Perelman / Mahall - Kindred Spirits 2CD SET (LEO RECORDS 2018)

The first in the series of duo recordings by Ivo Perelman with bass clarinet specialists. The Brazilian-born saxophonist meets his match in the German bass clarinet wizard Rudi Mahall. Says Ivo: We are both foreigners, we both grew outside of American jazz. I never met anyone quite like Rudi. He has a refined compositional sense, smart counterpoint, rhythmic displacement, harmonic and melodic development. The recording surpassed my wildest expectations. It is a textbook example of how to approach duo improvising by taking chances and fully listening, while still keeping one's identity. Everything is in there, packaged in a groundbreaking way."

Ivo Perelman, Tenor Saxophone

Rudi Mahall, Bass Clarinet

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Parkwest studios, Brooklyn NY, June 2018

CD 1

1-1 Untitled 7:21

1-2 Untitled 5:56

1-3 Untitled 12:00

1-4 Untitled 12:51

1-5 Untitled 12:22

CD 2

2-1 Untitled 8:49

2-2 Untitled 9:36

2-3 Untitled 2:24

2-4 Untitled 3:36

2-5 Untitled 12:26

2-6 Untitled 5:11

2-7 Untitled 6:23

FUSK - The Jig Is Up (WHY PLAY JAZZ 2018)

FUSK is 100% contemporary jazz, catapulted forward by the creative ingenuity of the band members; these are players who have something to say! The music is intensive, joyous. It grabs you, as it expands out of its musical roots and takes off and into the open air.

Kasper Tom Christiansen is no purist; instead, he tastefully mixes genres, as much at home with the techniques required in contemporary new music as with the improvisational surprises of free jazz.

FUSK takes up a wide field of play, and this adventurous quartet doesn’t like to be fenced in. It all begins with the members of a band that has been in existence for some ten years. “The Jig Is Up” is FUSK’s fourth album. Trumpet (now with a new band member, the amazing Polish musician, Tomasz Dabrowski), bass clarinet/clarinet (Rudi Mahall), bass (Andreas Lang), and drums: It’s a band that reminds you of such breakthrough bands of the early 1960’s as the classic Ornette Coleman Quartet, the New York Art Quartet, or Archie Shepp’s early quartet with trumpeter Bill Dixon. At first listen they sound a bit retro, indicative of the revolutionary fervor of the time. But straightaway you sense there’s something deeper here, something playful, with an understated humor that transports history into the present.

Despite their complexity, the compositions are far from obtrusive. FUSK evinces an amazing lightness in their play – there’s an edge to the tempos and a synergy between the two horns. That may sound like blue light (high speed) driving, like a club in which you’d love to spend the evening, like big city street scenes, like an enchanted past with imprints in the here and now. It is intensive, joyous music with a melodic incisiveness. It grabs you. Expanding out of its musical roots, it takes off into the open air, as it constructs and deconstructs the musical material in the same breath.

This acoustic band has fun with the album’s feel of freewheeling swing. There’s often a tongue-in-cheek attitude to the music’s mercurial, gripping shifts and turns. It’s fresh music that plays around with the sounds we are used to hearing, as the musicians tip their hats to the past while at the same time blasting through traditional styles.

There’s a balance within the turbulence that oscillates between the compositions and the continual leaps of creative furor. Nothing takes a life of its own here, since everything is dedicated to the service of the musical situation. And there’s the band’s whimsical name, FUSK, which could be translated as “messing around”. With the band’s ironic musical allusions and subtle humor, the name fits. Yet, the irony never degenerates into cheap tricks; there is never a lack of creative ideas.

Concerts 2018

Jun 30, 2018 - Svendborg, DK @ Jazzfestival

Oct 28, 2018 - Pohrsdorf, DE @ Saxstall

Nov 01, 2018 - Stuttgart, DE @ Theaterhaus Stuttgart, IG Jazzfestival

Nov 03, 2018 - Lokeren, BE @ Lokerse Jazzklub

Circles  5:07

The Jig Is Up  6:54

Happy New Year  5:47

Blacklisted  3:53

Pennies  6:17

Politics  5:21

I Play Tennis And Blues  4:00

Song for Otto  5:59

Dyrk Dild  4:11

Minervois  7:27

Kasper Tom Christiansen (dr, comp)

Tomasz Dąbrowski (tp)

Andreas Lang (b)

Rudi Mahall (bcl)

Recorded, mixed and mastered October 2017 by Tito Knapp at Tito’s Zentrifuge, Berlin, Germany

All compositions by Kasper Tom Christiansen

Produced by Kasper Tom Christiansen for WhyPlayJazz

Design by Travassos

Photo by Kristoffer Juel

With support from Svendborg Musikråd, DJBFA and Koda’s Cultural Funds

Alexander von Schlippenbach / Globe Unity Orchestra - Globe Unity 50 Years (INTAKT RECORDS April 20, 2018)

The Globe Unity Orchestra is not just an ensemble of enormous historical importance to jazz but one which proves the continuing relevance of its self-imposed task.

