Buchanan's Requiem

Requiem by Jakob Buchanan
Hallgrímskirkja Church
Friday 19th of August
20:00

The Requiem is a large-scale work which combined elements from the Latin mass for the dead with European choral tradition, Nordic orchestral music and improvisation. In 2001, Jakob Buchanan became the first jazz musician at the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus to take part in the soloist programme, previously reserved for classical students. It is one of the biggest concerts ever being held at the Reykjavík Jazz.

Perfomers:
Reykjavík Big Band (IS)
Choir: Club for Five (FI), Ensemble Edge (DK) and Cantoque Ensemble (IS)

Soloists:
Ragnheiður Gröndal (IS), vocals
Hilmar Jensson (IS), Guitar
Anders Jormin (SE), Bass
Magnús Trygvason Eliassen (IS), Percussion
Jakob Buchanan (DK), Trumpet

Conductor: Geir Lysne (NO)

Jakob Buchanan was the first jazz student ever to be accepted at soloist class of the Royal Academy of Music Aarhus, Denmark.
A position from which he has been able to work closely with familiar artists while also creating unexpected constellations.
Since 2008, Jakob Buchanan has been playing and touring with his quartet for longer periods. Marilyn Mazur (Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Jan Garbarek) and Jakob Bro have been members of the Jakob Buchanan Quartet from the beginning. Bassist Jonas Westergaard replaces pianist Simon Toldam on the latest quartet album ,,Some People & Some Places". The album was nominated in two categories at the Danish Music Awards 2014: Jazz Album of the Year, and Jazz Composer of the Year.
Buchanan Requiem 2015 won 2 Danish Music Awards for best Jazz album of the year and Composer of the year.

PRESS QUOTES:

POLITIKEN
– An eminently impressive contribution to new Danish music and an obvious candidate for
the Nordic Council Music Prize.
– Would it be too much to describe this as a significant contribution to Danish culture!

INFORMATION
– The CD is full of exquisite moments and beautiful details in the course of the pieces’ eighty minutes, where we are wrapped in the soothing ambiance of the chorus, which at times seems instrumental, Jakob Bro’s lyrical guitar playing, which fits in well with the main
sound-picture, with Marylin Mazur’s orientalism on all kinds of percussion instruments and, not least, Jakob Buchanan’s “rainy-day” blue and moving flugelhorn playing.

JAZZ NYT
–Jakob Buchanan has crowned an already great musical carrier with a masterpiece, in a class of its own in Danish jazz.
–Buchanan plays possibly better than ever on both trumpet and flugelhorn.
–This is not just a highly recommended release. It’s one of this years greatest jazz releases.

ALL ABOUT JAZZ
“In every way, including the length, which clocks in at around 78 minutes, Requiem is a major work and, hopefully, it will put more spotlight on Buchanan. He shows himself as an ambitious and thoughtful composer who draws on the music of the past and brings the form of the requiem into the future.”

GAFFA
“This is, without doubt, one of this decades most important jazz releases, a true masterpiece!”

The project is supported by Culture Point.