Music: Panzerballett

Hard jazz, expertly composed, played, and mastered. Panzerballett is like Ballet, poetry in motion.

A long time ago (narrator: it was the middle of the 1980s) I fancied myself pivoting my playing to pursuits that were “jazzy”. I was looking for a new amplifier, and one that I was looking at was a Roland Jazz Chorus. That is a combo (that means an amplifier with speakers) that had I think 60 watts of power, with two 12-inch speakers. It was not a crunch amp, although it does have a warm overdrive that is creamy smooth, and I liked it. Alas, I returned to my 80’s vintage Hair Metal roots and bought the Gallien Krueger.

But that twinge of jazz in my bones always remained¹. I do listen to a lot of jazz though. I have a bunch of the golden era, back to the 40’s, tons of Miles Davis, Coltrane, and more than a little bit of big-band era swing.

But I am not here to talk about that. No, probably 15 years ago, I stumbled on a cover of the Dave Brubeck staple, Take Five by this German band, Panzerballett.

And I was blown away. Tight playing, hard edged, ultra precision riffs, well balanced.

Oh yeah, it is totally IN YOUR EFFING FACE. At the time, streaming wasn’t really a thing, so I BOUGHT their albums on the iTunes Music store.

Anyhow, I woke up this morning to a new track, and an album coming, that made me mash that play button.

Instantly the energy, the drive, the edgy tones assaulted my hearing organs in my headphones

YES!

I know that this may not be your cuppa, but if you do enjoy this, I will also drop a link to their Take Five cover.

If you enjoyed that, then you might also like this:

Lemme know what you think in the comments.

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1. Sadly, my discipline and practice regimen was and is incompatible with being a jazz player