Chick Corea and the Spanish Heart Band at the Montreux Jazz Festival 2019
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Miguel Zenón and Wolfgang Muthspiel at the Bird’s Eye
Last evening, jazz greats Miguel Zenón (alto sax) and Wolfgang Muthspiel (guitar) played for the first time together. Performing in an intimate duo setting at the Bird’s Eye Jazz Club in Basel they showed a stunned audience what it means to „master that instrument to become an extension of you, ... of your creativity”
Read MoreYuri Storione Quartet featuring Perico Sambeat
An evening of jazz at the Bird’s Eye in Basel with the fabulous Yuri Storione Quartet featuring Perico Sambeat.
Read MoreRymden at the Burghof in Loerrach
Rymden is a new jazz trio comprised of Bugge Wesseltoft on keys, Dan Berglund on bass and Magnus Öström on drums. Names which are very well known in the jazz scene and enough to draw an audience of over 450 people to a stop-over of their inaugural tour. Yet the amazing jazz which came out of Rymden during a wonderful concert at the Burghof in Loerrach is more difficult to describe.
It sounded Scandinavian, but what defines Scandinavian jazz? Well, no easy answer in my opinion, you kind of feel it when you hear it. Is it this combination of lyrical elements which might be influenced by both memories of the past and the vast and dramatic Scandinavian nature? Combined with rhythmic soundscapes which could be inspired by the symphony which nature sometimes conducts through blowing wind and floating water, when all kinds of things start to squeak, rattle and hum?
In any case, what was on the menu was deeply athmospheric, rhythmically extremely interwoven and mindblowing in its virtuosity. High intensity jazz. How did it get there almost out of the blue? While it is a new trio with no internal historical evolution from which to draw from, they of course have huge experience and accomplishments as bandleaders or sidemen from other world-class formations, a shared vision and in the case of Magnus and Dan audible intimacy as former e.s.t. bandmates. Bugge did blend right in, and that is maybe a surprise to those who might compare him to Esbjorn Svensson. The easy thing would be to say that the trio is a continuation of e.s.t. with another piano player. But honestly it did not feel like a continuation of e.g. leukocyte. There were some sounds reminsicent of it, and signature improvisations where you wonder how they were held together. Neither did it sound like a furtherance of Magnus’s highly emotional storytelling on „Thread of Life“ or „Searching for Jupiter“ following the unexpected loss of e.s.t.`s Esbjorn Svensson. And it also didn’t seem to be an evolution of Bugge`s „New Conception of Jazz“. Yet it’s probably fair to say that Rymden´s music was deeply influenced by these journeys and manged to take it to a new and different balance and level. It will be fascinating to hear and see how this trio will further develop. For now, their newly released CD „Reflections & Odysseys“ (a very fitting title) is an impressive statement which they were able to deliver in an outstanding concert in Loerrach, intense for both the playing musicians and their audience, with a start like a rocket.
Chick Corea at KKL Lucerne - solo
Chick Corea solo concert at the KKL Lucerne
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