T I P

A John Lennon tribute for choir at a jazz festival to mark the Liverpudlian's 70th birthday (and 30th anniversary of his death). With this idea, the board of trustees of the Leipziger Jazztage 2010 approached Gregor Meyer and Matthias Knoche. The two of them were immediately hooked, and with Ekky Meister they quickly found a pianist who is also at home in classical and serious music, in classical, pop and jazz. And so a wonderful selection of Lennon pieces has been created for this polyphonic vocal jazz project - even if Lennon understood his music as "anti-jazz". Among others, "I'm the Walrus", "Working Class Hero" and "Come Together" can be heard. Lyrical-fragile and lonely-lost passages, pathos and verve, notated choral movement and free arrangement in duo alternate. And at the heart of it all: the Vocalconsort Leipzig, the choir founded in 1999 by the current Gewandhaus choirmaster Meyer, which has made a name for itself above all through its sensitive and lively interpretation of sacred choral music between the Baroque and Romantic periods.

Matthias Knoche (voc), Ekki Meister ℗, Vocalconsort Leipzig (conductor: Gregor Meyer)