The Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra is a large German jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 ensemble led by Alexander von Schlippenbach

Alexander von Schlippenbach

Alexander von Schlippenbach is a German jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:...

. The orchestra performs orchestral jazz

Orchestral jazz

Orchestral jazz is a jazz genre developed in the United States in the 1920s, most significantly by Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington.As early as the 1910s there had been dance orchestras playing the popular songs of the day along with a smattering of jazz...

 and experimental big band

Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

 music and has included in its ranks such musicians as Misha Mengelberg

Misha Mengelberg

Misha Mengelberg is a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. He won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1961.-Biography:...

 and Kenny Wheeler

Kenny Wheeler

Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....

. The orchestra, which performs rather infrequently, was established in 1988 by von Schlippenbach and has commissioned works by Carla Bley

Carla Bley

Carla Bley, née Borg, is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill , as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other...

, Manfred Schoof

Manfred Schoof

Manfred Schoof is a German jazz trumpet player.He studied music in Kassel and Cologne.He is a founder of European free jazz and collaborated with Albert Mangelsdorff, Peter Brötzmann, Mal Waldron, and Irène Schweizer...

 and Willem Breuker

Willem Breuker

Willem Breuker was a Dutch jazz bandleader, composer, arranger, saxophonist, and bass clarinetist....

, among others.

Original members

• Henry Lowther
  Henry Lowther
  Henry Lowther may refer to:*Henry Lowther, 3rd Viscount Lonsdale *Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl of Lonsdale *Henry Lowther , British Conservative politician...
  
  
• Thomas Heberer
• Axel Dörner
• Bruno Leicht
• Felix Wahnschaffe
• Gerd Dudek
  Gerd Dudek
  Gerd Dudek is a German jazz tenor saxophonist, soprano saxophonist, clarinetist and flautist.Dudek studied clarinet privately and attended music school in the 1950s before joining a big band led by his brother Ossi until 1958...
  
  
• Evan Parker
  Evan Parker
  Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
  
  
• Walter Gauchel
• Rudi Mahall
  Rudi Mahall
  Rudi Mahall is a contemporary jazz bass clarinetist.While studying classical clarinet, Mahall shifted towards contemporary music, improvisation and jazz.He is, or was a member of following bands:...
  
  
• Dan Gottshel
• Mark Boukouya
• Jörg Huke
• Utz Zimmerman
• Aki Takase
  Aki Takase
  is a critically acclaimed, award-winning Japanese jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:Raised in Tokyo, she studied music at Tohogakuen Music University. Starting in 1978, she performed and recorded in the USA with Lester Bowie, David Liebman, John Zorn and others...
  
  
• Alexander von Schlippenbach
  Alexander von Schlippenbach
  Alexander von Schlippenbach is a German jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:...
  
  
• Nobuyuki Ino
• Paul Lovens
  Paul Lovens
  Paul Lovens is a musician. He plays drums, percussion, singing saw and various selected and unselected cymbals. He has also performed with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra....