WILLISAU CONCERT

SCHWEIZERSOMMER

DYNERS CLUB

CHOICE-CHASE

Since the release of last year's to Fly to Steal (their debut on Intakt), the members of the Sylvie Courvoisier - Mark Feldman Quartet forged an even deeper chemistry on the bandstand through a series of European tours. The results of that heightened sensitivity now manifest on this superb second album showcasing an uncanny group-think among the four outstanding musicians. The flexibility and expressive range that violinist Feldman, pianist Courvoisier, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerry Hemingway achieve together on Hotel Du Nord shows how much the quartet has grown in just over a year.

Aruan Ortiz has long dreamt of making an album that would evoke "a cascade of rhythms going over me, almost dragging me to fall." This feeling of being overtaken by rhythm is one he knows well, having spent his first 23 years in Cuba. Born in 1973, Ortiz grew up Santiago de Cuba - the cradle of Afro-Cuban music and a veritable "vortex of rhythm". Ortiz captures the symphony of everyday life in Oriente on his arresting new album, Inside Rhythmic Falls. "I think of myself as a storyteller," Ortiz says, "and each of the album's ten tracks tells a story about Oriente province." For this project Ortiz has chosen Cuban percussionist Mauricio Herrera and one of the best drummers of today's jazz to his side. Andrew Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a Haitian family. "Rhythm is life... The space of time danced through," and inside rhythmic falls everyone is possessed by the dance, both leading and following. The New York jazz critic Adam Schatz writes in the Liner notes: "When music is this glorious, it has the power not just to conjure spirits but to inspire belief and help us experience the marvelous. Or, as Carpentier also put it, the marvelous real."

PORTRAIT

MY ELLINGTON

After releasing five duo CDs on Intakt Records with Silke Eberhard, Lauren Newton, Rudi Mahall, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Louis Sclavis, Aki Takase now presents a breathtaking and entertaining recording with Han Bennink - two personalities familiar with all traditions of jazz who love to go on an expedition. Aki Takase offers such wondrous compositions as the title song 'Two for Two,' an homage to Han Bennink called 'Ohana Han,' 'My Tokyo' or 'Rolled Up.' the duo also reveals it's great playfulness while playing standards by Thelonious Monk and Eric Dolphy. Han Bennink is swinging in best New Orleans tradition while Aki Takase shows more and more of her poetic and melodic side.

DOUBLE TROUBLE

VISITING TEXTURE

LES DIABOLIQUES

On Tom Rainey's second CD on Intakt Records, he surprises listeners with standards from Brubeck, Monk and Ellington. For this recording he chose some of the finest players New York has to offer. 'The players are pretty scrupulous... melodic variation is the heart of their method - they acknowledge the changes, but are very much playing the tune not just the frame. Think of the collective improvisations as multiple obbligatos... ' - Kevin Whitehead, from the Liner Notes.

BLACK LOTUS

Groove is the key concept for this album; a kind of physical kinetic energy that fuels minds and body. Michael Jaeger's playing takes it's origins from the spirit of black ballads.