Berlin Metropol Orchestra

When jazz starts grooving again when salsa echoes with hints of Hildegard Knef when soul swings through the airwaves in German and the trombone joins forces with Turkish rap in the spirit of Paul-Linkisch—then we’ve surely arrived in the new Berlin. Alfred Mehnert is absolutely right to call his project the Berlin Metropol Orchestra because this group of musicians from all over the world embodies what this city aspires to be—and in truth already is: a metropolis.
What makes the Metropol Orchestra special is that it doesn’t produce some undefined “multi-culti” sound that merely exoticizes the musicians’ origins. Instead their individual tonal colors come together to create a truly unique new kind of music. Their roots are still recognizable of course—why would anyone want to deny or hide them? But those roots are becoming distant echoes resonating through the new sound of a new home a sound that could probably only emerge here in the metropolis of Berlin.