The Squid's Ear Magazine


Kaufmann, Achim / Frank Gratkowski /Wilbert de Joode: Oblengths (Leo Records)

The trio of Achim Kaufmann on piano, Frank Gratkowski on sax and clarinets, and Wilbert de Joode on bass, has performed together since the mid-80s, developing a unique language of dynamic, texture and rhythmic complexity that puts them at the forefront of European collective improv.
 

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Personnel:



Achim Kaufmann-piano

Frank Gratkowski-alto saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet

Wilbert de Joode - bass


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UPC: 5024792074822

Label: Leo Records
Catalog ID: LEOR748.2
Squidco Product Code: 21667

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2016
Country: UK
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded live at the Loft, in Koln, Germany, on January 30th, 2014 by Wolfgang Stach.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"There was a time, in certain jazz circles at least, when free improvisation was likened to playing tennis without a net-a cheat, as if inventing form and content in the moment was easy. Partly to dispel such notions Misha Mengelberg started calling improvising "instant composing," and he'd prove its value, by combing through tapes of his improvisations, in search of promising material to develop. Musicians all over Europe took to free play, and in time even mainstream jazz musicians would give it a go: Keith Jarrett's trio, Regina Carter and Kenny Barron, Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor-and Lee Konitz, who'd played free with Lennie Tristano in the '40s. Collective improvisation is a discipline that calls for good ears, quick reaction time, and abundant musical resources. It is often done best by groups that specialize in the practice. Which brings us to Achim Kaufmann, Frank Gratkowski and Wilbert de Joode.

This sterling trio first came together in 2002, at one of the great laboratories of improvised music, the weekly Tuesday series at Amsterdam's legendary Zaal 100. But the band's roots go back to the mid-1980s, when pianist Kaufmann and saxophonist/clarinetist/bass clarinetist Gratkowski both lived in Köln and played together often, sometimes in a trio with drummer Uwe Ecker. But then they drifted apart. By the late 1990s, Achim was living in Amsterdam, across the harbor from bassist Wilbert de Joode, and in 1999 those two first played together in a one-shot Michael Vatcher group at Zaal 100. By then Wilbert and Frank had clicked in a couple of Dutch pianist Michiel Braam's bands. And then Kaufmann and Gratkowski reconnected, and had the idea that a trio with De Joode might make for a fun evening.

Some Tuesdays at Zaal 100, the interplay is a miracle: "This could be a band!" And usually that's the end of it. But this time, it really was a band: they all knew they had more to say together. The trio recorded kwast (Konnex) on their first European tour in 2003 and then unearth (Nuscope) live in Köln the next year-nice records both, and like all the trio's music, all improvised.

Gigs were not so very numerous in the early years. Achim Kaufmann picks up the story: "In 2006, things took off a little more. We played a number of concerts in Germany, Serbia, Holland, and France, and some of those recordings became the CD palaë, on Leo Records. I feel that around that time-and palaë documents this quite well-the trio really developed a special identity." He's right: that album is a stunner from its opening moments, where it may take you a minute to sort out who's playing what. Plasticity of timbre is one of this trio's hallmarks.

More European tours followed. "In 2007, we did a two-week tour in Canada and the U.S.," Achim says, "and another ten-concert tour in the U.S. in November 2009. Those North American tours really made us a band I think-like a night in Edmonton where nothing seemed to work except for individual solos. Some live recordings from early 2010 became geäder [on the Gligg label], and I hear our road experiences in there." Then came SKEIN (Leo) recorded in 2013, where the trio were embedded in a sextet with cellist Okkyung Lee, drummer Tony Buck, and timbre-minded composer Richard Barrett on live electronics.

And now comes oblengths where each member of the trio dips into his own distinct repertoire of squeaky, percussive and abrasive sounds, among many other available sounds, including their instruments' customary ones. There are moments when each player can make his axe sound channeled through an amplifier with a cracked speaker cone.

They have great command of ensemble texture, the sum of the band's individual parts. Frank Gratkowski has mastered the full range of once-unusual techniques that a contemporary composer like Richard Barrett might call for in a score; Gratkowski exploits the myriad tonal and timbral effects improvisers have embraced since before King Oliver picked up the wah-wah mute. Paradoxically enough, that broad range of 'voices' Frank can inhabit in short order defines his personal style, instead of obliterating it. It's not about style quotation, but having all the right tools at hand.

