They’re passionate about big band music

The new ‘NextGen Music’ club is bringing together four jazz big bands for a joint concert in the Chollerhalle Zug on Sunday. 11^th May. Musician Niki Jäger and big band leader Martin Winiger are leading and producing the project with great passion.

They sit at a small table in the ‘Freiruum’ with their laptops open and put their heads together: Niki Jäger, the well-known Zug trumpeter and leader of the Big Band Zug and Martin Winiger, an experienced orchestra leader and clarinet teacher. The first concert of their ‘NextGen Music’ association, which was founded in January 2025, is just a few days away: the ‘NextGen Big Band Bounce’.

‘Four big bands will meet in the Chollerhalle on Sunday, 11 May for a musical exchange of blows. They literally face each other, with the spotlight switching from one band to the next’ - according to the project description. Four stages are planned, grouped in a square around the auditorium, in which the audience can move freely.

Four stages with four big bands: in addition to the professional Big Band Zug, there will also be the junior formation (Nachwuchsformation) of the Big Band of the Kadettenmusik Zug and the amateur formation ‘Swing Classic Big Band’ from Cham. They will be joined by the Big Band Kanti Wattwil, which has been honoured as the ‘Best Swiss Youth Big Band’ and is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Setting big things in motion: Martin Winiger (left) and Nicolas Jäger line up four big band formations in one room                Photo: Stefan Kaiser

A project close to the heart
After the concert opening by the Big Band Zug, the four bands will ‘play’ three rounds, as it were, moderated by Laila Koller. ‘We have set guidelines,‘ Martin Winiger explains enthusiastically, “each band will perform three pieces in the areas of ”swing’, ‘groove’ and ‘carte blanche’, with the latter creating space for the band's own preferences, perhaps ballads or other surprising pieces from the big band literature.’ The spotlight, and therefore orchestra leader Winiger, will constantly move between the stages.

For the two passionate musicians, this is the realisation of a ‘heart project’. They met in 2021 and became friends: ‘We found each other because we tick in a similar way: We both want to start something. We fire each other up,’ they say in conversation. ‘‘No, it won't work’ - I never accept that from the outset,’ says Jäger with sparkling eyes, ’you have to try it, look for solutions.’ And this applies in meetings with organisers, stage providers and sponsors. Now, in the preparation phase, the two are exchanging ‘what feels like thousands of voice messages’ every day. Niki Jäger's drawings for the stage design in the Chollerhalle look like those of a professional architect.

Promoting, networking, enchanting
The shared fire also generates the necessary energy to produce their project, ‘our baby’, as they say, themselves, with distributed tasks, in many hours of unpaid work - out of passion for an idea: ‘Promoting young talents of the next generation, networking big bands from the Zug area and beyond, fostering exchange, sharing enthusiasm, creating experiences, increasing motivation to practise and rehearse, opening horizons and new “doors” and - enchanting the audience with a varied concert experience.’

Martin Winiger studied clarinet at the Zurich Conservatory. His activities from 1995 on have centred on his work as an ensemble and orchestra leader, and in particular as a big band leader at the Kanti Wattwil, with which he has won various prizes. The high level of his commitment has led to guest appearances with the Swiss Jazz Orchestra and the Zurich Jazz Orchestra. He has been leader of the big band at Zug Music School from 2020 and of the Kadettenmusik der Stadt Zug from 2022, and also contributes his wealth of experience to projects with the Big Band Zug.

Niki Jäger had already played on Swiss stages before he began studying jazz music at the Lucerne University of Music and graduated with a Master's degree in 2022. He is the musical and organisational director of the Big Band Zug, and works as a sought-after studio and live musician. He regularly collaborates with high-calibre musicians and bands such as Pepe Lienhard, Sina and Rüdiger Baldauf.

Both musicians see the concert on 11 May as the starting signal for a long-term project with ‘NextGen Music’. The audience can look forward to an evening full of vigour and great skill.

The ‘NextGen Big Band Bounce’ concert will take place in the Chollerhalle Zug at 5 pm on Sunday, 11th May.