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30 years of the ZJO: from rehearsal band to professional orchestra

Susanne Loacker03-10-20258 min. read

The Zurich Jazz Orchestra is 30 years old. It has not only survived for three decades, but is now a professional orchestra with a reputation that extends far beyond the country's borders.

The founding father of the Zurich Jazz Orchestra is André Bellmont. The musician, composer and ZHdK lecturer wanted a rehersal band based on the American model. The rest is Zurich music history.Trumpeter Daniel Schenker was part of the band in those early days and remembers: “The line-up was already classic back then, i.e. five saxophones, four trombones, four trumpets, plus the rhythm section with drums, bass and piano. It's not that difficult to get 16 people together who want to play big band jazz,” says Schenker: ”There were a lot of amateur big bands in Switzerland at the time and the opportunity to play regularly in a jazz orchestra was also attractive for professional musicians. There was little ambition back then, rehearsals were sporadic and public appearances were rare. This changed in 1999 when saxophonist David Regan took over the reins: under his aegis, the big band was able to play once a week in the now closed club “Inkognito”. A big step towards commitment. Daniel Schenker had since left the ZJO: “In the nineties and noughties, I played a lot in small bands, which I enjoyed.” A year later, the foundations for professionalism were laid: Stefan Schlegel, who took over from Regan in 2000, did so on the condition that an ad ministrative direction would be introduced alongside his musical direction. Bettina Uhlmann's appointment as director of the ZJO coincided with another change: The jazz club “Moods” moved to Zurich-West and the ZJO was given the opportunity to perform at the “Big Mondays”, the largest jazz club in Switzerland.“That gave the band a lot of momentum,” recalls Uhlmann. She did everything she could to support the orchestra by taking care of contracts, media work, finances and scheduling. And soon a first recording: in 2003, Frank Sikora took over as orchestra leader with the task of producing a CD. “Frank wasn't the bandleader for very long, but he initiated something that is still very important to us today,” recalls Daniel Schenker, who had remained associated with the band and occasionally stepped in when a trumpeter was missing: ‘Sikora had the idea of the ’Volontariat', which gave students from the then HMT, the predecessor of today's ZHdK, the opportunity to play in a professional band.” For Schenker, himself a lecturer at the ZHdK, involving young musicians is an important mission. And not just out of sheer charity: “With a band the size of the ZJO, it's rare that all band members are free for a gig.” That's why the ZJO has a huge address file of so-called subs, i.e. musicians who can fill in. But although there are around 200 names in this file, the search for a replacement can be long and time-consuming: “There are a lot of people who like big band jazz. But the ZJO has now reached a musical level that limits the choice.” So it can happen that you can't find a replacement trumpet player in Switzerland, Germany or Austria and have to bring in a musician from Belgium. Or that you make 26 unsuccessful requests for a piano substitute and then finally get lucky with the 27th.What remains: Hörnlisalad and “Tatort”The musical level that the Zurich Jazz Orchestra has today is not least thanks to Rainer Tempel. The German took over the direction from Frank Sikora in 2006. Tempel not only wrote elaborate (and, according to some musicians, “really difficult”) arrangements for the orchestra. His time also saw a number of innovations that helped to establish the band and make it a permanent fixture in Zurich's cultural landscape: The “open Soundcheck” was introduced, a composition competition for young composers, and the first concerts were held in Germany and Austria. The first collaboration with Theater Rigiblick, the beginning of a long and extremely successful cooperation, also took place under Rainer Tempel.After seven years, Tempel moved on. He took many memories with him - some nice and some not so nice. Among the less pleasant, but at least amusing in retrospect, is the memory of a collective stomach upset caused by a home-made Hörnlisalat salad that afflicted the band in the studio. The good ones include planning seasons, working in a team - “and a much larger repertoire than when I started there”. The fact that he still prefers to watch 'Tatort' on SRF today “because I can't stand the German dubbing” shows just how much of a lasting impact his time in Zurich had on Rainer Tempel. The ZJO wanted to take enough time to find a new bandleader. In the meantime, the demands had not only increased, but also become more diverse. While the band wanted a good conductor with a flair for arrangements