The Austrian pianist’s latest undertaking, on which he also has the producer credit, is Austrian Syndicate, a passion project which pays tribute to his much-celebrated keyboard compatriot, Joe Zawinul. Zawinul of course had his own Syndicate and when explaining his choice of name once said, “you are not just in a band, you are in a family.” This sense of interconnection is important for Helbock too, given the album has a major role for his own former teacher and long-time mentor, pianist Peter Madsen.

For all of its more contemporary moments, this disc is rooted in archetypal jazz fusion. “Ballad for Schönenbach” for instance could comfortably sit alongside “A Remark You Made”, from Weather Report’s 1977 classic Heavy Weather. Helbock’s Vangelis-style synths float over piano lines from Madsen in an elegant slow burner, and the result is a feeling of lineage continued rather than simple pastiche.

Helbock also has a formidable list of guest artists on this album, not least funk trombonist extraordinaire Fred Wesley. Wesley, who has just turned 80, is still playing with a sense of groove that few others can rival, and his solo on “Crimson Woman” is the dictionary definition of ‘in the pocket’.

Elsewhere, “Nuyorican” employs a careful interplay of synth melody and piano montunos, whilst the bass of Raphael Preuschl, drums of Herbert Pirker and percussion of Claudio Spieler dive into Puerto Rican rhythms with panache.

Given the scope of the project, it’s perhaps not surprising that some elements work better than others. The closing arrangement of Mozart’s “Komm, lieber Mai und mache..”, featuring Maria Joao, sounds more suited to the credits of a Japanese game show, but even fusion’s greatest exponents have often sailed close to the winds of good taste (Part 2 of Chick Corea’s “El Bozo” anyone?).

The most refreshing thing about this album is its lack of artifice. Austrian Syndicate is heartfelt, technically faultless and not constrained by any narrowness of aesthetic.

The post David Helbock – ‘Austrian Syndicate’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Performed in a converted church, the feel is experimental and free, with the reverberant space of the building taking on a role as a third partner in the group. In the opener “Moonrise”, Draksler pings high notes into the ether like stars on a clear night, before her prepared piano bell patterns repeat and collapse in on themselves amid Santos Silva’s half-valve trills.

Although ostensibly split across four tracks, these are more like way points on an uninterrupted journey. The named pieces do not so much start and end, as evolve as logical consequences of what has come before, such as when actual bell sounds emerge during “Close”, having been presaged at the opening of the set.

Draksler’s speeding pianola-style figures in the high register evoke the twentieth-century experimental automation of Conlon Nancarrow, and the two players are so closely aligned in their dialogue that it feels less like two separate improvisers and more as if every sound is generated from a single point of imagination.

Santos Silva achieves white noise effects by exhaling forcefully through her instrument on “Liquid Rock”, and we experience a kind of musical degradation, with any familiar moorings of tonality, melody or metre gradually stripped away. Having pared things back to this point, the sudden reintroduction of melodic figures and rhythmic patterns feels like water in the desert.

There are echoes of John Adams in Draksler’s piano figuration and Santos Silva channels the late, great Jon Hassell’s Fourth World in the exotic and mystical shading she gives to her lines. This is music that demands your attention. It can only be front and centre of your awareness, and every sound is freighted with meaning, despite being divorced from convention.

The combination of harmon-muted trumpet and EBow-ed piano strings in the final, title track creates a texture that has a purity and intensity unlike anything heard in the preceding 35 minutes. Out of this comes a series of clarion C#s, insistent and irrepressible. It feels like a moment of arrival and realisation; a moment of growth.

The post Kaja Draksler / Susana Santos Silva – ‘Grow’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Still here from the early days is metrically agile drummer par excellence Mark Guiliana, and on keys is a newer talent in the form of Azerbaijani pianist Elchin Shirinov, who featured on Cohen’s 2019 album Arvoles. Recorded just before the pandemic, Two Roses paints Cohen’s music in broad and bold orchestral colours. Standout track When I’m Falling is a clear example of how at home in this medium Cohen is. The orchestration is expansive and beautifully rendered so that every detail can be discerned. The players have the precision to snap to Cohen’s compound metres, and clever touches in the writing such as a marimba ostinato or woodwind countermelodies add to the rich tapestry underpinning Cohen’s vocals.

