more about the music
For saxophone player Olaf Schönborn's Q4 (sax, acoustic guitar, double bass, percussion) it's music that's so melodic that it can be played on the radio - without being smooth jazz:
Relaxed, yet full of energy; - flowing, yet deep and intense - clear yet full of improvisation and surprise.
PRESS REVIEWS:
reviews Q4
Jazzzeit (Austria), April 2008:
5 stars – excellent
Stereo, 05/2008
one of the most remarkable albums of the last months. Radio Jazz is one hour of disport. It’s a pleasure to listen to this album over and over again. Full of little details that add up to something great. It fits almost every occasion and has the potential for becoming one’s favourite album.
Audio, 04/2008:
the 12 songs are catchy, elaborate, melodic and rhytmically interesting. The transparent combination with acoustic guitar, bass and percussion instead of drums, the very round and well-mixed sound make this CD a treat for hifi lovers.
Groove FM:
cd of the month
This ist he perfect CD for our radio station! Schönborn shows with this album that jazz is far more than just intellectual music. It’s jazz but it’s catchy and groovy. And to our listeners we suggest: buy this record, since you will not be able to find better radio jazz elsewhere.
3sat.de:
cd of the month
Saxophone player Olaf Schönborn creates with „Radio Jazz“ a relaxed athmosphere yet keeping the tension. It’s easy to listen to and a lot of fun.
Jazzpodium, April 2008:
extraordinary beautiful music that makes you relax without being boring. Schönborn plays calm and at the same time full of energy.
Concerto (Austria), 2/2008:
Music as you would like to hear it on the radio. It swings, it grooves, it sways – the knees start to move with this music. Saxophonist Schönborn’s first CD as a leader does not sound like a debut but it’s a masterpiece. Exciting and fresh sounding.
soultrainoline.de
Finally jazz from Germany that touches the soul and heart - and makes you move!
In an unusual acoustic setting without drums with a light Latin touch, his sax leads us through 9 original compositions, 1 pop cover version and a DJ remix.
Radio Jazz is also a non-nostalgic reminiscing of the "good old days" when we would spend every free minute listening to our radios - before there was streamlined "format radio"- a time when you would still discover a lot of new, surprising and creative music on the radio - and we think that radio could still fulfill this today! Or as "Queen" put it in their song "Radio - someone still loves you"
more about the band
Saxophone player Olaf Schönborn, born in 1967, has performed on many important Jazz Festivals such as the Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival Den Haag, Edinburgh Festival, German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt, Leipzig Jazz Festival, Jazz Festival Toulon (France), Szeged Jazz Festival (Hungary). Tours and concerts have led him to Italy, Poland, Luxembourg as well.
He studied Jazz at the Arizona State University in Phoenix and at the Mannheim Conservatory and he participated in workshops with James Moody, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, George Garzone, Bobby Shew, Greg Osby, Jimmy Cobb, Ira Sullivan, Joe LaBarbara among others.
He performed a.o. with Maria Schneider, Allen Blairman, Joe Gallardo, Herb Geller, Emil Mangelsdorff, Valery Ponomarev, Alex Sipiagin, Ack van Royen, Carolyn Breuer, Rainer Tempel Bigband ,Thomas Siffling, Bobby Burgess Bigband Explosion, Russ Spiegel Bigband, Vitoslav Rek, Al Martino.
In the year 2000 he founded together with trumpet player Thomas Siffling one of Germanies most acclaimed record labels, JAZZ’n’ARTS RECORDS, which has published 38 highly praised CDs so far (www.jazznarts.com) – among them CDs of his own groups CHANGES (modern jazz), Fritz Münzer Tentet (cool jazz), and ACOUSTIC AFFAIRE (vocal jazz/latin). He has released CDs with several other projects among them the organ jazz trio BLAIRMAN/SCHÖNBORN/SIMPSON (Rodenstein Records 24), Rainer Tempel BigBand, the bigband KICKS’n STICKS, the fusion quintet FRIDGE PEOPLE – but also experimental recordings like the CD „Inside“, which was recorded INSIDE a nuclear reactor (Hofmann/Schönborn/Wangenheim, Rodenstein Records 27).
For more than eight years he has been working with the unique drummer Allen Blairman (who has played with a.o. George Benson, Albert Ayler, Roland Kirk, Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Joe Henderson, Albert Mangelsdorff...) on different projects ranging from Duo to octett. He also participated in many theatre productions and performed with several philharmonic orchestras.
Tilman Bruno (percussion): www.tilmanbruno.de
Played with a.o. Freddie Santiago; Martha Galaraga; David Murray...
Lived in San Francisco, St.Petersburg and Havana and studied a.o. with Pancho Quinto, Octavio Rodriguez, el Panga, Changuito
Martin Simon (bass): martin-simon.de
Performed and recorded with Claus Stötter ; Peter Lehel ; Vivian de Farias ; Ian Cumming ; Cassandra Steen ; Fola Dada ; Cecile Verny
Daniel Stelter (guitar): danielstelter.de
One of the most sought-after studio guitarists in Germany, also filmscore composer
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