Commission for the BBC Proms 2017

Following sell-out Quincy Jones and Jamie Cullum Proms in 2016, this year Metropole Orkest returns – to celebrate the life and music of legendary composer, bandleader and bass-player Charles Mingus. For this occasion, Vladimir has been commissioned to write an arrangement to “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” featuring Metropole’s guitar soloist – Peter Tiehuis. An older arrangement on “I X Love” has also been part of this programme, featuring Bart van Lier, Shabaka Hutchings and Christian Scott.

The arrangements on this concert already received some great reviews:

“The imaginative arranging was given full reign on ‘Goodbye Porkpie Hat’, where the lead was handed to guitarist Peter Tiehuis, whose Scofield-like touches gave the standard a new lease of life and an edge that most big-band versions lack.”

Jazzwise Magazine
Metropole Orkest Modernise Mingus On Prom Night

“…The intricately structured and chordally-piquant ballad I x Love (1957) and even Mingus’s signature melody Goodbye Porkpie Hat (1959) (in an arrangement by Vladimir Nikolov built around Peter Tiehuis’s guitar) are all decent enough.” 

London Jazz News
Beneath the Underdog: Charles Mingus Revisited

“Arrangements were supremely imaginative; the Metropole Orkest in stunning form.”

Seen and Heard International
The Charlie Mingus Prom Has the Metropole Orkest in Stunning Form

More info on the event here.