"Homage to Bill Ramsey"
Thanks to his initiative and also his desire to play swinging jazz, the well-known banjo player and guitarist Bernd K. Otto formed the European Swing All Stars in spring 1992. The European Swing All Stars have developed a repertoire that also includes a never-denied love of classic hot jazz. Unbridled joy of improvisation and musical vitality characterize the music of this band. Anachronism is what Bernd K. Otto, bandleader of the European Swing All Stars, calls the experiment with which the band adds concise bebop riffs to Dixieland/swing compositions. Anachronistic because the musicians consciously put the bebop phrasing, which was only found later in jazz, into a temporal context with the quarter beat of traditional jazz as an artistic means of increasing tension. During the concert, the musicians successfully dare this symbiosis several times. With a "tribute to Bill Ramsey" the band recalls the unforgettable concerts with him at the Darmstadt Residence Festival.
