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Max Andrzejewski's Hütte: Hütte & Guests Play the Music of Robert Wyatt
by Jerome Wilson
Robert Wyatt is a unique figure in modern music. He came out of Canterbury, England's music scene in the 60s, gaining his first notoriety as drummer and singer with the jazz-inclined rock band, The Soft Machine. In the 70's he briefly led a more experimental jazz-rock outfit, Matching Mole, and then moved on to a solo career before falling out of a window in 1973, an accident which has left him confined to a wheelchair ever since. His drumming days ...
read morePeuker8: Radiance
by Jerome Wilson
Peuker8, led by guitarist Paul Peuker, is an ensemble which combines the instrumentation of a small jazz group with a string quartet. This makes for a varied sound palette which takes in jazz, rock and classical concepts. The music on this CD starts as a pleasant, light mixture of guitar and strings on “Radiance I," then immediately becomes more complex on “Radiance II" as guitar, piano and drums combine on an angular progressive rock riff further toughened by ...
read morePhilipp Gropper's Philm: Consequences
by Jerome Wilson
According to the press release for this CD, saxophonist and bandleader Philipp Gropper's concerns in this music are the place of the individual in society and the responsibilities Western societies bear in their dealings with the rest of the world. It's not easy to discern all that from listening to the disc but what you can easily hear is a grinding amalgam of free jazz, electronics and hip hop that touches on the worlds of Sun Ra, Peter Brotzmann, Flying ...
read moreMads la Cour Quartet: Hule
by Mark Corroto
Danish cornetist (who doubles on flugelhorn) Mads la Cour maintains a fluid conception of his band Almugi. Almugi has been large, as in his eight piece Almugi Large Ensemble (WhyPlayJazz, 2015) and small as in Duo (WhyPlayJazz, 2015) with drummer Anders Mogensen. With Hule, he settles on a quartet line-up featuring saxophonist/clarinetist Lars Greve (August Rosenbaum, Sven-Åke Johansson), bassist Mariusz Praśniewski, and drummer Kasper Tom Christiansen (Quartz, Fusk). His compositions and performance may remind you of American trumpeter ...
read morePeuker8: Influx
by Friedrich Kunzmann
The attempt at blending western classical music with jazz surely is no new concept; at the same time the possibilities and various approaches are far from exhausted and in desperate need of attention. German Guitarist Paul Peuker has been exploring different jazz realms with various formations for many years now and eventually founded the Peuker8 octet in 2011, leading to their debut recording Resound in 2014. 2018 sees said Octet releasing their sophomore effort, Influx, on which Peuker furthermore expands ...
read moreSøren Gemmer: The Lark
by Phil Barnes
Danish pianist Søren Gemmer returns with an augmented line up for this his second album and follow up to the aptly named At First from 2013. Key addition is trumpet and flugelhorn player Mads La Cour, who appears on 4 compositions and two of the group improvisations, and is particularly effective on the title track “The Lark" where he adds a simply beautiful, luminous, solo. It's a wonderful track that builds gradually, Gemmer's piano solo in particular setting things up ...
read moreMads la Cour's Almugi: Quartet
by Eyal Hareuveni
Almugi is an ancient Scandinavian word that describes free men of the Kingdom who are gifted with exceptional goodness. It is also the name of an ongoing musical project of Danish cornet and trumpet player Mads la Cour, member of the Danish Radio Big Band. The first recording of this project featured la Cour in a duet with drummer Anders Mogensen and the second with a large ensemble. The Quartet is comprised with Danish musicians--clarinetist Lars Greve, double bassist Andreas ...
read moreFUSK: Super Kasper
by Eyal Hareuveni
How does a band introduce freedom to its music? Does the band play free jazz or, to paraphrase saxophonist Joe Lovano, does it play its jazz free? Danish Drummer and leader of the Danish-German quartet FUSK, Kasper Tom Christiansen's, answer to this question is simple: “Who cares?" FUSK defines its own freedom, between contrapuntal springboard melodies, sometimes bordering on serial techniques, and catchy themes that employ hard-swinging rhythms, joint improvisations and expressive deconstruction of patterns, all performed with passionate playfulness ...
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