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Jazz Articles about Irene Schweizer
Irene Schweizer / Han Bennink: Welcome Back
by John Sharpe
For such an assuredly rhythmic player Swiss pianist Irene Schweizer shows an unexpected affinity to drummers, who feature disproportionately as partners in her discography. But even so Welcome Back constitutes only the second entry to pair Schweizer with maverick Dutch drummer Han Bennink, following their eponymous debut (Intakt, 1996), which was itself preceded by years of engagement stretching back further still. In spite of their impeccable avant-garde credentials (both have been at the forefront of European improv for the last ...
Continue ReadingIrene Schweizer, Han Bennink: Welcome Back
by Maurizio Zerbo
Correte ad acquistare questo strepitoso CD, se non lo avete ancora fatto. In questo progetto si ritrovano i risultati più inaspettati raggiunti dal jazz contemporaneo. Vi aleggia una gioiosa comunicativa, che si contraddistingue rispetto all'attuale produzione europea di stampo avanguardistico. A ciò si aggiungano ritmi ipnotici e danzanti che fanno di questo disco una rara avis. Il duo Irene Schweizer-Han Bennink ricorre ad una nuova chiave di lettura di un processo destrutturante, che riguarda la storia e l'estetica jazzistica.
Continue ReadingIrene Schweizer - Han Bennink: Welcome Back
by Glenn Astarita
Swiss pianist Irene Schweizer and Dutch drummer Han Bennink share a long and fruitful lineage within the Euro improvisation scene as Welcome Back marks the their second duo recording. However, the pianist has recorded duets with venerable drummers, Andrew Cyrille, Baby Sommer and others of note, while Bennink has participated in duets with pianists, Cecil Taylor and Myra Melford to cite a few. The musicians' respective legacies could in theory, populate a book. Yet, they're at it again with these ...
Continue ReadingNovità dalla Intakt
by Maurizio Zerbo
Dalla label svizzera Intakt provengono sempre proposte interessanti, che ci forniscono un significativo spaccato della ricerca jazzistica europea. Pur facendo i conti con i clichè di riferimento (l'avanguardia degli anni '70), si impongono modalità di grande spessore espressivo. Irène Schweizer-Jürg Wickihalder Spring Valutazione: * * * ½ Intakt Records (2014) Entrambi i CD qui in esame presentano una precisa cifra stilistica, palpabilmente riconoscibile. Nel caso di Irene Schweizer, si ripropone ...
Continue ReadingIrene Schweizer - Pierre Favre: Live in Zurich
by Giuseppe Segala
Come dice Ekkehard Jost nel suo fondamentale volume Europas Jazz (Fischer Verlag, 1987), “Negli anni attorno al 1970, in un fase storica relativamente breve, il Jazz europeo trovò se stesso." Gli elvetici Irène Schweizer e Pierre Favre sono tra coloro che contribuirono fortemente all'identità europea di una musica che fino a quel momento aveva vissuto quasi esclusivamente sotto l'accecante riflesso dei fari statunitensi, tranne poche eccezioni, tra cui quella di Django Reinhardt. Nel 1968 i due elvetici ...
Continue ReadingIrene Schweizer - Pierre Favre: Live in Zurich
by Glenn Astarita
Swiss pianist Irene Schweizer's celebrated duets with jazz drumming greats, Andrew Cyrille, Han Bennink and Gunter “Baby" Sommer must have been impressive spectacles. This album denotes her third duo album with her infamous fellow countryman, drummer Pierre Favre. Needless to state, the artists' extraordinary interactions are in full force via these concise pieces that were not arranged or rehearsed prior to the live gigs, spanning March 22-24, 2013 at a venue in Zurich. Even though these works skirt the free-zone, ...
Continue ReadingIrene Schweizer / Dewan Motihar / Barney Wilen / Manfred Schoof: Jazz Meets India
by John Kelman
Years before John McLaughlin began a deep investigation into the music of India that resonates to this day, there was Jazz Meets India. It wasn't the first time that Indian music had crept into popular western culture--The Beatles and John Coltrane, amongst others, had already seen to that--but this 1967 MPS date was an early experimental meshing of linear Eastern modality with free jazz improv. There have been plenty of failed cross-cultural experiments, but thanks to Promising Music's ongoing MPS ...
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