and as large a network as possible, reliability and team spirit were also important to the management. Fortunately for the ZJO, Daniel Schenker was willing to step in as temporary band leader: “I may not be a great conductor, but I can lead a rehearsal”, he says - “and I saw the need”.The second foot in the Westend - and a dreamAfter a year, the new man was found: German Steffen Schorn, a saxophonist with a penchant for the lower registers, took over as conductor. This change was also accompanied by a new performance opportunity: the ZJO was given the opportunity to perform regularly at the ZHdK's own club, the “Mehrspur”. But there were also setbacks. The most serious of these was that the ZJO lost its rehearsal venue. It was now Bettina Uhlmann's thankless job to find temporary accommodation, organize a materials store and ensure that all the necessary material was in the right place at the right time for rehearsals and increasingly frequent concerts. The administrative director of the big band began to think very seriously.And to network: Bettina Uhlmann had her stage coach office in the sogar theater on Josefstrasse at the time. What if the building next door, the twin building so to speak, could be converted into an actual jazz house? It all sounded very bold, daring, utopian. And not a priority either, because in the meantime the ZJO had to start looking for a bandleader again after six years with Steffen Schorn. Once again, Daniel Schenker stepped in to provide the necessary calm during the transition period and take the pressure off the search. One of the four candidates who were asked if they would be willing to work on a rehearsal concert with the ZJO was Ed Partyka. He doesn't remember the first rehearsal, but he does remember the first concert: “In the first piece of the first concert with the ZJO, I completely messed up the end of the piece because I gave the wrong signal and conducted incorrectly. Sometimes orchestras make mistakes that the audience doesn't notice. But this was not the case, because it was obvious to everyone in the hall that I had messed up. I am very grateful that the orchestra was able to forgive me, but what a start to my tenure with the ZJO!” Partyka still has nightmares about that concert today.But then things turned out well. The American-born musician is the epitome of a networked musician: “If you mentioned the name of a well-known composer or musician at a rehearsal, it regularly happened that Ed would say: ‘I played with him there and there, I made this and that recording with him’,” says Daniel Schenker, who, because Partyka is not permanently in Zurich, now acts as musical co-director. With the organizational support of Bettina Uhlmann, Partyka has brought countless guests to Zurich: Nikki Iles has been here, Robben Ford, Ola Onabulé or Joseph Bowie. This is a quantum leap for the musicians of the ZJO. But Partyka says that the collaboration also brings him a lot: “As a musician, I benefit from the fact that I can arrange and compose for an outstanding orchestra, and the ZJO supports my ideas for projects that would otherwise be almost impossible to realize.” According to Partyka, the members of the orchestra also support him on a psychological level: “For example, the sound check before the concert is often the most stressful time of a production for the conductor. We are always working against the clock, there is sometimes quite a long list of tasks that need to be done and we have the whole technical team (sound, lights, live stream camera and sound tech) as well as the bar staff preparing for the show too. Occasionally these situations make me quite stressed and the members of the ZJO have a wonderful way of bringing me back down to earth and defusing these tense situations. This is the first orchestra I've worked with that has been so supportive in this way and I'm very grateful for that.”The dream comes trueEd Partyka's 30th birthday wish for the ZJO is that the orchestra continues to develop both qualitatively and artistically. The most important foundation stone for this has probably been laid: The ZJO has a jazz house. Under the tireless aegis of Bettina Uhlmann and thanks to the support of the Dr. Stephan à Porta Foundation, the building at Heinrichstrasse 69 has become a rehearsal room, meeting place and material store for the Zurich Jazz Orchestra. Ed Partyka says: “Now that we have a home, I hope that the orchestra will find the means to perform even more. A possible long-term goal for the orchestra could be to raise enough funds to make the ZJO a full-time permanent orchestra, as is the case with many symphony orchestras in Switzerland. A cosmopolitan city like Zurich should have a professional jazz orchestra.”
Susanne Loacker, jazz'n'moreThis article appeared in the March/April 2025 issue of jazz'n'more magazine. More info & subscriptions: jazznmore.ch

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