Jazz Articles about Kaja Draksler

About Kaja Draksler

Album Review

Punkt.Vrt.Plastik has spent nearly a decade demonstrating that the piano trio need not behave like a piano trio. Pianist Kaja Draksler, bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Christian Lillinger established their peculiar chemistry on the excellent Punkt.Vrt.Plastik (Intakt, 2018), pushed it into more intricately constructed territory with Somit (Intakt, 2021) and documented its live potency on Zurich Concert (Intakt, 2022). Kompress continues the group's unconventional methods while tightening them into relatively concise pieces. Calling this outside jazz only gets ...

Album Review

Kaja Draksler, Susana Santos Silva: Grow

by Mark Corroto
November 27, 2022

Music is sound, but is sound music? For John Cage, sound was indeed music. His avant-garde experiments with silence, environmental sounds, and prepared instruments opened up an entire world for discovery and others' improvisations. Even though he disliked the concept of improvisation, preferring chance to a musician's choices, our modern and post-modern free improvisation world has much for which to thank him. Enter the improvising duo of Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler, living in Copenhagen, and Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva ...

Radio & Podcasts

International Jazz

by Jerome Wilson
November 2, 2022

This show highlights jazz from Sweden, South Africa, Japan, and Slovenia. Musicians heard on the show include Kaja Draksler, Monica Zetterlund, Aki Takase, and Louis Moholo-Moholo. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 John Surman “Mayflower" from Flashpoint (Cuneiform) 1:07 Bergen Big Band “Northern Sun" from Seagull (Grappa) 9:43 Host Speaks 14:32 Kaja Draksler “Communicational Entropy / Andromeda" from The ...

Album Review

Punkt. Vrt. Plastik: Zurich Concert

Read "Zurich Concert" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
October 25, 2022

Over the course of the five years since its inception, Punkt. Vrt. Plastik, the trio of Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler, Swedish bassist Petter Eldh and German drummer Christian Lillinger, has become one of the premier bands on the European circuit. Definitive proof arrives in the shape of Zurich Concert, the threesome's third album, recorded at the 2021 unerhört!-Festival in the titular Swiss city. Although all but one of the selections appear on the outfit's first two releases, they present differently ...

Album Review

Hearth: Melt

by John Sharpe
August 13, 2021

Four of the most exciting young improvisers on the European scene assemble for the first time under the name Hearth. In a cosmopolitan roster overflowing with talents who each possess a distinctive individual voice, Amsterdam-based Argentinean reedplayer Ada Rave joins with the Copenhagen-domiciled Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler, Stockholm-located Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and Trondheim-resident Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen. While improv sessions often thrive on no-holds-barred expression, it really is the collective which is the star on Melt.

Album Review

Kaja Draksler Octet: Out for Stars

Read "Out for Stars" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
May 18, 2020

Nel precedente Gledalec le parole erano quelle di Pablo Neruda, Gregor Strnisa e Adriana Minou in questo Out for Stars poeta unico di riferimento è l'americano Robert Frost. Ad animare i testi, colorarli di immagini, evocare paesaggi della natura (che sia quella del New England di Frost o della natia Slovenia poco importa) e dell'anima ci pensa il meraviglioso ottetto allestito da Kaja Draksler, ennesimo fulgido, giovane talento emerso negli ultimi anni dalla scena musicale slovena. Gli studi di musica ...

Radio & Podcasts

Kaja Draksler Octet Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam

by BIMHUIS
June 20, 2018

The Kaja Draksler Octet is a colorful group featuring very diverse musicians from different countries that chose Amsterdam as their home base. The music of the Slovenian pianist varies from simple songs to intricate compositions with refined textures, which are often inspired by modern classical music. Greek artist Andriana Minou wrote lyrics for this group. Kaja Draksler received the 2018 Paul Acket Award, a yearly grant endowed by the North Sea Jazz Festival to a musician deserving wider ...