EBONY BAND AMSTERDAM
WERNER HERBERS

E. Schulhoff Ensemble Works (vol.1) Selections from stagemusic Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1926);
Three Tangos (arr. G. v. Keulen);
Concerto for String Quartet and Winds (1930);
Suite for Chamber Orchestra (1921)

The Ebony Band was founded in 1990 by Werner Herbers, solo oboist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. For many years he was one of the artistic directors of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. The Ebony Band is concerned with the performance of modern, unusual, and adventurous music, primarily from the first half of this century. Attention is devoted primarily to the work of less well-known composers worthy of (re)discovery. The Ebony Band devoted several programs to German music at the time of the Weimar republic (degenerated music). A program was also given during the 1991 Holland Festival with composers who were involved in the Spanish Civil War. Other programs included Leonard Bernstein and Friends, Degenerated influences on Jazz and Unknown Russians in the Twenties. The core of the Ebony Band consists of musicians from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In the 1993 Holland Festival, the Ebony Band performed music by Robert Graettinger, the legendary arranger for the Stan Kenton band; a live recording of this concert has been issued (City of Glass, CCS 6394 Channel Crossing). Chaim Levano (originally a musician) is recognized in the Netherlands as an important figure in the field of avant-garde theatre and also in various spatial aspects of the same discipline. Through his activities in Germany, he contributes to the increased interest there for new and modern theatrical work from the Netherlands. He was one of the first to conceive and execute not only numerous (musical) theatre productions dealing with Russian and Italian Futurism, Dadaism, the Russian Oberioe Group, Gertrude Stein, Kurt Schwitters and Max Rosenblatt, but also his own ideas and concepts of theatre which were performed in productions for the Holland Festival and other venues abroad. On 15 June 1994, the Ebony Band celebrated the 100th birthday of Erwin Schulhoff (8 June 1894) with a concert devoted exclusively to his music, given in Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht. The concert paid homage to an extremely versatile composer with works to his credit such as the classical Concerto for String Quartet and Winds, the striking stage music for Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and the joyful Suite for Chamber Orchestra of 1921, in which Schulhoff was one of the first to show his great affinity for the newest and most fashionable dance music. There are echoes of daily life as well: a car horn is included in the score (in our performance of the 1918 Nonpareil). Schulhoffs oeuvre is a highly accurate mirror of the time in which he lived. He probably didnt drink champagne every day, and he certainly didnt have a drivers licence (he was a demon cyclist), but his music sparkles like vintage Mot & Chandon Millsim and it has the elegance and speed of a Maybach 5.7 litre Tourer. Schulhoffs artistic interests were not confined to music; this can be seen from his close ties to the Dada movement, as exemplified by several texts which he himself wrote, e.g. the prologue to the Suite and the texts for Bassnachtigall and Wolkenpumpe (both of which appear on the next CD), and also in his collaboration with the painter and graphic artist Otto Griebel (1895-1970), with whom he composed his Zehn Themen in 1920: a collection of 10 piano pieces and 10 lithographs, published together in one book. Werner Herbers

Awards: Edison award 1995

(...) Die Wiedergaben der Ebony Band .... sind ausgesprochen anregend und spannungsreich.(...) Fono Forum, August 1995
(...) Iets voor muzikale avonturiers. Volkskrant, December 1994 (...) De toon is volstrekt onromantisch, brutaal en af en toe behoorlijk ruig - al blijft de balans tussen het strijkkwartet en al die blazers (waaronder ook het stevige koper) overeind. Dirigent Werner Herbers en zijn Ebony Band verdedigen deze muziek met een flair alsof ze zelf iedere nacht optreden in mondaine, rokerige bars. NRC, February 1995
(...) De Ebony Band verdient dan ook alle lof voor dit eerste deel van de werken voor ensemble...(...) Over het concert voor strijkkwartet en blazers uit 1930: (...) Dit stuk is zonder meer een meesterwerk en rechtvaardigt op zich al deze uitgave. (...) Entreacte, June 1995
(...) LEbony Band, nous offre de bonnes interprtations (...) Diapason, April 1995
(...) niets dan lof voor deze fraaie vertolkingen (...) (...) Herbers en zijn musici tonen zich voortreffelijke pleitbezorgers van deze muziek (...) Luister, April 1995
(...) Lyrique et mlodieux (...) (...) On attend avec impatience son second disque (...) Le Monde de la Musique, April 1995
(...) virtuos gespielt (...) Dissonanz, February 1995