Bob Mintzer and the Reykjavík Big Band

Fríkirkjan Church, May 30, 9 pm
Ketilhusid, Akureyri  (North-Iceland) May 31, 5 pm

Tickets for Akureyri only available on www.midi.is and at the venue one hour before the concert.

In 2007, the Reykjavík Big Band commissioned an entire concert programme from composer, arranger and saxophonist Bob Mintzer, a New Yorker who has been one of the leading jazz musicians on the big band scene for 30 years. The programme consists of nine large-scale pieces, mainly arrangements of old folk songs, but also a few of Mintzer's Iceland-inspired pieces. These were recorded here last summer, conducted by Mintzer, and at this Reykjavík Arts Festival event he will conduct, as well as play the sax.

Bob Mintzer's visit to Iceland is the largest project the Reykjavík Big Band has organised to date. Mintzer has fronted his own big band in New York for almost three decades and has released 12 CDs. He has also been a member of the renowned fusion band Yellowjackets for 15 years and has appeared onstage with the band all over the world. In earlier years, Mintzer played with the Buddy Rich Big Band for years and composed and arranged music for Rich and others, including Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Art Blakey, Jaco Pastorius, Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri. Bob Mintzer has received a Grammy award, and 14 nominations.

The Reykjavik Big Band, formed in 1992, is Iceland's only professional big band. It is run with financial support from the City of Reykjavik and the Ministry of Education. The band’;;s 17 professional musicians include many of the country’;;s finest exponents of jazz.

In the eight or so concerts it performs each year, the band plays a wide range of music, from new and experimental jazz to traditional jazz and popular music. The band is usually led by visiting artists who bring their music with them. These visitors have included many of the leading names in the history of big band jazz, including Americans Maria Schneider, Bob Mintzer, Bill Holman, Frank Foster, Tim Hagans and Dick Oatts, as well as Scandinavians Ole Kock-Hansen, Jens Wither, Jesper Riis, Lars Jansson and Nikolaj Bentzon. The band has also premiered new music by Icelandic jazz composers such as Hilmar Jensson, Kjartan Valdemarsson, Stefán S Stefánsson, Samúel J Samúelsson and Sigurður Flosason. 

While the band often plays varying styles of serious jazz, it also performs lighter projects in co-operation with local popular singers, such as Bubbi Morthens, Ragnar Bjarnason and Páll Óskar Hjálmtýsson. The band’;;s objective is to create exciting new music, but also to explore the history and tradition of big band music. The Reykjavik Big Band has released three CDs and has been awarded the Icelandic Music Awards.