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Jazzdor Strasbourg- Berlin-Dresden
(Kulturbrauerei, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. 9 June 2023. Fourth and remaining evening. Report by Sebastian Scotney)
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The fourth and remaining evening in of the Berlin programme of Jazzdor Strasbourg-Berlin-Dresden 2023 reached precisely the proper of energetic conclusion with Daniel Erdmann‘s new sextet “Thérapie de couple”.
This sextet gave its premiere efficiency in Rheims in April after which appeared at jazzahead! in Bremen (that live performance is on YouTube, hyperlink beneath). Erdmann was initially commissioned to place collectively this group and to put in writing the work for it by jazzahead!.
The couple within the title is Germany-France. As Erdmann has written . “We’re speaking, in fact, the engine of Europe, which sometimes will get right into a disaster and is subsequently all the time in want of remedy.” The group consists of three gamers from France: violinist Théo Ceccaldi, clarinettist/ bass clarinettist Hélène Duret, and cellist Vincent Courtois , plus three Germans bassist Robert Lucaciu, drummer Eva Klesse, and Erdmann himself.
There’s fantastic selection right here, with the likelihood to get a giant orchestral sound from the entire group, and likewise to provide every of those gamers – soloists all- the chance to rise to the event and dazzle. My favorite episode was when the string gamers got a totally mad, wild second to work as an ensemble, to go in heavy. The outcomes I can solely describe as one thing like Bartok on acid. All three are charismatic solo gamers who venture as if their lives rely upon it, and bassist Robert Lucaciu is unquestionably as a lot a cellist as he’s a bassist.
Eva Klesse provides us her distinctive mixture of hyperactivity and full management. If Hélène Duret can carry out the function impeccably of a demure and collaborative ensemble participant, forming a reed part alongside Erdmann, when she takes a stroll on the wild aspect – as she did in “Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust,” (the title an mockingly tinged quote from Goethe’s “Faust”) you do not need to overlook it.
When Erdmann first wrote about how this group was shaped, he acknowledged the assist and encouragement that he has been given by Philippe Ochem over twenty years to construct Franco-German tasks. And when one thinks of how Jazzdor Berlin has gone to this point past the stage of an “attention-grabbing experiment” to turning into an anticipated a part of the scene – and has had what may seem unimaginable longevity over seventeen years – it’s exactly the standard of labor from an artist like Erdmann, and a venture like “Thérapie de couple” specifically, which demonstrates the incontrovertible worth of this competition. If it helps British readers, one may maybe take into account Jazzdor as a jazz variant on that foolish Bob Monkhouse quote: “All of them laughed once I mentioned I wished to be a comic. Effectively, they’re not laughing now.”
The development and the contrasts within the early a part of the night had been, primarily a intelligent piece of programming:
First we had “chamber music”, because the programme known as it from Aki Takase, Louis Sclavis and Vincent Courtois. To this point so critical? Up to some extent. There was plenty of playfulness. The pianist stamps her foot. So can the others. A cellist can do improbably gradual slides. Excuse me, so can a clarinettist. And as soon as Takase had lobbed just a few golf balls (actually) into the piano case, the questions begin to emerge as to how critical or how ironic the entire thing is.
One pleasure of seeing Aki Takase carry out is that she has an enormous compendium of piano moods – all the things from Scottish reels to romantic drawn-out melodies a la Rachmaninov – and also you by no means know what’s subsequent However she additionally has a method of leaving the viewers doubtful whether or not, when she calls one in all her stage companions “Mein Liebling”, she is being honest or ironic. The capturing of various moods can also be an indicator of Louis Sclavis. He has an enormous catalogue of prolonged methods for clarinet and bass clarinet (growls, multiphonics, round respiratory and slides). And with Vincent Courtois, to combine metaphors, the heart-on-sleeve melody is in the absolute best arms.
The act within the center was a intelligent distinction. With humour and vitality as the primary and third components, the seriousness, the spirituality, the deep groove of Naissam Jalal had been good. And she or he additionally is aware of how you can carry an viewers in and get the entire room on her aspect. The French-Syrian flautist/ ney participant/ vocalist has touched the proper spot together with her album “Therapeutic Rituals”. John Fordham cherished it – LINK– and has no hesitation in calling it a 2023 album of the 12 months. She attracted the largest crowd of the week right here in Berlin. And she or he has a really stylish band.
Jazzdor now has two nights at Die Tonne in Bremen.
Sebastian was in Berlin because the visitor of Jazzdor
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