Hanssler Classics is known more for its classical recordings than its occasional jazz releases, but when they feature a visiting American jazz all-star with
the SWR Big Band, they make one wonder why they don't do more jazz.
Frank Foster is their special guest, leading the band through a series of his charts and a few by another
Count Basie alum, the late
Thad Jones, though many of these compositions deserve to be more widely known. The band swings while sounding a bit more modern than
Basie's recordings of these charts, which should come as no surprise as the original recordings were made decades earlier by a very different lineup.
Foster remains a formidable soloist, particularly in
Jones' "Mean What You Say," though there are a number of fine soloists with the band, including tenor saxophonists
Andi Maile and
Peter Weniger, trombonist
Ian Cumming, trumpeter/flügelhornist
Don Rader, flügelhornist
Karl Farrent, and pianist
Klaus Wagenleiter, to name a few. ~ Ken Dryden