EUROPE
email: office[at]barbarabruckmueller.com
phone: +43 660 218 08 20

 

For masterclasses, workshops and related matters with Aruán Ortiz please contact
ao[at]aruan-ortiz.com