Ulrich Gumpert and Gunter 'Baby' Sommer's second duo-release on Intakt Records spans a wide arch of blues, boogie-woogie, hard bop, arrangements of German folk songs and free jazz. Sommer's drum fills clearly show why he got his nickname from Louis Armstrong's drummer Baby Dodd's; while a piece like 'Preubbische Elegie' demonstrates what a great composer Gumpert is. Oscar Peterson, Red Garland, Hampton Hawes and Roland Hanna are all on the recording.

ROULETTE OF THE CRADLE

British pianist and composer Alexander Hawkins is a creative epicenter of the London jazz scene and is regarded as one of the most innovative musicians with a surprising radius of action. His trio with Neil Charles and Stephen Davis was formed in 2012 and masterfully celebrates the connection of freedom and structure, composition and improvisation. Carnival Celestial is a fantastic work of musical presence and impressively proves what is possible with piano, bass and drums - one of the more convention-laden formats in jazz practice. "Hawkins, Charles, and Davis clearly have moved the piano trio forward and stretched it's conceptual horizons with Carnival Celestial, and in doing so, they have contributed to it's ongoing vitality," writes Bill Shoemaker in the liner notes.

For the third installment of Ingrid Laubrock's duo series on Intakt (following Kasumi with Aki Takase and Blood Moon with Kris Davis) Ingrid Laubrock and Andy Milne develop their own sounds in a common sound world. Fragile is characterized by the great empathy that unites these two artists. The music, which is both stirring and soothing, confident and intuitive, is deeply expressive and inventive. "Laubrock's growth as an original writer and improviser has been marked in the last two decades, during which time she has led several bands, notably Sleepthief and Anti-House, and proved adept at creating for large ensembles and small groups that revealed her own individuality, mostly within avant-garde traditions. As for Milne he has more than fulfilled the promise he showed as a member of Steve Coleman's Metrics in the early '90s. The Laubrock- Milne duo has a balance between the drive and momentum of large ensembles and the stillness and engagement with silence and space of smaller groups. Making music that releases a form of energy, something that pulses with life, while also drawing down into intimacy, suggesting feelings of tenderness or uncertainty, is no mean feat", writes Kevin Le Gendre in the liner notes.

OUTSIDE THIS AREA

Under the band title 'Where's Africa', Omri Ziegele has long played with Ir�ne Schweizer. Now he presents That Hat, his second album in the trio formation with keyboardist Yves Theiler and drummer Dario Sisera. The three are interested in an Africa seen through the eyepiece of Central European musicians who know everything from jazz to rock. "There are certain jazz recordings that have great appeal even for people who don't consider themselves jazz aficionados: Memphis Underground by Herbie Mann, African Marketplace by Abdullah Ibrahim, Swiss Movement by Les McCann and Eddie Harris, Carla Bley's Dinner Music. That Hat, the new album by Omri Ziegele's trio Where's Africa, may well find a place in this tradition", writes Manfred Papst in the liner notes.

With Quiet Passion, pianist Yuko Fujiyama finally releases another album as a leader after a long break from publishing. For this eagerly awaited addition to her sparse discography, Yuko invites the great innovators Graham Haynes on cornet and Ikue Mori on electronics. The album is a mix of piano solos, duets and extraordinarily imaginative densely woven miniatures. Quiet Passion suggests a dual intention in both the title and the music - a cross-pollination of emotions that the three musicians impressively create. Regarding the instrumentation, Yuko says: "Good musicians listening to one another. I like totally free, because - I'm free, and anything I hear at that moment is allowed." Laurence Donohue-Greene writes in the liner notes: "It may have taken 17 years of woodshedding - in essence shedding off layers and decades of influences ranging from Cecil Taylor and Marilyn Crispell to Beethoven and Japanese composer- Takemitsu - but she has gotten to the core of a very personal style, as if discovering within herself a finely cut diamond." A defining characteristic of Quiet Passion is keeping the listener in suspense, with each piece developing a magical appeal.

Hidden Heartache is 100 minutes of piano music from the last 100 years in the context of social inequality and unequal power relations. The Swiss pianist Simone Keller is both courageous and fearless with an eye for the essentials and for the big issues of the day. The album is a self portrait and an homage, with Keller asking herself which piano music of the last 100 years deserves greater attention. � It soon becomes obvious that there are thousands of hours of unheard, unplayed works by underrepresented composers. The selection I ultimately made is very personal, and closely connected to my own pianistic activities. But it was also very important to me that Hidden Heartache should not merely gather together historical figures, but also present compositions of today that reveal varied perspectives on societal and power inequalities while at the same time paying homage to the music of Julius Eastman and Julia Amanda Perry. These new works by the Swiss composers Jessie Cox and Cristina Janett, and the Americans Julie Herndon and Jessie Marino, were created in direct collaboration with me �, writes Simone Keller.

