It’s a crux with jazz – as a rule, old acquaintances play and everyone applauds, whereas nobody sees those who are not yet introduced: nevertheless, they appear every now and then – and then some do what Gunter Hampel succeeded in doing: they burn into your memory. Although ambitious for the time – by German … Read more
Wolf Kampmann: “Silke Eberhard’s strength and uniqueness is not that she conveys, but that she confronts, that she does not draw soft tones but leaves sharp contours on the auditory membrane with a sure hand.” Born 1972 in Heidenheim – studied at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin, played with Aki Takase (also featuring … Read more
This article was originally published in Japanese in Jazz Japan vol.141 “Live From The Room At The Top” is Pepper Adams’ live album filling the blank period in 1972, an album that has remained unpublished and archived at the University of Alberta, Canada. Adams, who was a founding member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra … Read more
Bram de Looze’s Vice Versa, with New York masterful drummer Eric McPherson (Jackie Mclean, Andrew Hill, Pharaoh Sanders, Fred Hersch) and Berlin bassist Felix Henkelhausen (Jim Black, Nate Wooley, Lotte Anker). “Both (McPherson and Henkelhausen) are compositional masterminds with unlimited rhythmic inventiveness.” – from the announcement of the broadcasting hall in Bremen. Top class jazz … Read more
Jacopo Ferrazza was born in Frascati, a city near Rome. He is an acoustic and electric pianist and bassist. He graduated in classical bass and classical piano at the Conservatorio di Musica Licinio Refice, Frosinone (Licinio Refice Conservatory of Music). He studied bass with John Patitucci, Ares Tavolazzi, Marco Panascia, Aldo Perris, Luca Cola and … Read more
Born in Durham, England, Jo Harrop started out as a session singer working with a host of artists including Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart, Gloria Gaynor and Enrique Iglesias. After moving to London, she quickly established herself as one of the most distinctive voices in British jazz. “When I was a teenager, my dad took me … Read more
It’s difficult for anyone to compete against such a famous song as Pop Up from the 2019 album Nadi. Especially when, like the German group Fazer, you wrote it yourself! I can remember when they “only” had 500 monthly listeners. Today there are over 100,000 on Spotify – Fazer, the funky formation from Munich has … Read more
“Resina” is Guillem García’s first album in trio format. García began his musical studies with the classical accordion. At the age of 19, he adopted the piano as his main instrument, which allowed him to enter the world of jazz. In 2020 he decided to focus more on his own projects and started his own … Read more
This article was originally published in Japanese in Jazz Japan vol.141 Taking compositions from his past eight releases, Revisited is a collection of ‘self cover songs’ by top Norwegian pianist Helge Lien with a trio whose members have changed again. The members of the album “10” released in 2019 were drummer Per Oddvar Johansen and … Read more
Hailed by Downbeat as “a living work of modern art”, True Stories is the fourth album of Michigan-born musician Mark Wade who’s been named one of the best bass players of the year five out of the last six years in Downbeat magazine’s readers’ poll. Founder and director of New Music Horizons which promotes the … Read more