How do you kill a mozzarella and why give that name to a CD? Dirk Balthaus, the Braskiri quartet pianist has the answer. “I’ve had a musical connection for over 20 years with Bert Lochs, who plays trumpet and flugelhorn and has written the tunes on this recording. We’ve made a lot of albums together. It was time to make a new one. Bert is always busy writing tunes. He sets the scenes in his life to music. On tour in Italy he was much impressed by the mozzarella he ate in Naples. He thought it funny to write a tune about how you open a package of mozzarella. You take your knife and you put it in the package, in the plastic, and the water spills out. He thought somehow - that’s killing the mozzarella!”
Killing the Mozzarella, sharp, edgy and humorous, is just one track on the CD of the same name. Capriccioso, comes from the same week spent in the south of Italy. Full of subtle but unexpected harmony it could be a reflection of Naples street life, “…where everything can happen”. Brave Mr Blackbird, lyrical, warm and rather beautiful, describes a bird in Bert Loch’s garden, fed by his children, that returns every year, despite its nest regularly being destroyed by other birds or the cat.
Koempel, pulsating and powerful, though also lyrical, is about mineworkers in the Ruhrgebiet . Both Bert Lochs and Dirk Balthaus come from mining areas. Bert wrote the piece for his father’s father, a real “Koempel”*, a music lover and very gently man. Bert hopes that he looks down from heaven and smiles when they play the piece. Not the Man with the Horn is a homage to Avishai Cohen the bass player, though his namesake Avishai Cohen the trumpeter is also highly respected by members of Braskiri.
Bert Lochs, trumpet, flugelhorn
Steffen Granly, tuba
Dirk Balthaus, grand piano, fender rhodes
Wim Kegel, drums
1. Killing the Mozzarella
2. Brave Mr. Blackbird
3. Koempel
4. Capriccioso
5. Not the Man with the Horn
6. Tale-o-mat
7. Uncloud
8. Elegy
9. Valse du vent
VÍCTOR
