Oli Bott and Chester Harlan

A tribute to Gary Burton & Ralph Towner

German vibraphonist Oli Bott and Italian/German guitarist Chester Harlan present a tribute to the powerful Gary Burton & Ralph Towner Duo, through a set of songs selected from the albums "Matchbook" (1974) and "Slide Shows" (1981), both recorded on ECM, as well as original compositions, written and structured as an homage to the music of these two great American artists who are still an inspiration for a whole generation of jazz musicians.

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Oli Bott studied vibraphone and composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston with teachers such as Gary Burton and Bob Brookmeyer, graduating 'summa cum laude'. After completing his studies, he moved to Berlin where he now works as a freelance vibraphonist and composer. The Arts Council of Berlin has been a regular supporter, awarding him both scholarships as a vibraphonist and commissions as a composer for his own jazz orchestra, which he also conducts. Oli Bott has been awarded many prizes, including the 'NDR-Musikpreis' for bigband conductors, 1st prize at the Leipzig Improvisation Competition and the Wayne Shorter Award, USA and was a prizewinner at the Europ Jazz Contest in Belgium. His concerts throughout Europe have been broadcast by TV and radio. Oli Bott collaborates with many musicians but counts his German-Romanian world music group ZMEI3 (signed by six degrees records, San Francisco), his duo with cellist Anna Carewe and the Sheridan Ensemble (mixed-genre from Baroque classical to jazz, rock and improvisation) as his most important. With these groups, as well as as a solo artist, he has performed at numerous national and international festivals, such as the WOMAD Festival (UK), Kolkata Jazz Festival (India), European Jazz Festival Izmir (Turkey), Schwetzingen SWR Festival, Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, Beethoven Festival Bonn, WDR Jazz Festival Cologne, Handel Festival Halle, Stuttgart Music Festival, Palatia Jazzfestival, Jazz Across the Border Festival Berlin, International Jazzfestival Hamm, Jazzfestival Burghausen, Jazzfestival Würzburg, Music´n´Migration Berlin.Since 2016, Oli has been teaching vibraphone at the Technical University Cottbus, Brandenburg and he also offers courses in improvisation as part of the Education Programme of the Berliner Philharmoniker, as well as at Berlin's Music Academy.

For more informations, please visit: www.olibott.com