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Gerry Hemingway with Izumi Kimura, Frank Gratkowski and Christian Weber: Live at Bau 4
by Glenn Astarita
Drummer and composer Gerry Hemingway has spent five decades proving that percussion can be as harmonically literate as any horn or keyboard. That reputation was forged during his decade with the Anthony Braxton Quartet and expanded through an expansive discography on labels including Auricle, Tzadik, Clean Feed, and Intakt. Now based in Switzerland, Hemingway continues to cultivate collaborations that balance compositional rigor with the spontaneity of collective improvisation. Live at Bau 4 documents one such encounter. Per Maxi ...
Continue ReadingGerry Hemingway: Live at Bau 4
by Mark Corroto
Touch. It is the word that most often comes to mind when listening to the music of composer and drummer Gerry Hemingway. While rhythm and structure are central to his work, it is touch, the physical act of striking, rubbing, bowing, pressing and releasing that gives his music its distinctive character. Hemingway's performances do more than generate sound; they evoke texture. They invite the listener to imagine the grain of wood, the scrape of metal, the vibration of strings and ...
Continue ReadingRuss Johnson: To Walk On Eggshells
by Glenn Astarita
Russ Johnson, a Chicago-bred trumpeter with a knack for adventurous jazz, joins forces with Swiss bassist Christian Weber and drummer Dieter Ulrich, both stalwarts of the Zurich jazz scene. Johnson's resume boasts collaborations with everyone from Lee Konitz to his own genre-bending Russ Johnson Quartet, while Weber and Ulrich have carved out reputations as nimble improvisers, notably in projects such as Oliver Lake's For A Little Dancin (Intakt, 2010) and Co Streiff's sextet. This nine-track album is a ...
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Russ Johnson, Christian Weber, Dieter Ulrich: To Walk On Effshells
by Alberto Bazzurro
Tutti a firma dei tre performers, con prevalenza di Johnson, i nove brani che compongono questo CD, inciso a Zurigo nel lontano dicembre 2009. Lo firma in maniera democratica" un trio agguerrito sia in diversi degli episodi di cui sopra che proprio negli esiti complessivi, sempre esemplari per lucidità e capacità di condurre la musica lungo i sentieri scelti di volta in volta. C'è parecchia improvvisazione, è chiaro, ma il fatto che ciascun momento del disco rechi una e una ...
Continue ReadingThe Workers: Altbüron
by John Eyles
Altbüron is the first album release from The Workers, a newly-formed quartet of experienced Swiss improvisers, each of whom had previously collaborated with at least one other member; the quartet comprises soprano saxophonist Urs Leimgruber (born 1952), alto saxophonist, flautist and voice Omri Ziegele (born 1959), bassist Christian Weber (born 1972) and drummer Alex Huber (born 1982), those dates illustrating the range of ages--and, hence, influences within the group. This album was recorded live at bau 4 in Altbüron, in ...
Continue ReadingAki Takase: Auge
by John Sharpe
While it might be Aki Takase's name which grabs the attention thanks to her illustrious track record, the trio on Auge represents a true co-operative, as the Berlin-based Japanese pianist joins forces with Swiss bassist Christian Weber and German drummer Michael Griener in a perfectly balanced triumvirate. Takase draws on an ouevre which famously encompasses almost the entire history of jazz, stretching from projects reimagining Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, and Eric Dolphy all the way to freeform ...
Continue ReadingAki Takase / Christian Weber / Michael Griener: Auge
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Aki Takase had a hand in the creation of one of 2020's top jazz CDs: Slow Pieces For Aki (Intakt Records), by her husband and fellow pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. She suggested a set less involved in the speed, volume and intensity that was Schlippenvach's customary avant-garde approach. He answered with a twenty-one tune recording of ever-shifting beauty and down tempo restraint. Takase--with partners Christian Weber, on bass, and Michael Griener playing drums--opens 2021 with an answer ...
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