The quintet of Zurich tenor saxophonist Christoph Irniger presents it's fifth album on Intakt Records on the occasion of the band's 10th anniversary. Over the years, the band has created a distinct ensemble identity and has matured into one of the most exciting ensembles of young European jazz. As a well-rehearsed unit, the band on Ghost Cat fulfills all the expectations that are nowadays placed on modern and innovative jazz based on an internal band democracy. "There is both clarity and maturity in the improvisational process plus a greater awareness of what each other is doing - at both an interpersonal level and how everyone fits into the overall architecture of the performance. Each player clearly understands the material at hand and constructs their improvisation around the mood of the composition and the collective endeavour, rather than launching out on their own personal muse", writes Stuart Nicholson in the liner notes.

The young jazz pianist Marie Kru�ttli hails from the French-speaking part of Switzerland and has gained an outstanding international reputation in recent years with her trio and solo work. Now she presents Transparence, her first solo piano album. After a classical education, she became more and more interested in other forms of musical expression, particularly jazz, in which she discovered a music which allows a different physicality and intuition. Kru�ttli's music follows an intuitive approach, with a broad harmonic vocabulary and rhythmic finesse. In the liner notes, Jordannah Elizabeth calls Kru�ttli "a young visionary and a premiere European jazz pianist whose touching, penetrating compositions make waves throughout the jazz community and beyond."

Born in 1990, pianist Elias Stemeseder has become a creative force of contemporary jazz in recent years. Based primarily in New York since 2015, the Austrian-born pianist has made a name for himself in a wide variety of advanced improvisational contexts. Up to now, Stemeseder has been content to work as a sideman, though all those familiar with his work in the Jim Black Trio will know that he is a musician of remark - able skill, flair and imagination. His diverse playing ranges from songoriented to contemporary classical pieces to electronic music. His spirit of discovery leads him into different musical realms and thanks to his great empathy for the respective musical idiom, his piano playing always captivates with authenticity. Deeply rooted in the tradition of jazz and equipped with a fearless passion of experimentation, he distinguishes himself on this solo album as a profound pianist with a sovereign will to create. He is an inventive improviser whose playing sparkles with complexity and conceptual verve. On Piano Solo, Stemeseder skillfully plays with structures and moods and presents an album that is laden with surprises and bursting with ideas.

The sound art of the Swiss trio Quiet Tree can be located in a musical square, in which programming, producing and musical virtuosity come together. With a keen sense for atmospheric moods, the music drifts through multi-faceted soundscapes. Euphorbia grooves, irritates and breathes the vastness and laconic tranquility of a Nordic landscape surrounded by an aura of melancholy. "Improvisation, electronic avant garde and jazzrock psychedelia create an intense fusion. Simon Spiess on tenor saxofone, Marc M�an on grand piano and synthesizer and Jonas Ruther on drums, as a collective they all share the ability to subordinate their playing to a musical storytelling. Their sound has cinematic qualities", writes Luise Wolf in the Liner Notes. Furthermore the album's digital production by Dan Nicholls carries the weight of a fourth instrument.

Dreamlike experiences. Sparks fly and a musical interaction works without arrangement or plan. An organic musical process develops out of intuition alone. The same magic happens every time. When Brandon Lopez, a New Yorker with Puerto Rican roots, joined the duo of saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer Tom Rainey, this wasn't simply about adding a plus one to the Laubrock - Rainey duo. Thanks to the young bassist (born 1988), already collaborating with musicians from Dave Liebman via Zeena Parkins to John Zorn, a new dynamic has formed involving all three. In this triangular constellation a different balance is achieved and an altered play of energies. They are clearly on the same wavelength, with a similar sense and understanding of overarching form, inner structure, timing, feeling, energy, density, transparency and volume. "Right from the first note the chemistry between them was right. The interplay between the three worked so effortlessly and naturally it bordered on telepathy. The three want to keep up the momentum and capture the magic moment," writes Christoph Wagner in the liner notes.

Kaja Draksler and Susana Santos Silva are among the most original and articulate voices of European jazz innovation. Their art fuses composition and free improvisation with structures, musical logic and advanced techniques. Both defy stylistic and historical boundaries and have found a highly personal expression in both their compositions and their improvisational playing, which is colourful, intricate and abstract. "The way they lure and steer each other to as yet uncovered territory is testimony to their never-ending search for meaning and (self-)discovery through sound. By letting their guards down, they are creating new contexts, paradoxes and challenges, based on human content and expressive breath. It is exactly this sense of renewal and growth that comes to the fore here," writes Guy Peters in the liner notes.

Always seeking new musical adventures, alto saxophonist Angelika Niescier (after winning the prestigious Albert Mangelsdorff Prize, she was recently awarded the WDR Jazz Prize 2023) is one of the most distinguished voices on the European jazz scene. Continuously, she has established close ties with some of the most significant and distinctive figures of the American jazz scene. Together with renowned cellist Tomeka Reid and acclaimed drummer Savannah Harris, three technically accomplished instrumentalists with sparkling temperament, drive and a joy for experimentation are united to let the complexity and originality of Niescier's compositions shine on Beyond Dragons. This is a trio that explores every possible aspect of interplay, at times transparent in chamber music, at other times dense and boisterous, and always with captivating intensity.