The present line-up, encompassing musicians of several generations and nationalities, lives up to the responsibility of producing genuinely new music, rejecting the commonplace and avoiding cliché, each time they play together. As if to contradict those who accuse the Globe Unity Orchestra (and free jazz in general) of predictability, the golden jubilee at the Jazzfest Berlin was characterised by extreme contrast and high drama, both musical and visual. The audience was drawn in and engaged to a degree that became obvious when the end of Evan Parker’s short unaccompanied soprano solo, almost midway through the 45 minutes, gave them a first chance to express their approval with a roar that can be clearly heard on the recording. At that moment, and others, they seemed unmistakeably to be applauding not just individual contributions but the brilliance of the collective endeavour. (from the liner notes by Richard Williams)

Henrik Walsdorff: alto saxophone

Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky: alto saxophone, clarinet, flute

Daniele D’Agaro: tenor saxophone, clarinet

Gerd Dudek: soprano and tenor saxophones, clarinet, flute

Evan Parker: tenor saxophone

Rudi Mahall: bass clarinet

Axel Dörner: trumpet

Manfred Schoof: trumpet, flugelhorn

Jean-Luc Cappozzo: trumpet

Tomasz Stańko: trumpet

Ryan Carniaux: trumpet

Christof Thewes: trombone

Wolter Wierbos: trombone

Gerhard Gschlössl: trombone

Carl Ludwig Hübsch: tuba

Alexander von Schlippenbach: piano

Paul Lovens: drums

Paul Lytton: drums

Globe Unity Orchestra – 50 Years 44:03

Recorded at Jazzfest Berlin 2016 by RBB, November 4, 2016.

Mixed and mastered by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg. Radio producer: Ulf Drechsel.

Sound supervisor: Wolfgang Hoff. Recording engineer: Peter Schladebach. Digital cut and mastering: Uli Hieber.

Cover art and graphic design: Jonas Schoder. Photos: Kazue Yokoi. Liner notes: Richard Williams.

Produced by RBB and Intakt Records, Patrik Landolt. Published by Intakt Records.

Soundsamples of this CD

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JR3 (Olaf Rupp / Rudi Mahall / Jan Roder) - Happy Jazz (RELATIVE PITCH RECORDS 2017)

By Paul Acquaro / freejazzblog.org

Ok, let's not judge this one by its cover. These guys do not exactly look like happy jazzers, but crack the CD open and listen, this is intense music, vivacious, vigorous, and full of lively twists and turns. 

Happy Jazz delves into free improvisation with zeal, electric guitar lines snake around expressive bass work while bass clarinet melodies range from sonorous to squelching. The total sound is replete with possibilities and the trio explores them all. JR3 is named after Jan Roder, the bassist in this Berlin-based trio, along with bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall and guitarist Olaf Rupp. All renowned members of the European experimental music scene, it is exciting to hear their restless music on the adventurous Relative Pitch label.

The title track begins with a gentle melody introduced by Mahall and soon accompanied by crisp atonal sweeps and crunchy tonal clusters from Rupp. In his more brittle moments, the guitar work is slightly reminiscent of Derek Bailey, but Rupp has a textural approach that is all his own. Roder, via elongated bowed notes and rapid pizzicato flights, connects the musicians with aplomb.

The group's close listening and lightning fast reactions are exemplified in the track 'Das Bildnes Der Doris Day'. Beginning with quick burst of activity from Rupp and a sizzling stream of notes from Mahall, the musicians seemingly go off in separate directions, yet always remaining tightly connected, finding ways to hook into each other's musical tangents. Another highlight, especially for the guitar fans, is 'Arm durch, Kopfuber', where Rupp can be heard dropping chord shards and spicy counter-melodies to Mahall's zig-zagging bass clarinet lines. His blustery scampers around the fret board is mesmerizing. Roder's solo, as much as it is a solo and not just the song, scratches, stretches, and slides about while Mahall loops around with bubbly melodic lines and hackle-raising squawks.

Happy Jazz is a really great document of contemporary free improvisation coming out of Berlin. It isn't always an easy album, but it is happy: the joy of playing, experimenting, and creating really shines through.

1) Happy Jazz 08:27

2) Dixie 1980 03:08

3) Happy Dogs 07:53

4) Das Bildnis der Doris Day 11:17

5) Arm durch, kopfüber 15:48

6) Rhinbuch Murmutationen 08:25

7) Das Jan aus einem Stück 15:10

8) Märkische Staubteufel 05:59

Rudi Mahall clarinet, bass clarinet

Olaf Rupp electric guitar, acoustic guitar

Jan Roder double bass

Uwe Oberg / Rudi Mahall / Michel Griener - Lacy Pool__2 (LEO RECORDS 2017)

Lacy Pool is a small group of musicians whom Uwe Oberg picks to unlock Steve Lacy's compositions. Why no bass? Uwe Oberg: "That never was a question. I wanted the band to function unlike a jazz quartet and it should not have a soprano sax. Now Lacy's pieces were mine and ours, and it got easier and easier, everything fell into place. The clarity, the repeating motifs, the collage approach, the deconstruction, the flow. What fun!"

Deadline

Cliches

Trickles

Field (Spring)

Blues for Aida

Ladies

Jazz ab 40

Dreams

Troubles

Uwe Oberg - piano

Rudi Mahall - clarinets

Michael Griener - drums