David Berger & The Sultans Of Swing - Hindustan (2006)

Hindustan is the fourth recording of composer/arranger/conductor David Berger and his band The Sultans of Swing. This spectacular documentation of big band jazz in full swing features vocalist Aria Hendricks and 15 first-call, world-class musicians. It was recorded in Malmo, Sweden at the end of a Scandinavian road trip in September 2005. Berger, who formed The Sultans Of Swing in 1996, explains the significance of this: “Every time we go on tour the music improves daily. After a few days we surpass the highest level we ever achieved as a band. By the end of the tour we are all on a high that doesn’t require artificial stimulants. I’ve always wanted to capture our peak moments on a recording. Well, here it is! So if you can’t hear us live, or you want to re-experience what it felt like when you did, this album is for you.” Hindustan follows Berger’s critically acclaimed CD, Marlowe, and is his most compelling expression to date--as creator, composer, producer and conductor.

Hindustan proudly and exuberantly displays its lineage to the famous big bands of a bygone era; however, the music that is conceived from Berger’s mind and soul, and played by these master musicians, is anything but retro, and far from being a throwback. This is due in part to its emotional impact, which ranges from the universal and timeless feelings of ebullience (swing) to those of lamentation (the blues). Berger elaborates, “Over the past 70 years most people have forgotten the feeling of swing (what Albert Murray calls ‘the American imperative’), if they are old enough to have known it at all. Still this music infects those who are lucky enough to be exposed to it. In those moments we truly feel alive.”

Throughout the recording it is pleasingly evident that, like the great bandleaders that have put their indelible stamp on the jazz idiom, Berger has composed and arranged this music with these particular players in mind. And, in return, they have expertly crafted their improvisations to complement and complete the written music. David Berger and The Sultans Of Swing sound like one glorious, magnificent instrument on Hindustan--one that is capable of providing much pleasure to the ear, heart and mind.

The sonic experience is heightened by the extreme care taken to record the band live in the studio without headphones, mix it with absolutely no compression and run it through an analog board, so that what you hear on this CD is as close to a live performance as ever captured on any jazz CD. Leif Marten Olofsson the CEO/Chief Designer of Marten Design, makers of top-of-the-line audiophile speakers says, ”In the autumn of 2005 I had the pleasure to see and listen to David Berger and his Sultans of Swing live in Sweden. Since then they have been a favourite for me both musically, and when we do demos with our speakers. This latest album has a directness and uncompressed dynamic that shows all the benefits of our speakers. Fantastic! “