Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » The Max Nagl Ensemble: Live at Porgy & Bess Vienna

3

The Max Nagl Ensemble: Live at Porgy & Bess Vienna

By

View read count
Track review of "Ippen Erger"

The Max Nagl Ensemble: Live at Porgy & Bess Vienna
There's no telling what Austrian woodwind artist Max Nagle will pull out of his stockpile of tricks. A premier progressive jazz acolyte and prominent improviser, he's an ideas man who has recorded for many prominent European avant-garde record labels. Here, Nagl's nonet sculptures a program formed on traditional concepts with a nouveau 'tude. But his concentrated focus and uncanny manner of bridging multiple gaps all at once, generates a source of inspiration.

The live program intimates an air of rejuvenation. One of the more notable tracks is "Ippen Erger," a piece designed with complex rhythmic maneuvers that spark a sense of anticipation throughout. From the onset, the musicians coagulate a sense of disorder, then surge onward with dreamlike avant- expressionism amid punchy beats and free form detours. One of the more interesting aspects pertain to Pamelia Kurstin's use of the Theremin, often stylized into a vocal component atop Nagl's torrid sax lines and the strings sections' soaring upper-register ostinatos. However, the main plot is directed towards a mini-historical perspective, where straight-ahead jazz, rock, and the outside strata align with subtlety, grace, brawn and an air of intrigue. His compositional impetus is devised with melodic content, yet he doesn't favor any one particular genre.

Nagl bears a mark of distinction, whether engaging small or large ensemble projects or on releases where he fuses electronics and intersperses numerous musical vernaculars, often yielding a parade of striking frameworks.

Track Listing

Personnel

Max Nagl
saxophone

Pamelia Kurstin: Theremin; Joanna Lewis: violin; Anne Harvey-Nagl: violin; Max Nagle: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and baritone saxophone; Clemens Salesny: clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone; Phillip Yeager: trombone; Clemens Wenger: keyboards; Raphael Preuschi: bass; Herbert Pirker: drums.

Album information

Title: Live at Porgy & Bess Vienna | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: Rude Noises

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.