Maria Schneider long ago gave up weekly gigs with her big band that began way back in the 1990s in Visiones in Greenwich Village (which incidentally specialised in excellent Spanish-American cuisine). Now her band reassemble for a week's residency two or three times a year at one of New York's leading jazz venues (such as Birdland, where she'll be in June 2018). It leaves her greater freedom to pursue her compositional ambitions in both jazz and classical music (such as the Grammy-winning Winter Morning Walks in 2014). She also responds to invitations by large ensembles around the world to perform her compositions, such as the SWR Big Band, retained 12 months a year by the German Radio Station SWR, an acronym for Südwestrundfunk (or Southwest Broadcasting), the regional public broadcasting corporation serving the southwest of Germany. The band have a formidable reputation and it is fascinating to hear this European response to several classic Schneider compositions/arrangements, such as ‘Bombshelter Beast’, ‘Night Watchmen’ and ‘Coming About’ from the 1996 album Coming About, ‘Allégresse’ from the album of the same name from 2000, or ‘Dance You Monster to My Soft Song’ from her 1994 debut album Evanescence. The occasion was a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Kurt Weil's birth and 50th anniversary of his death, and includes five Weil compositions, with three arranged by Schneider, all of which are close to breathtaking in her re-imaginations of Weil's intent.