Elsewhere, Emotional Storm, first recorded on the Continuo album, takes on an even greater urgency than its original form. Guiliana’s razor-sharp drumming zips through the busy texture, and Shirinov and Cohen are locked in step for the piece’s every twist and turn. The disc’s title track could be mistaken for the opening to a Hollywood soundtrack, but alongside the more cinematic moments there are classy standards snuck in here too. Cohen explores the inherent emotional ambiguity of eden ahbez’s Nature Boy and Thad Jones’s A Child is Born to sustain wide musical horizons.

In the hands of a lesser artist, the mighty Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra could have felt underused or tacked on, but that’s not the case here. The link between the trio and orchestra feels genuine and necessary, and there’s certainly a sense that the live experience will be a real blockbuster. Until that time, this album is the best seat in the house for an extraordinary collaboration.

The post Avishai Cohen – ‘Two Roses’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Formed in 2015, Jazzrausch recorded their third album at the Munich nightclub Harry Klein, a venue which has been integral to their journey so far and hosted their 2020 New Year’s Eve live stream – (LINK).

Mixing jazz and techno is not for the faint-hearted and there are tracks here which work better than others. Album opener Mosaïque Bleu feels a little too much like catwalk backing music, albeit with a tasty trombone solo from Nils Landgren, and whilst Make Craft Perform is certainly slick, it risks slipping into the more forgettable side of funky house.

It’s when things get darker and more minimal that Jazzrausch Bigband really comes into its own. AI 101 has clear overtones of Kraftwerk, but with a dash of John Adams complementing a relentless techno beat. There is a clever mix of instrumentation, with live drums blending in and out of the electronica textures, and an acid jazz Fender Rhodes solo carves some superb solo lines.

I have tried several times to listen to Green Sun Return without reaching to turn up the volume, but it’s proved impossible. The central muted piano string hook, sampling, synths and big band writing combine brilliantly, and if you can listen to the second breakdown without an enormous grin on your face then there is a genuine risk you may be missing an important part of your musical soul.

Big highs like this would be all the more transporting if the album’s tracks were a little longer, and it’s perhaps a missed opportunity that they aren’t presented here as one continuous mix, as they often appear in live performance. That said, this disc is a great calling card for a cracking band, and when festivals return I’ll be heading straight to their tent.

The post Jazzrausch Bigband – ‘téchne’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

This is the first of two albums being released in 2021 to mark Pédron’s recent half century, with the second, due out in the autumn, promising contemporary Parisian grooves. To start the celebrations, Pédron presents his Fifty Fifty New York Sessions, showcasing the great bassist Larry Grenadier and two leading lights of the new generation, Sullivan Fortner (piano) and Marcus Gilmore (drums). It’s an all-acoustic 50-minute set and makes a good case for Pédron to be considered one of the classiest alto operators around right now.

Considering his first album Cherokee contained a particularly blistering rendition of the standard, you might assume that Pédron is all bebop and no ballad, but it’s in the slower tunes on this new disc that he really shines. Sakura is a beautiful evocation of a flowering cherry tree, featuring a meditative introduction from Fortner and a typically lyrical solo from Grenadier. Elsewhere, Mizue begins with a beguiling counterpoint between Pédron and Grenadier, which builds to a chart of significant intensity and depth, whilst Trevise showcases Fortner in cascades of broken chords which shimmer into a glitteringly fresh atmosphere. And don’t worry, Pédron can still swing as hard as ever, as the unrelenting zip of Bullet T will attest.

It’s hard to square the Pédron of this disc with the wild intercontinental funk of his 2016 album And the, but perhaps that’s the point here. Pédron has the versatility and technical dexterity to let loose in a blazing Mulatu Astatke-style groove one year and then deliver an album of swing as crisp as a glass of Sauvignon in another.

The post Pierrick Pédron – ‘Fifty Fifty New York Sessions’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.