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Jazz Articles about Manu Katche
Benjamin Lackner: Last Decade
by Dan McClenaghan
In a 2006 interview for All About Jazz written by Joao Moriera dos Santos, pianist/keyboardist Benjamin Lackner was asked: What label would you like to be on in the near future?" He said, simply, ECM." That seemed ambitious for Lackner at that stage of his career. He was 29 years old at the time and boasted only two albums under his own nameone of them was Sign Of The Times (Nagel Heyer, 2006), released a bit before the interviewalong with ...
read moreManu Katche: the scOpe
by Chris M. Slawecki
Manu Katché's tenth album as a leader, the ScOpe encompasses modern and ancient music, tribal and global music, and illustrates why he is not only one of the world's best drummers, but much more. Katché entered the Paris Conservatory as a pianist but switched to percussion as his studies progressed; his mature style eventually incorporated his French and African roots into this classical training. the scOpe emphasizes the melodic nature, alongside the rhythmic and percussive nature, of Katché's ...
read moreYelena Eckemoff/Manu Katché: Colors
by Mark Sullivan
Pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff has produced a varied discography. But since her piano trio album Lions (L&H Production, 2015) she has tended towards larger ensembles. Leaving Everything Behind (L&H, 2016) and Desert (L&H, 2018) were both quartets; Blooming Tall Phlox (L&H, 2017) and In the Shadow of a Cloud (L&H, 2017) were quintets; and Better Than Gold And Silver (L&H, 2018) was a sextet (plus two vocalists for the vocal versions). So this is a surprising move: a duet with drummer ...
read moreYelena Eckemoff / Manu Kache: Colors
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Yelena Eckemoff brings the top drummers into her recording sessions, whether it's Billy Hart on Lions (2014), or Peter Erskine on Glass Song (2012) and Desert (2015), or Jon Christensen for Everblue (2014)all of these on her own L & H Production label. The year 2019 finds the prolific Eckemoff presenting her first duo album, Colors, a piano and drums affair with another topline partner sitting at the kit: Manu Katche, a distinctive drumming stylist and a ...
read moreManu Katché: Unstatic
by Karl Ackermann
Drummer Manu Katché's career has been a long, circuitous one that began in rock, working for an extended period with Peter Gabriel, Sting and Joni Mitchell. In the cases of Sting and Mitchell, there was a jazz sensibility present in much of their work. Simultaneously, Katché's work on the ECM label was taking shape as he appeared on a number of Jan Garbarek albums. The drummer's own ECM leader debut, Neighbourhood (2005), was well received and the first of a ...
read moreManu Katche: Unstatic
by Dan McClenaghan
French drummer Manu Katche always seemed something of an odd man at ECM Records on his four solo discs--warm, groove-centric, gregarious sets competing with the Nordic cool of Tord Gustavsen, or the thoughtful melancholy of trumpeter Tomas Stanko and pianist Marcin Wasilewski. And--like few artists in the ECM stable--he crossed successfully into the rock world via work with Peter Gabriel, Sting, Robbie Robertson and many more. So it's not a surprise to find him on Unstatic (Anteprima Productions) ...
read moreManu Katche: Touchstone for Manu
by John Kelman
With only four records released as a leader on ECM, it may seem a little early to release a best of" disc for drummer Manu Katché. But having since moved on to fellow German label ACT for Live in Concert, while Touchstone for Manu is only being released in North America in the summer of 2015, it may also seem a bit odd that this compilation--culled from 2005's Neighbourhood, 2007's Playground, 2010's Third Round and 2012's simply titled Manu Katché--was ...
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