Jazz at JAKI: Marcus Bartelt Quartett

Marcus Bartelt has long been regarded by colleagues and fans as one of the most spectacular baritone saxophonists in Europe. With the international trio of his long-time musical friend Martin Sasse, he gathered his absolute dream band around him a few years ago and released the album "At Ease" with them on the Cologne label JazzJazz 2022. His compositions and arrangements for this quartet reveal the full versatility of Bartelt and his band colleagues. The music sounds timelessly modern and is deeply rooted in the classical jazz idiom that the four musicians have mastered so virtuously and in which they communicate with each other with somnambulistic confidence. Marcus Bartelt can also point to many years of ongoing collaboration with artists and bands as diverse as De-Phazz, the Lionel Hampton All Stars, Bob Brookmeyer's New Art Orchestra, Michel Herr's Life Lines, Chili Gonzales and the Paul Kuhn Big Band. He was also the initiator and founder of the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (CCJO) in 2002, which is still active after more than 20 years, of course with himself at the deep end.