For those not in the know, in 1946, the WDR Big Band got its start in Cologne, Germany — originally as a post-war radio orchestra. Same year, a little closer to the Appalachian Mountains, Bill Monroe was tightening up his band lineup to create what many now call the first true bluegrass group.

With Earl Scruggs joining on banjo and Lester Flatt on guitar, Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys played a brand of string band music so driving and so distinct, it gave an entire genre its name.

Nearly 80 years later, listening to the WDR Big Band — known for its razor-sharp swing and globe-spanning jazz projects — is like digging into the true origins of bluegrass.

Their brand new album is aptly entitled Bluegrass (out now via MCG Jazz) and is an extraordinary concert project by the WDR Big Band, bringing together two musical genres which, despite their many similarities, have so far led an isolated existence: bluegrass and large orchestral jazz.

1. Slip and Slide
2. Elzic’s Farewell/Yew Piney Mountain
3. Down in the Willow Garden
4. Green Lawn
5. Emy in the Woods
6. Replace It All
7. In the Lion’s Den
8. Dexter
9. Borealis

Anyone familiar with the bluegrass folk style, which originated in Kentucky and Tennessee in the late 1930s and early 1940s will love this recording, one that opens on the vivacious Slip and Slide and then we get the funkily grooved, latterly frenetically charged, fiddletastic Elzic’s Farewell/Yew Piney Mountain, an aching yearn that threads through Down in the Willow Garden and the all-embracing Green Lawn.

Along next is the jauntily perfect Emy in the Woods which is itself backed by the rhythmically soulful Replace It All, the upbeat and pleasing In the Lion’s Den, the set rounding out on the spirited fiddle-off within Dexter, closing on the sumptuously crafted Borealis.

Official Amazon Purchase Link