Habibi (Erdmann) [3:22]
Görlitzer Park (Daerr) [1:57]
Reveal Your Identity (Erdmann) [2:09]
Alabama Song (Weill) [3:35)
Playajazzchord (Daerr) [3:25]
Maurice Wilson’s Ever Ever Wrest [Potratz)
[8:22]
I Love Lörts (Erdmann) [5:05]
Bambus (Potratz) [5:03]
Tag (Potratz) [2:28]
Blume in Asphalt (Daerr) [6:33]
Psychobraut (Graupe) [5:48]
Berlion (Ideal) [4:29)
Carsten Daerr (piano, melodica)
Daniel Erdmann (saxophones)
Ritsche Koch (trumpet)
Ronny Graupe (guitar)
Oliver Potratz (bass)
Sebastian Merk (drums)
Recorded 11-13 April and 3 July, 2006, Traumton
Studio, Berlin.
This is a sparky sextet of
young German musicians, all working on the
jazz scene in Berlin. The particular combination
heard here is a newish one. Daerr and Erdmann
are slighly better established figures than
their colleagues. Pianist Daerr was born in
1975; classically trained he studied jazz
piano from 1996 and has worked with many significant
German musicians. Sax player Erdmann, born
in 1973, has played widely in Europe and North
America, working with, amongst others, Aki
Takase, Linda Sharrock and Herb Robertson.
Here the two of them lead a sextet completed
by four slightly younger musicians. The music
to be heard here is an adroitly eclectic mixture
of available idioms. There are plenty of nods
to the mainstream/modern tradition, plenty
that swings in familiar fashion. There are
passages of what I take to be free improvisation
and there are some tightly written ensembles.
There are moments that sound almost Middle
Eastern (e.g. on ‘Habibi’); there are passages
which are characterised by some very contemporary
urban rhythms; there are tenor sax passages
deeply imbued with the traditions of rhythm
and blues and there is some breathy ballad
playing.
Four members of the band
contribute compositions – as does Kurt Weill.
The average track length is, by modern standards,
on the short side and this is perhaps an area
of weakness. More than once one longs for
soloists to stretch out and offer substantial
readings of the material. There is an
attraction in the precise, compressed music
mostly to be heard here, but I finally found
it a little frustrating.
Of the musicianship of the
band there is not the slightest doubt. They
handle changes of idiom and mood with consummate
ease; such brief solos as they take are interesting
and inventive; the rhythm section work of
Oliver Potratz and Sebastian Merk is compelling
and assured.
Enjoyable, incisive music,
often rhythmically complex and full of musical
sophistication, a good taster of musicians
of whom it would be good to hear more of,
such is their energy and technical ease. The
present CD is stimulating rather than wholly
satisfying. But I have the feeling that this
is really something of an hors d’œuvre
for the full musical meal that these musicians
will one day produce.
Glyn Pursglove
CD Reviews
ACT 9656-2 [52:15]
