This music simply makes you feel better. - JAZZPODIUM

Critics and audiences are equally thrilled. Straight away their hip club jazz was nominated for the US Indie Award. - JAZZ ECHO

The Nighthawks make German mainstream jazz sound quite antiquated. - STEREOPLAY

The Nighthawks always sound like Nighthawks – the best compliment one can pay to a band. - KULTURNEWS

Cinema for your ears, to be enjoyed not just in the night clubs around the world. - HAMBURGER ABENDBLATT

The fusion album of the year! - AUDIO

Two masterminds in the footsteps of CAN and Miles Davis´ late work. - JAZZTHING

With Paris Dakar, the Nighthawks continue their distinctive sound journey—somewhere between jazz, ambient, lounge, and electronic club aesthetics. The Cologne/Hamburg band led by trumpeter Reiner Winterschladen and bassist/electronics engineer Dal Martino once again delivers a cinematic sound adventure that sounds less like a living room and more like the wider world.
Winterschladen's trumpet floats like a red thread over Martino's deep, pulsating bass lines and subtle beats. ​ At times it is reminiscent of Miles Davis' late fusion phase, at times of the melancholic coolness of Nils Petter Molvaer. ​ The Nighthawks combine organic instruments with electronic precision - a field of tension that they have mastered for years.
In terms of production, Paris Dakar is flawless: clear, spacious, warm. ​ Every note is in place, every beat serves the mood. You can feel the musicians' experience and keen sense of dynamics and atmosphere. Paris Dakar is more than an album—it's a road movie for the ears. Jazz meets electronica, Europe meets Africa, night meets dawn—a sonically brilliant work that awakens wanderlust and lets you arrive at the same time."
Soundchecker Cologne by Dennis, 11/11/2025

“Cool cover, laid-back music: since the late 90s, this German band has been known for its nu jazz blend of electronic and acoustic sounds. It's perfect for lounging on the sofa with a drink, but also great for dancing. Test: the opener ”Finally Timeless."
HörZu 2025/48

"At night, when you go to the cocktail bar for a drink or two, you don't need hard rhythms anymore. Music that serves up catchy trumpet melodies and constantly changing splashes of sound over distinctive bass lines is much more appropriate. The band led by trumpeter Reiner Winterschladen delivers eleven tracks that fill rooms unobtrusively but noticeably, and are so cleverly constructed that they are also worth listening to attentively at home. Basically, they are modernizing what Miles Davis started in his funk phase in the 1980s.
RONDO Dec '25, Werner Stiefele

"Nighthawks, that famous bar motif by painter Edward Hopper, is probably widely known—and it seems to us like a scene from a film noir that was never made. On “Paris – Dakar,” each track is set to music like a spotlight on an imaginary film set. Reinforced by kindred guest musicians such as Sting guitarist Dominic Miller, the result is a mix of jazz, backbeat, rock, pop, dancefloor, and chillout. Thrilling!"
MoX Soundcheck, 10/22/2025, Horst E. Wegener

Nighthawks: Paris-Dakar. Don't imagine the grueling, sweat-inducing rally of the same name when you hear “Paris-Dakar.” Instead, picture a leisurely, contemplative road movie, occasionally rocked by rock music, that you can simply enjoy with a cocktail in your hand. The Cologne-based jazz formation Nighthawks takes stressed listeners on an atmospheric journey through cultures, from the jazz metropolis to the music of Manu Dibango in Africa. A musical delight.
(CD, Q-rious) Bonner General-Anzeiger 11/29/25

“Paris Dakar” by the NIGHTHAWKS is a joyful journey through the past to the present—from jazz to mainstream, from the atomic heart of the mother (who recognizes the parallels on the LP cover?) to the peaceful harmony of MILES DAVIS' “Kind Of Blue.” ​ Even space for overarching, sometimes spontaneous ideas or imaginative stylistic changes enrich the eight artfully composed instrumental pieces. ​ This heightens the tension when listening to the heavy, sonorous LP, which comes in a futuristic, colorfully printed LP inner sleeve, and it continues unabated until the end of the album after just under 40 minutes. musikreviews.de 09.12.2025
Thoralf Koß Editor-in-chief

“PARIS DAKAR” (Spinner Ace Records / Edel)
The Cologne-based band must definitely be counted among the best jazz combos in Europe. With their new album “Paris Dakar,” they once again dive deep into the wide-ranging jazz cosmos. There are unusual instrumentations, acoustic bows, and hauntingly played keyboard instruments. With trumpet sounds, Nighthawks penetrate the hearts of listeners and open the door wide to jazz. With “Paris Dakar,” Nighthawks give jazz a big push toward a new sound, because it was slowly becoming stiff and immobile.
Tam Tam City Magazine Erfurt

Good things are often so close. After all, it's only a few kilometers to Cologne, where the Nighthawks are based. Trumpeter Reiner Winterschladen and his quintet play jazz on the album “Paris Dakar” – but not in an intellectual way, rather sometimes with cinematic sensitivity, sometimes as a rally full of beats, hip-hop, and African rhythms. The whole thing has groove, is virtuosic, entertaining, and enjoyable.
The ensemble plays with a naturalness that can only come from years of
working together. Every note is spot on, every solo has its place, and yet there is still room for spontaneous inspiration. Paris Dakar is an album full of energy and
joie de vivre, proving once again why the Nighthawks are one of the most consistent and unique formations on the German scene.
A magnificent, colorful work—rousing, emotional, and brilliant in sound.
Jazz Fun Recap Jacek Brun

The Nighthawks musical universe is unconditionally welcoming and constantly surprises
with its edifying ambivalence: Nighthawks songs are easy to understand on the surface and offer depth at the same time. Coolness and a certain untouchability were second names long associated with free-spirited jazz. “ParisDakar,” the album to be released on October 24, with its eleven diverse tracks, nonchalantly and refreshingly bypasses the perceived doctrinal snobbery of the genre.
With a lyrical bent, guitarist Dominic Miller (Sting, Phil Collins)
once again cultivates his long-standing friendship with the Nighthawks in the mysterious and soaring “Young.” Herb Alpert, with his eternally youthful Tijuana Brass, waves openly and benevolently into the action.
Aachener Zeitung (Michael Loesl)