"Little Big Band" played for the first time in front of an audience

Musicians are always alone anyway, they always practiced that quarantine is "normal," explained guitarist Thomas Lämmle. For the first live concert in "Hugi's Bistro" after the Corona forced break, the "Little Big Band" was happy to play "in front of people" again, as the duo Lämmle and the singer Veronika "Hugi" Nemeth like to call themselves that evening.

At the open-air concert, generously approved by the Kerpener Ordnungsamt, the audience soon realized what the "Little Big Band" was all about. In many cases, Lämmle had broken down the multi-voiced instrumental arrangements of the jazz standards elaborately produced with big bands only on one instrument, just his guitar.On Nemeth's wish list was Ella Fitzgerald's version of "I got Rhythm."

On this balmy summer evening under intense evening red, the two offered a dazzling play with the expressive possibilities of jazz. She explored the emotional palette of her voice, offering a virtuoso playing with extended solo passages full of rhythmic and harmonic finesse.

Fragments of the "Smoke on the Water" intro also appeared, which Lämmle and Nemeth did not pursue in favour of more melodically pleasing pieces. In addition to food from Hugi's kitchen, guests enjoyed the voice of the landlady in ballads such as "Autumn Leaves", "How high the Moon" or "Skylark".In "Georgia" she showed a lot of enamel but also pronounced dirty tones in the deep registers.

They made trips to contemporary pop music with the gloomy Beth Hart's "Setting me Free" and even Abba found space in the encore, with "Thank you for the Music"."In our next life we sing Abba together," the duo had agreed one day.And that now takes place, so to speak, prematurely, "after the Corona-Lockdown", says the two.