ITALIAN CIRCUS STORY

HARMOS

CELEBRATE DIVERSITY ZOOM

Following their acclaimed 2018 debut album, the band Punkt. Vrt. Plastik, which brings together Kaja Draksler, Petter Elch and Christian Lillinger, three of the most exciting, profound and versatile musicians on the European jazz scene, presents another stroke of genius. With somit they take their urgent ensemble playing to new heights, creating a highly individual sound aesthetic with unusual instrumentation (Kaja Draksler plays two different upright pianos) and sophisticated post-production, culminating in a deceptive puzzle of acoustic and manipulated sounds. "Punkt. Vrt. Plastik have an amazing sound and a unique vision," writes Alexander Hawkins in the liner notes.

HELLINGTON COUNTRY

SPRING IN BANGKOK

UPROOT

LIVE AT TAKTLOS

RADIO RONDO

VOL A VOILE

KUMUSKA

FIVE VOICES

Pierre Favre's 1970's solo works are important mile-�stones in the history of European jazz. Any discography of innovative recordings should include them, and their reissue is long overdue. Their significance is not simply as reference material of historical interest, but with their effervescent creativity, they remain impressive and relevant listening even today.

MASTER & RAIN

GOWANUS CANAL

Shards and Constellations presents duets with two remarkable musicians Tomeka Reid and Alexander Hawkins. Both have become creative epicenters in the jazz and improvisation scene in recent years with their original, versatile and innovative art. Reid has recorded extensively with many legendary artists from the AACM such as Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell as well as the next generation of AACM artists including Nicole Mitchell, Dee Alexander and Mike Reed. Hawkins is a composer and pianist from the London jazz scene and is regarded in the UK as one of the most innovative musicians of the younger generation with a surprising radius of action. His work attempts to reconcile both his love of free improvisation and his infatuation with composition and structure. Five of the compositions are collectively conceived with intricate textures and interplay. Two of the pieces feature works by two masters from the first generation of the AACM - Muhal Richard Abrams and Leroy Jenkins. "Shards and Constellations is a singular achievement exploring a broad spectrum of musical avenues from the lyrical to the pointillistic, from the angular to the serene. #this adventurous music deserves to be heard," writes Anthony Davis in the liner notes.

DUO PALINDROME 2002 2

BERNE CONCERT / TRIO 3

Piano-Drums Duos are the preferred playing arrangement of pianist Ir�ne Schweizer. Her mastery of duets with important drummers of contemporary jazz are documented on numerous Intakt CDs. Han Bennink, Pierre Favre, Louis Moholo, Gu�nter Baby Sommer, Andrew Cyrille and Joey Baron among them. The Chicago drummer Hamid Drake, born in 1955, and Ir�ne Schweizer, born in 1941, have performed together on numerous occasions both in Europe and Chicago. Together they have appeared on the Intakt CD "Ir�ne Schweizer-Fred Anderson-Hamid Drake". At the 40th anniversary festival "Kontrontationen in Nickelsdorf" (Austria), Schweizer and Drake were the highlight of the event. A celebration of the moment and a declaration of love to South African songs along with their thrilling energy and rhythmic lightness produced a firework of improvisation. A parade of successful interplay. The CD Celebration is released on the occasion of Ir�ne Schweizer's 80th birthday (2. Juni), accompanied by a catalogue of the pianist's works on Intakt Records.

SLEEPTHIEF

NARZISS UND ECHO

After the brilliant finale at the 2019 Willisau Jazz Festival with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and drummer Chad Taylor, Lucerne journalist Pirmin Bossart wrote: "The music sought neither to preach nor impress, instead revealing itself as pure, spirited intensity. 'Yeah! Yeah!' James Brandon cries after the final note of 'Willisee' adding a jubilant 'Wow!'". The duo had just finished a track which Dewey Redman and Ed Blackwell played on the same stage in 1980, a stage where Max Roach & Archie Shepp also wrote jazz history. Lewis and Taylor pay tribute to this legacy and conjure up the spirit of Great Black Music in the very first piece with an homage to John Coltrane. New Yorker James Brandon Lewis has attracted attention in recent years with his album UnRuly Manifesto. The record was listed among the best new releases of 2019 in the USA. The "New York Times" attests him a great musical autonomy: "James Brandon Lewis, a jazz saxophonist in his 30s, raw-toned but measured, doesn't sound steeped in current jazz academy values and isn't really coming from a free-improvising perspective. There's an independence about him." The drummer Chad Taylor comes from Chicago and has played with Fred Anderson, Pharoah Sanders, Marc Ribot, Malachi Favors and Nicole Mitchel. On Intakt Records he plays on the live album with Aruan Ortiz and Brad Jones. Bossart writes: "The two musicians let us hear the great breath of an essential jazz tradition, it's clarity, raw beauty and urgency shining through, even in the melting pot of contemporary jazz debates. The musicians are not stuck in a version of the past. At every second they are part of the musical process, which shapes itself and pulses with their experiences of the here and now. This is about a continuum, occurring yesterday, today and tomorrow. Why else would jazz have retained till today it's transformative power?"

One marker of bassist Michael Formanek's creativity and versatility is the range of distinguished musicians of several generations he's worked with. While still a teenager in the 1970s he toured with drummer Tony Williams and saxophonist Joe Henderson. Starting in the '80s he played long stints with Stan Getz, Fred Hersch and Freddie Hubbard. Formanek is also a composer and leader of various bands. One of his principal recording and international touring vehicles has been his acclaimed quartet with Tim Berne, Craig Taborn and Gerald Cleaver. His occasional groups include the 18-piece all-star Ensemble Kolossus, roping in many New York improvisers he works with. Currently his primary focus is the Michael Formanek Elusion Quartet with Tony Malaby, Kris Davis, and Ches Smith. In putting together the Elusion Quartet, interpreting his music with these specific musicians, Michael Formanek says he sought "a more direct connection to emotions: mine, theirs and the listener's." Hank Shteamer writes in the liner notes: "As one zeroes in on the details of Time Like This, it's clear that this sort of emotional immediacy permeates the album. You hear it in Kris Davis' flowing, balletic solo on "A Fine Mess"; in Tony Malaby's ululating tenor cries on "The Soul Goodbye"; in Ches Smith's raucous grooves on "That Was Then"; or the leader's poised, sinewy lines on "Culture of None." Elusive? Certainly. But as this album proves, under the right conditions, with the right personnel, it's still out there."

SALOMON

The album Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt follows Ingrid Laubrock's landmark orchestral album Contemporary Chaos Practices from 2018. Ingrid Laubrock presents on this double album five compositions in double version. On the first album, the EOS Chamber Orchestra Cologne interprets Laubrock's compositions. The soloists are Cory Smythe (piano), Sam Pluta (electronics), Robert Landfermann (bass), Tom Rainey (drums) and Ingrid Laubrock (saxophone). On a second album a filigree ensemble around the core trio of Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smythe, Sam Pluta and the guests Adam Matlock, Josh Modney and Zeena Parkins play the same five compositions. The two albums of Laubrock's works contrast, diverge and complement each other. Ingrid Laubrock writes: "While the small-group versions were composed first, I did not just re-arrange those compositions for the orchestra but rather re-imagined them. As I wrote the large-scale pieces, I often zoomed-in on a detail in a small-group version to generate a materially different large-group piece." As a whole, the two albums paint fascinating musical panoramas, inspired by the composer's dream worlds, characterized by Laubrock's ability to compose and the individual colors and shades of the soloists.