Sweet Freedom Johannes Enders

• 1 Air & Gin 04:03
• 2 Mostly Sonny 04:31
• 3 Sweet Freedom 1 02:04
• 4 Strode Rode 03:01
• 5 There Will Always Be Another Mystery 04:06
• 6 Pin up House 05:03
• 7 East Broadway Rundown 03:49
• 8 Sweet Freedom 05:10
• 9 Like Sonny in Love 03:06
• 10 Doxy 04:28
• Total Runtime 39:21

Info for Sweet Freedom

Sonny Rollins, one of the last living icons of modern jazz, was and is a role model for countless generations of saxophonists.

This is also the case for Johannes Enders, one of the most important European voices on the tenor saxophone. Reason enough, then, for Sonny Rollins to dedicate an entire album with arrangements of some of his greatest hits to the "Saxophone Colossus" and to go on tour with this program!

Joining this adventure are Munich bassist Henning Sieverts and Spanish drum legend Jorge Rossy (Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Chick Corea, Mark Turner and many more).

The title of the recording "Freedom Suite" says a lot about one of the central characteristics of jazz: the urge for musical freedom, but also the urge for freedom of Afro-American people. In 1958, when the civil rights movement was gaining momentum in the United States, the record company decided to pull the record with that title from the market for fear of politicizing the music.

Johannes Enders, saxophone
Henning Sieverts, bass
Jorge Rossy, drums

Johannes Stefan Enders
(born 1967 in Weilheim, Upper Bavaria) is a German jazz saxophonist, composer, producer, and educator. Since 2009, he has held a professorship in jazz saxophone in Leipzig. His musical career began at the age of 14, when he switched from the flute to the alto saxophone and discovered his passion for soul and jazz music. Following a period of study under Jürgen Seefelder and André Legros at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich, he moved to the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz in 1987 to study jazz saxophone and improvisation with Charlie Miklin, Adelhard Roidinger, and Carl Drewo. After encounters with artists such as Jerry Bergonzi, David Liebman, Vincent Herring, and Reggie Workman, he received a scholarship to attend The New School in New York. There, he studied and performed with luminaries including Donald Byrd, Jaki Byard, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Brad Mehldau, Chris Potter, Joey Calderazzo, Sam Rivers, Peter Bernstein, Joe Locke, Pete LaRoca, and Roy Hargrove. He was awarded the Silver Trophy at the "American Music Fest" in San Francisco (1990) and participated in the Thelonious Monk Competition in Washington, D.C. Upon returning to Germany, Johannes Enders quickly established himself as one of the most significant voices on the tenor saxophone and was signed by the label ENJA Records. He has founded various ensembles, including his acoustic quartet, the saxophone quartet "ZeitGeistMaschine," and duo projects with jazz legend Günter "Baby" Sommer and pianist Rainer Böhm, as well as his electro-jazz projects "Enders Room" and "Enders Dome." Over the years, his immense creative output has earned him... He has been honored with the Austrian Jazz Prize, the City of Munich’s Cultural Advancement Award for Music, the SWR Jazz Prize, the Weilheim Cultural Prize, the New German Jazz Prize, the 2012 Jazz Echo, the German Music Authors’ Prize, and the Bavarian State Advancement Award. As a sought-after sideman in bands such as The Notwist, Tied & Tickled Trio, the Billy Hart European Quintet, Günter Baby Sommer’s Quartett Süd, the Franco Ambrosetti Quartet, the Karl Ratzer Quintet, and many others, Johannes Enders has performed in all the major clubs and at all the significant festivals, and has appeared on over 100 studio recordings to date.

This album contains no booklet.