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Alles Wird Gut
Olaf Taranczewski
Label: Poet Club Records
Released: 2005
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Personnel
Album Description
Sometimes it is the quiet notes that have the most lasting effect. Such is the case with ‘Alles wird gut’ (Everything Will Be Fine), the debut album by pianist Olaf Taranczewski from 2005.
The 42-minute album was created shortly before Taranczewski’s graduation from the Mainz University of Music. Searching for trio partners, he found sensitive musicians with the necessary feel for subtle tones in double bassist Florian Werther and Axel Pape on drums. Pape was already a known name in the scene and shortly after won the WDR Jazz Prize with the Sebastian Sternal Trio. Supported by these exceptional musicians, both several years his senior, the young pianist – entirely unknown in the jazz scene at the time – created an album of intimate maturity: at times sparkling and light-footed, at others brooding, always carried by a deep inner calm.
In the renowned Cologne Loft Studios, between a Steinway D grand and two Fender Rhodes, the Taranczewski Trio explored sonic nuances that would later become the hallmark of Olaf Taranczewski’s personal style: jazz of contemplative melancholy, combined with influences from film music and neo-classical. The seven original compositions on ‘Alles wird gut’ span a considerable spectrum, from romantic grace to excursions into the realms of groove and funk in the track ‘The Return of Dr. Froncz’. Taranczewski shows his versatility by relying on the full resonance of the grand piano for some pieces, while enveloping others in the intimate, bell-like tones of the Fender Rhodes. On several tracks, he masterfully conducts a dialogue between the grand and the Rhodes, a technique reminiscent of Bill Evans’ 1971 album ‘From Left to Right’. It is otherwise unmistakable that Evans is one of Taranczewski’s most important influences, yet he also points to other greats of jazz history: the ballad ‘Jazz Pa Svenska’ breathes the spirit of Jan Johansson, the pioneer of Swedish jazz piano, and his album of the same name from the early 60s. In ‘Frederic’s Choice’, one can recognise a tribute to Frédéric Chopin’s Étude Opus 28 in E minor in the quiet majesty of the melody and harmonies. Finally, with the title ‘LeGrand Bleu’, Taranczewski tips his hat to the great French film composer and jazz arranger Michel Legrand.
With Florian Werther, bass and Axel Pape, drums
Recorded at Loft, Cologne, Germany
Mixed by Christian Heckel
Re-Mastered by Olaf Taranczewski
Album uploaded by Olaf Taranczewski
