Founded in 1951 by Erwin Lehn, the SWR Big Band has been nominated for a Grammy several times and received the German Jazz Award (Gold) in 2015. It collaborated with artists like Quincy Jones, Pat Metheny, George Benson, Gary Burton, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Curtis Stigers, Jacob Collier, Patti Austin, Roy Hargrove, Sammy Nestico, Ivan Lins, Paula Morelenbaum, Joo Kraus, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Bob Florence, Rob McConnell, Slide Hampton, Maria Schneider, Frank Foster, Bill Holman and Bob Mintzer.

The collaboration between Sammy Nestico and the SWR Big Band began 2004, when the composer was already 80 years old. No less than five albums have been released in the years until his death, all of them bestsellers of the SWRmusic catalogue.

The music Nestico wrote for the SWR Big Band sports both funky sounds and elements of fusion, combining swing, a pinch of soul and an emotional orchestral expression. The music moves artfully between reduced combo sounds and opulent textures. This sense of mutual understanding was created during the decade-plus period of collaboration between the composer and the orchestra, a collaboration built not only on notes, but also on intuition.