Jazz Articles about Michael Griener

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Satoko Fujii: Second Attempt

by Glenn Astarita
August 31, 2026

Satoko Fujii has spent three decades assembling large ensembles the way other composers assemble scores, treating personnel as raw material shaped alongside melody and structure. Her Berlin orchestra, formed during a 2014 residency, reunites nine years later. Recorded live in Berlin on May 3, 2026, the album closes out a tour Fujii nearly abandoned after a family medical emergency pulled her back to Japan mid-way. It unfolds across five continuous movements, “Part 1" through “Part 5." “Part 1" ...

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Elastic Bricks: Oùat

by Mark Corroto
March 2, 2022

The Berlin-based piano trio Oùat releases their first album with the seemingly paradoxical title Elastic Bricks. If you listen closely, there is nothing incongruent nor oxymoronic about the music. The studio recording from 2021 by pianist Simon Sieger, bassist Joel Grip, and drummer Michael Griener is an all acoustic instrumental affair with a twist. The vinyl edition comes with individual texts, paragraphs from writer Erin Honeycutt accompanying each of the nine compositions. Although no voice is heard, the written word ...

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Aki Takase: Auge

by John Sharpe
February 27, 2021

While it might be Aki Takase's name which grabs the attention thanks to her illustrious track record, the trio on Auge represents a true co-operative, as the Berlin-based Japanese pianist joins forces with Swiss bassist Christian Weber and German drummer Michael Griener in a perfectly balanced triumvirate. Takase draws on an ouevre which famously encompasses almost the entire history of jazz, stretching from projects reimagining Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, and Eric Dolphy all the way to freeform ...

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Aki Takase / Christian Weber / Michael Griener: Auge

by Dan McClenaghan
January 23, 2021

Pianist Aki Takase had a hand in the creation of one of 2020's top jazz CDs: Slow Pieces For Aki (Intakt Records), by her husband and fellow pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. She suggested a set less involved in the speed, volume and intensity that was Schlippenvach's customary avant-garde approach. He answered with a twenty-one tune recording of ever-shifting beauty and down tempo restraint. Takase--with partners Christian Weber, on bass, and Michael Griener playing drums--opens 2021 with an answer ...

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Squakk: Willisau & Berlin

by John Sharpe
November 16, 2015

Four Germans combine for a set that recalls some of the classic Anthony Braxton quartet sides with George Lewis or Ray Anderson from the 1970s. Common ground abounds in their free-bop structures and the delightful interplay as between reeds and trombone as they slip in and out of both tunes and time. There are also other precedents closer to home such as reedman Frank Gratkowski's combo with trombonist Wolter Wierbos. But whatever the inspiration, a palpable sense of fun allied ...

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Uwe Oberg / Christof Thewes / Michael Griener: Lacy Pool

by Glenn Astarita
December 19, 2009

Three well-versed European progressive-jazz denizens impart a rather majestic blend of song-form and improvisation when covering the late, great soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's discography. Approaching this album from a mindset that eliminates comparisons to Lacy's original performances lent to a more appropriate route for the listening experience.

Without a saxophonist and bassist, the piano-trombone-drums format offers a penetrating and sometimes deviating musical climate, where more traditional propensities might prove the opposite. The musicians form the right blend here. ...

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Uwe Oberg / Christof Thewes / Michael Griener: Lacy Pool

by Mark Corroto
December 7, 2009

Lacy Pool, by pianist Uwe Oberg, drummer Michael Griener, and trombonist Christof Thewes, demonstrates the “circles within a circle" puzzle that mathematicians have riddled over for centuries. The piano covers of soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's compositions were accomplished without the use of a saxophone, much like Lacy's interpretations of Thelonious Monk were made without a piano. Oberg's task of fitting a certain music (that of Lacy) within the circle of this trio, conjures multiple musical circles of jazz history.