Bosphorus Cymbals

Ari Hoenig Quartet wins BMW Welt Jazz Award 2013

Highlight and conclusion of the BMW Welt Jazz  Award on Saturday evening was an explosive concert by the two  finalists, the Franco-German-Swiss ensemble Samuel Rohrer Quartet –  Daniel Erdmann w/ Frank Möbus & Vincent Courtois and the Ari  Hoenig Quartet from New York. The ensembles competed against each  other before an audience of 500 people at a completely sold-out BMW  Welt Auditorium. During the event, the jury selected the quartet of  jazzdrummer Ari Hoenig with guitarist Gilad Hekselman, Tivon Pennicott  on the saxophone and bass player Orlando le Fleming as the winner of  the BMW Welt Jazz Award 2013.
The BMW Welt Jazz Award 2013  celebrated its fifth anniversary following the motto “Leading Drums”.  From January to March, a total of six renowned international ensembles  demonstrated their abilities during Sunday matinees at the BMW Welt  Double Cone. During the final concert it was announced that the  successful series is to continue in 2014 following the motto “Sense of  Humour”.
The jury under the chairmanship of  Oliver Hochkeppel (music and culture journalist of the Süddeutsche  Zeitung) and comprising Andreas Kolb (editor-in-chief of the  “Jazzzeitung” and the “neue musikzeitung”), Roland Spiegel (music  editor focusing on jazz at Bavarian Radio), Heike Lies (responsible  for music and musical theatre in the culture department of the state  capital of Munich) and Christiane Böhnke-Geisse (artistic director of  the Jazzclub Unterfahrt Munich) explained their decision as follows:  “The most recent innovations in Jazz come from outside. The Ari Hoenig  Quartet plays amazing good old jazz, yet completely anew. Not only old  and new blend together here, extraordinary technical precision liaises  with deep emotion and warmth. All musicians possess unsurpassed  individual strengths, orchestrated by a true 'leading drummer': Ari  Hoenig plays the drums as melodic as no other.”