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A Brief Guide To Ukrainian Jazz: Part 4
by Ian Patterson
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 The fourth installment of A Brief Guide To Ukrainian Jazz--a series developed with the cooperation of the Ukrainian Institute--introduces four more highly talented jazz artists/groups from Ukraine. The vast range of personal musical identities attests to the strength, depth and originality of contemporary Ukranian jazz. Dima Bondarev Classically trained from an early age, trumpeter Dima Bondarev was a jazz convert by his late teens. By ...
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 ReadingRoby Glod, Roberta Piket, Mark Tokar, Klaus Kugel: Op Der Schmelz Live
by Neri Pollastri
Un quartetto internazionale, ripreso dal vivo in un centro culturale lussemburghese, è protagonista di questo ottimo CD sul confine tra il jazz moderno e l'improvvisazione più radicale. Alla guida il francese residente in Lussemburgo Roby Glod, al suo fianco la newyorchese Roberta Piket, l'ucraino Mark Tokar e il tedesco Klaus Kugel, tutti musicisti che hanno lavorato spesso tra loro, maturando una forte intesa, e che--con la sola eccezione di Tokar--sono autori delle composizioni in scaletta. Queste ultime, ...
Continue ReadingOp Der Schmelz Live
by Dave Wayne
This album is a winner from the git-go. Brooklyn-based pianist Roberta Piket summons the spirits with a gentle, but emotionally direct solo piano rumination. Harmonically rich, with a probing depth that brings Paul Bley and Steve Kuhn to mind, Piket's invocation is just the first in series of golden moments on Op der Schmelz Live. A co-operative quartet comprised of Piket, veteran German drummer Klaus Kugel, the energetic Ukranian bassist Mark Tokar, and the Luxembourg-based French saxophonist Roby Glod, their ...
Continue ReadingRoby Glod / Roberta Piket / Mark Tokar / Klaus Kugel: Op Der Schmelz Live
by Eyal Hareuveni
This pan-European-American collective quartet, named after the Op Der Schmelz venue in Luxemburg (where this album was recorded), focuses in transforming intuitively detailed sonic moments into balanced movements, full of surprises and risk- taking. The quartet is comprised of four experienced improvisers--Luxemburg-based saxophonist Roby Glod, New Yorker pianist Roberta Piket, Ukrainian bassist Mark Tokar and Köln-based drummer Klaus Kugel- -who share emphatic interplay, a discursive approach and natural intimacy. All the pieces begin in a conventional manner ...
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