ORF Big Band

Around 1970, the Austrian Broadcasting Company was reformed, transforming itself into the innovative ORF and finally launching a contemporary pop and jazz station, Ö3. At the same time, the ORF Big Band developed from the core of the Fehring Orchestra, rejuvenated by talents like drummer Erich Bachträgel. It became an orchestra ready to meet all the needs of a modern broadcasting corporation; however, due to the ambitions and experiences of its leaders, Erich Kleinschuster and Johannes Fehring, its emphasis remained on the production of first rate, big band jazz. In earlier years, ambitious Austrian jazz musicians had to go abroad to achieve recognition, but thanks to the existence of the ORF Big Band, consummate international jazz talents – like Art Farmer on flugelhorn and trumpet, or Jimmy Heath on soprano and tenor sax, or Jimmy Woode on double bass – were bound at least temporarily to Austria. The Orchestra existed from 1971 to 1982. They recorded a lot of libraries called "ORF Arbeitsplatten" that get sold for enormous prices on the collectors market.