Jazz Articles about Achim Kaufmann

Frank Gratkowski, Achim Kaufmann, Wilbert de Joode, Tony Buck: Flatbosc & Cautery

by John Sharpe
April 11, 2021

Adding a new member to a long-established group sometimes reinforces the chemistry, at other times it transforms. With the threesome of reedman Frank Gratkowski, pianist Achim Kaufmann and bassist Wilbert de Joode, a unit since 2002, the co-option of Necks drummer Tony Buck propels the outfit more explicitly towards the high-energy end of the free spectrum, compared with previous outings such as palaë (Leo, 2007) and oblengths (Leo, 2016). Recorded in concert in Koln, in May 2018, ...

Christian Lillingers Grund: Second Reason

by AAJ Italy Staff
August 20, 2013

Quattro anni fa l'etichetta Clean Feed pubblicava First Reason, lavoro d'esordio del batterista Christian Lillinger. Il musicista e compositore berlinese presentava, in quell'occasione, un progetto di commistione tra improvvisazione libera e composizione denominato Grund, che ora ritorna, sempre su etichetta Clean Feed, con un disco che, almeno nel titolo, Second Reason, sceglie di mantenere una certa continuità. Forse solo nel titolo, perché nel frattempo sono intervenuti allargamenti e cambi di line up: la formazione è stata infatti estesa a sette ...

Achim Kaufmann - Robert Landfermann - Christian Lillinger: Grunen

by AAJ Italy Staff
March 1, 2011

Non avevano mai suonato insieme, prima di questo concerto di Colonia, registrato senza una prova, senza un canovaccio, senza un segno di matita su un foglio di carta che potesse fungere da minimo riferimento. E non si direbbe proprio ascoltando Grunen! Perché il pianista Achim Kaufmann (esperienze con Michael Moore, John Hollenbeck, Jim Black, Mark Dresser, Han Bennink, Chris Speed) il contrabbassista Robert Landfermann (già con Joachim Kühn, Simon Nabatov, Urs Leimgruber, Tobias Delius, Rudi Mahall) e il batterista Lilian ...

Kaufmann / Moore / Van der Schyff: Kamosc

by Jerry D'Souza
October 31, 2006

Kamosc is the first recording by Achim Kaufmann, Michael Moore and Dylan van der Schyff, three improvisers who are known to let their imaginations rove in their music. However, the name of the band is a more formal invention: they've taken the first two letters of their last names and strung them together.

This music was recorded during the trio's 2005 fall tour of Canada and the US. It goes into many spheres, but the basic compositional motif ...

Kaufmann / Moore / Van Der Schyff: Kamosc

by Nic Jones
June 29, 2006

This is what happens when three musicians simultaneously come to terms with both their musical identities as individuals and a programme of composed music that is open to all sorts of individual (improvised) expression.

This trio embodies a tight but loose ideal on Kamosc which is conducive to effective music-making, and from the listener's point of view, its approach is nothing but positive. Listening to the likes of “Skimble-Scamble," one of two tracks on which trombonist Walter Wierbos puts in ...

Achim Kaufmann: Knives

by David Adler
October 24, 2005

Achim Kaufmann's first solo piano disc is a study in atonal expressionism and sonic adventurism, draped in dark mysteries. Recorded mainly at the Bimhuis in the pianist's home city of Amsterdam, Knives consists of eighteen fairly short pieces that showcase Kaufmann's technical excellence, his aptitude for instant orchestration, his imaginative use of “mixed techniques" (ie. prepared piano), and his firm yet idiosyncratic grasp of jazz piano tradition.

One cannot but admire the discipline of his left-hand bass lines ...

Achim Kaufmann: Knives

by Christian Carey
January 23, 2005

Amsterdam-based pianist Achim Kaufmann combines the fluidity of modern jazz with the extended techniques of avant-garde concert music on his latest solo album, Knives. Many of the works feature Kaufmann playing inside the piano. Besides plucking strings, he attacks the instrument's interior with a number of devices: rulers, a small hand sander, a piano tuner's wedge, and a vibraphone mallet. As can be imagined, this elicits a host of tone colors and textures, ranging from percussive to sustained, at points ...