Silke Eberhard Trio with Jan Roder and Kay Lübke: Being-A-Ning

It is rare to describe an audio recording as brave, but that is precisely what the latest release by the Silke Eberhard Trio is—bold, fearless, and unflinchingly original. Being-A-Ning, the group's fifth album, borrows its title from Thelonious Monk's "Rhythm-A-Ning," nodding to the jazz giant while continuing the trio's thematic naming convention. Previous albums—Being (2008) and What A Beauty Being (2011) on Jazzwerkstatt, followed by The Being Inn (2017) and Being The Up And Down (2021) on Intakt—have all explored the elusive nature of 'being' through fearless improvisation and sharp compositional ideas.

Eberhard, an alto saxophonist known for her expressive tone and adventurous spirit, pens nine of the album's ten compositions. Her writing is audacious—intellectually rigorous yet emotionally resonant. She has long drawn inspiration from bold innovators, including Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman, whose influence can be felt in the trio's spontaneous energy and structural elasticity. More contemporarily, her approach aligns with that of Steve Lehman and Steve Coleman—both alto players who use complex rhythmic systems and forward-looking frameworks without losing the human pulse of the music.

Take "What's In Your Bag," which unfolds like an advanced mathematical proof—dense, calculated, but deeply satisfying. "New Dance" builds on that energy with funky propulsion, while "Sao" finds drummer Kay Lübke leading with insistent pulse, bells and textures that push Eberhard and bassist Jan Roder to the edges of their sonic vocabularies. Roder and Lübke are more than accompanists—they are co-conspirators, meeting Eberhard's compositional challenges with grit and precision.

Even the moments that threaten to settle—like the balladic "Golden Fish"—are filled with surprise. The trio employs start-stop phrasing and subtle deconstructions that destabilize the expected arc of a jazz ballad. The title track is a sly curveball, channeling not Monk but Charles Mingus's cool alto tone and the melodic ease of Dave Brubeck's quartet, all filtered through the trio's angular sensibility and rhythmic dexterity.

Being-A-Ning is a daring statement from a trio that thrives on risk, proving that adventurous jazz can still sound fresh, grounded, and fiercely alive. It's not just brave—it is essential listening.