Kaufmann loves Herbie Nichols's tricky jazz tunes, and can sound delicate as Schubert, but he'll slam the keyboard too. Much as he can make the big metal-and-wood box ring, he's never a bully who elbows the other players out of his way. He's also unusually adept inside the piano, where using various objects placed on the frame or the strings, he gets those squeaky, abrasive and cracked-amplifier sounds; he knows where the overtone-nodes are along the strings, to bring out prepared-piano bonks by hand as he strikes the corresponding key.

Wilbert de Joode's violent pizzicato can make other bassists sound like they're barely tapping the strings; with a bow he can give the impression he's sawing the bass in half, or he can descend into an almost subliminal subterranean hum. He can quickly switch between pizz and arco in mid-phrase too. But De Joode can also stay the course: harp on one catchy figure for a good long time, perhaps until its rhythm insinuates itself into the ensemble, at which time he'll move on, as on "Trash Kites." Or maybe he'll never quite let that catchy figure go, as on "Of Time in Pieces."

When things change fast, the players will shift direction by rounding a curve rather than making a 90-degree turn at a stop sign: no "channel switching" jump cuts. Instead they may sneak up on you, literally. The players are so sensitive to dynamics, they'll play spatial games with your perceptions-make one instrument sound like it's in the foreground, and the others far in the distance.

Taking dynamics and texture as seriously as they do, they will get very quiet and spare, embracing wide open spaces-the whole Morton Feldman/AMM/Wadada Leo Smith silence-is-golden esthetic. (That idea comes back with a vengeance on the final track). "Unaccounted For and Inward," the shortest piece here at six minutes, hints at their expressive range; there's three-way counterpoint, something approaching improvising over chord changes, and an animated final episode, with a sublime little coda. You may fairly wonder who plays that last faint note.

"No Doubt the Beginning," which seems to begin in cyclonic medias res, demonstrates the rhythmic complexity the most alert players bring to raucous free play. As the phrases keep permutating, the trio achieves some strange kind of swing feel. And then they come to an exaggerated fermata, taking a deep, deep, deep breath before carrying on."-Kevin Whitehead


Artist Biographies

"Achim Kaufmann was born into a musical family in Aachen, Germany, in 1962, and became fascinated by jazz and the possibilities of improvisation as a teenager. He started writing tunes around that time. Later he studied music at the Conservatory in Cologne and also took classes with creative masters such as Dave Holland, Steve Coleman, Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, and Steve Lacy.

From 1996 to 2009, he lived in Amsterdam where he became part of that city's internationally renowned improvised music scene.Since 2002, he has been touring internationally with the trio Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode, an improvising unit which has released four CDs so far, to much critical acclaim.

In the late '90s and '00s, Achim led two groups with reed player Michael Moore: trio kamosc and gueuledeloup quartet.In 2007, he recorded kyrill, a set of compositions for piano trio featuring Valdi Kolli and Jim Black. Their follow-up cd, entitled verivyr, was released in 2011.

He has also collaborated with his wife, poet/painter Gabriele Guenther, on the audiodrama Borderline - From the Shadows of a Journey, and has written music for various chamber ensembles.In his solo work, mixed techniques are used to create a fluctuating world of sounds and gestures. Resonance and reverberation, space and density play an important role in both his solo and ensemble work.

Since his move to Berlin, he got involved in various new projects, such as the trio grünen with Robert Landfermann and Christian Lillinger, Oni Kramler (with Matthias Schubert, Antonio Borghini, and various guests), and a trio with cellist Okkyung Lee and trumpeter Axel Dörner.

In 2013, the sextet SKEIN (Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode plus Richard Barrett, Okkyung Lee, and Tony Buck) had its premiere at the dOeK festival in Amsterdam and subsequently recorded for SWR radio.

He recently released duo albums with long-standing collaborators Michael Moore and Thomas Heberer.

In addition, Achim has played and/or recorded with Han Bennink, Mark Dresser, George Lewis, Steve Swallow, Tobias Delius, Wolter Wierbos, Mark Helias, Paul Rutherford, Thomas Lehn, Ab Baars, Paul Lovens, Dylan van der Schyff, Peggy Lee, Chris Speed, Tomász Stanko, Gerd Dudek, Bill Elgart, Paul Lytton, Harri Sjöström, Andrea Parkins, Harris Eisenstadt, Ingrid Laubrock, Tristan Honsinger, Shelley Hirsch, Steve Swell, Thomas Heberer, Urs Leimgruber, Roger Turner, Fay Victor, Fred Lonberg-Holm, John Hollenbeck, Bob Brookmeyer, Simon Nabatov, Lê Quan Ninh, Gerry Hemingway, John Hébert, Al Foster, Adam Nussbaum, and many more.

