Not only did I have the pleasure to compose the aforementioned vocal pieces, but I was also able to write instrumental pieces for large ensemble.

As a composer in the big band tradition, I see myself as a humble contributor to the history and development of the genre, bound to the tradition by ties as important as unavoidable.

The jazz standard “Round Midnight”, written by Thelonious Monk, is a bridge that connects this album to the history of jazz. Writing music for them was both fun and a great challenge. Their texts are intelligent and sarcastic. “Islamwissenschaften” and “Ist es Möglich” were written in partnership with the German poetry slammers David Friedrich and Thomas Spitzer. Even though we have never met in person, music had the power to bring our work together. The Danish writer Ursula Andkjær Olsen lent me a text of hers, which I used for the lyrics of my composition “Garden Sensibilities”. The big band, the Mega Mereneu Project, benefits from the participation of writers, singers, poetry slammers as well as the fantastic musicians of my band. In February of 2018, the two worlds of my big band and my trio came together, giving birth to this new CD. So, my musical life as composer gone from trio to nonet, nonet to big band, but these have always been separate. After a few years, the trio became the nonet “Mereneu Project”, and in 2015 I released my first album as a big band leader, conducting a large ensemble featuring some of Austria’s best musicians.

Fourteen years ago I started playing with Meretrio in Brazil.

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