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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Achim Kaufmann - Verivyr (pirouet - 2011) *****

By Joe Higham

On the first listen to this album I sensed that it would be a strong contender for 5 stars. It's an album that covers everything interesting and important in improvised music. It explores, swings, uses dissonance, melody, it surprises and delights you. In fact it's a lesson in what's not being taught in jazz conservatories world wide, how to make individual music that blurs boundaries and shows a sense of tradition.

Achim Kaufmann has been on the scene for many years and yet he seems to slip under the general listening public's radar screens, and when talking about top quality music, this album really stands out. A strong statement with not a dud on the album, all tracks are first-rate. From the starting 'Permission (Dingbats)' which moves gently around like the swell of the sea, to the last tune 'E Jinx'(Tk 10), a sort of minimalist repeated melody with a very strong rocking - Jim Black - beat, it's also short and sweet. These tunes sandwich the other eight exceptional tunes which although very free in feeling are also very strong melodically. 'Elephant and Boats' (Tk 1) goes everywhere before settling down. Kobuk (Tk 3) seems to lurch about as if three drunks were playing with a beautiful togetherness. 'Bright industrial Smile' (Tk 5) is a swinging tune with Andrew Hill feel to it, probably the closest one gets to a standard jazz piece.

Tk 7 'La Quadrimoteur' feels as though three musicians are fighting over who has the melody with frantic playing and heavy piano, bass and drums. In fact the last half of the album takes you by surprise as tracks 7, 8, 9 & 10 are highly rhythmic pieces, almost funky in their conceptions. It's a great way to keep the listener involved as the music constantly picks up throughout the album and by the time you arrive at the last few tracks you're hooked. In part the success - of the trio and the CD - is in the groups ability to play music which although rhythmically complex sounds so natural, almost like a magician who makes the impossible look so easy. The album is also very musical, not at all distant, making for very enjoyable but stimulating listening.

An excellent album which is highly recommended, and possibly my choice of album of the year? (*) If you look through the blog (Stef is also a Kaufmann fan) you'll notice many other fine albums from this excellent pianist and this could be the moment to discover Kaufmann if you don't know him already.

The trio is : Achim Kaufmann piano, Valdi Kolli bass, and Jim Black drums.

* = Hmmm, difficult to decide which ones to vote for as yet ...?

     

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree this is a gem. His trio record Starmelodics (nuscope) with Dresser and Eisenstadt is also outstanding.

CraigP
http://improvisedblog.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

This a very good album, and yet I find the ***** rate to be misleading. This is not a "free" listening experience, but a rather conservative "modernist" trio. Recommended as it may be, it is not what I expect from a masterpiece rating at his particular blog. Beware "free" fans!

joesh said...

Hi Anon

Firstly, the 5 star rating means an excellent CD in our humble opinion, that's all.

Secondly, the blog is called Free-Jazz Blog ..... but that doesn't mean that the music we review here is uniquely 'free jazz'. I'm sure you've noticed when looking around the site a much larger range of music here than only 'free' (whatever that is). The idea of the site is to review interesting music which is (in general) not in the mainstream of jazz music.

I hope that clarifies the situation for you (and of course any others who are confused).

Thanks for your remarks also .... which keeps us on our toes.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Eric said...

Interesting album but I find the drumming irritating at times.