Ausverkauft: Paul Heller invites Nils Landgren

Basically, the fantastic line-up is self-explanatory, and what's on the label is what's in it: passionate, spirited grooving jazz full of soul, funk and rhythm & blues, spiced up with a good pinch of star power. After all, none other than the Swedish trombonist Nils Landgren will be Paul Heller's guest, and who better to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the "Paul Heller invites" series than the fantastic "man with the red horn"?

Landgren launched his Funk Unit in 1994 and started an inimitable triumphal procession that continues to this day. Even US greats like Ray Parker Jr, Joe Sample, Fred Wesley and James Brown's mastermind Maceo Parker joined Funk Unit. With Parker, in turn, the paths of Nils Landgren and Paul Heller, who played in Parker's brilliant touring band, crossed. The rhythm section is also more than worthy of an anniversary: Simon Oslender, who turned 25 in March, can already look back on a phenomenal career at a young age. He impressively demonstrated his range between melodic soul-funk, grooving blues and sensitive balladry as a bandleader as well as in interplay with Bill Evans, Randy Brecker, Wolfgang Haffner or Christopher Dell.

Claus Fischer and Felix Lehrmann, on the other hand, contribute their experience as sidemen, which has matured over many years: Claus Fischer, the bandleader and especially sought-after as a live bassist, has played with Randy Brecker, Chaka Khan, Lionel Ritchie, Larry Carlton, Bill Evans, Wolfgang Haffner and - Simon Oslender. No less in demand is Felix Lehrmann as a technically skilled tour and studio drummer to whom hardly any musical style is foreign. While touring with Till Brönner, Sarah Connor, Dendemann and other renowned pop acts, he created a quite wonderful variety of "cinematographic jazz" with his quartet "Marriage Material". And now there is another Marriage on "Paul Heller invites", and certainly in CinemaScope sound! As always with Paul Heller, this time also applies: The five musicians meet for the first time in this constellation.