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Jazz Articles about Klaus Kugel
Yamabiko Quintet: Yamabiko Quintet
by Glenn Astarita
Yamabiko Quintet, the group's self-titled album, is a sonic adventure through the labyrinth of free jazz, where improvisation is the guiding star and the unexpected lurks around every corner. This quintet, featuring Frank Paul Schubert on saxophones, Michel Pilz on bass clarinet, Reiner Winterschladen on trumpet, Christian Ramond on bass and Klaus Kugel on drums, delivers a performance that is both intricate and accessible, a feat in a genre often labeled as esoteric. The album's structure is an ...
Continue ReadingGlod / Ramond / Kugel: No ToXiC
by Glenn Astarita
The collaborative marvel that is No ToXiC, hatched in the fertile grounds of NEMU Records, is less an album and more of a dare--a sonic gauntlet thrown at the feet of free jazz and improvisation. Roby Glod (who flirts with both alto and soprano saxophones), double bassist Christian Ramond and drummer Klaus Kugel take us on a journey that laughs in the face of convention. Right out of the gate, “Unconscious Superglitzer" demands attention, not politely but like ...
Continue ReadingTransatlantic Five: Transitions
by Mark Corroto
There is an expression in meditation for when an individual is concentrating on their breath, “it's a simple practice, but not easy." A similar statement might be made about Transitions by the Transatlantic Five. The music is not simple, but it is easy. Easy, at least for this quintet. The American duo of Ken Vandermark (tenor saxophone, clarinet) and trumpeter Nate Wooley crossed an ocean (thus the name) to perform and record with the German trio of vibraphonist ...
Continue ReadingSchubert, Uchihashi, And Kugel Breaking Boundaries And More
by Bob Osborne
On this show we feature a selection of exciting new releases including fascinating genre-crossing explorations from Frank Paul Schubert, Kazuhisa Uchihashi and Klaus Kugel. In addition there is music from SoSoLa, Sam Bardfeld, Leap Day Trio, Satoko Fujii and Otomo Yoshihide, plus Mike Bell. Playlist Show Intro 00:00 Frank Paul Schubert, Kazuhisa Uchihashi and Klaus Kugel “Explosive Past" from Black Holes Are Hard To Find (NEMU) 00:53 SoSoLa “Enough Is Enough" from Nu World Trashed (DooBeeDoo Records) ...
Continue ReadingKlaus Kugel: Op Der Schlemz Live Nemu
by Howard Mandel
The collective quartet performance Op Der Schlemz Live by drummer Klaus Kugel pianist Roberta Piket, saxophonist Roby Glod and bassist Mark Tokar is rooted in steady balance yet full of dynamic surprises. Most people approaching this record will understand in advance that's a good thing, since surprises are exactly what we hope for when music is played so that anything can happen, but those surprises are best when they ride from ensemble consistency and purpose, rather than luck or accident. ...
Continue ReadingElma Kais: Licentia Poetica
by Howard Mandel
I tried to write words freed from rhythm... Yet the song came, of itself, in the right measures, And whatever I tried to write was poetry. Ovid, Tristis IV, 24-25 More than 2000 years ago Ovid captured the essence of spontaneous improvisation in a stanza--as the collective of Elma Kais, Knox Chandler, Daigo Nakai and Klaus Kugel does on Licentia Poetica. The Roman poet, author of “Metamorphoses," describes a creative outpouring which finds--or reveals--its perfect form ...
Continue ReadingJoe McPhee / John Edwards / Klaus Kugel: Existential Moments
by John Sharpe
Multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee's trio with British bassist John Edwards and German drummer Klaus Kugel has become another of his most potent working bands, following in the footsteps of such esteemed outfits as Trio X and Survival Unit III. On their third album, after Journey To Parazzar (NotTwo, 2018) and A Night In Alchemia (NotTwo, 2019), recorded in front of an audience at the FreeJazzSaar festival in Saarbrucken in 2019, the threesome conduct a masterclass in building and releasing tension, during ...
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