The Amadeus Project

Guy Barker Jazz Orchestra
featuring Rosario Giuliani
with Michael Brandon
GM2CD02 (2 x CD)  

"Not content with being probably the greatest trumpet virtuoso that British jazz has ever produced, Guy Barker has grown into a quite phenomenal composer." 

**** The Observer

In 2006 Guy Barker was asked to compose original music for BBC Radio 3 and the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, California to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth.

‘dZf’, commissioned by Radio 3’s Jazz Line-Up, is a 75-minute suite written for a 14-piece Jazz Orchestra and narrator – Michael Brandon.  It tells a revamped and modernised version of the story of The Magic Flute, Mozart’s final opera (Die Zauberflöte).  Barker invited his friend, thriller writer Robert Ryan, to take the original story and transform it into a dark, ‘Jazz Noir’ tale.  The music reflects the script Ryan produced and intertwines with the narration.

The Mainly Mozart commission, ‘The Amadeus Suite’, is a set of pieces inspired by characters from Mozart’s operas. Barker has extended and rearranged the music, originally written for a 9-piece US band, to suit the Jazz Orchestra.

***** BBC Music Magazine