He was awarded the German SWR Jazz Award in 2001, and the prestigious Albert Mangelsdorff award in 2015.

"For many years, Achim Kaufmann has been one of the most inspiring and exciting personalities of the European jazz and improvisation scene. His music bears witness to great harmonic subtlety and structural depth. A brilliant pianist and composer, his reflected exploration of tradition has led him to a nuanced, contemporary sound language that encompasses poetry, energy and abstraction in equal measure." "-Julia Neupert, SWR radio

-Achim Kaufmann Website (http://www.achimkaufmann.com/bio.html)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Frank Gratkowski, saxophone. Born in Hamburg, 1963.

Started playing the saxophone at 16 and, following a period at the Hamburg Conservatory (Hamburger Musikhochschule), moved in 1985 to study at the Cologne Conservatory of Music with Heiner Wiberny, graduating in 1990.

Further studies with Charlie Mariano, Sal Nistico and Steve Lacy.

Frank Gratkowski has been working as a soloist in various international formations (Grubenklang Orchester, Klaus Koenig Orchester, Musikfabrik NRW, Tony Oxley Celebration Orchestra, Bentje Braam, BikBentBraam, All Ears, Zeitkratzer, WDR Big band, etc.). Since 1990 he has been giving solo performances throughout Europe, Canada and USA. With his first solo program, he was a 1991 prizewinner in the Musik Kreativ contest. The release of the solo CD "Artikulationen" followed the same year and a new one "Artikulationen II" in 2002.

Since 1992 he has been working in a duo with the pianist Georg Graewe (CD "VicissEtudes"). The duo is often extended through the participation of different additional musicians, such as drummer Paul Lovens (CD "Quicksand") and bassist John Lindberg (CD "Arrears").

In 1995 he founded the "Frank Gratkowski Trio" with Dieter Manderscheid (Germany), bass, and Gerry Hemingway (USA), drums, (CDs "Gestalten" and "The Flume Factor" ). In 2000 the trio has been extended to a quartet by Dutch trombonist Wolter Wierbos (CDs "Kollaps", "Spectral Reflections", "Facio" and "Le Vent et la Gorge"). Since 2003 also appearing as a Double Quartet plus Tobias Delius, Herb Robertson, Wilbert DeJoode and Michael Vatcher. In 2005 he got the SWR Jazzprize.

In 1999 the duo with the Italian trombonist Sebastiano Tramontana has been formed and since 2001 Frank Gratkowski has been performing with a trio including Wilbert De Jode (NL) on bass and Achim Kaufmann (D) on piano (CDs "Kwast" and "Unearth"). Since 2006 he's working with the Trio Gratkowski / Brown / Winant (CDs "Wake" and "Vermilion Traces/Donaueschingen 2009"). He is also a co-leader / composer of the Multiple Joy[ce] Orchestra and got a commission to compose for the ensemble Apartment House by "November Music " (Den Bosch NL) and the "Huddersfield Comtemporary Music Fesitival" (England) in 2009. Further actual projects are Fo[u]r Alto, a saxophone ensemble dedicated to microtonal music and "Artikulationen E" a solo program for saxophone with 8 channel live electronic.

Frank Gratkowski played on nearly every German and on numerous international Jazz and contemporary music Festivals including Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Quebec, Les Mans, Muelhuus, Groeningen, Nickelsdorf, Barcelona, Lithuania, Warsaw, Zagreb, Prague, Bratislava, Sofia, Bucharest, Odessa and Roma, Huddersfield, London.

He has been teaching saxophone and ensembles at the Cologne, Berlin and Arnhem Conservatory of Music and is giving workshops all around the world.

Furthermore he has performed with Robert Dick, Phil Wachsmann, Radu Malfatti, Herb Robertson, Marcio Mattos, Eugenio Colombo, Peter Kowald, Ray Anderson, Michael Moore, Ken Vandermark, Greg Osby, Kenny Wheeler, Louis Sclavis, John Betsch, Jane Ira Bloom, Connie and Hannes Bauer, Xu Fengxia, James Newton, Muhal Richard Abrams, John Lindberg, Michael Formaneck, Ernst Reijseger, Fred van Hove, Theo Jörgensmann, Phil Minton, Peter Brötzmann, Mark Dresser, Mark Feldman, Hamid Drake, Michiel Braam, Han Bennink, Mal Waldron, Misha Mengelberg a.m.o."

-Frank Gratkowski Website (http://gratkowski.com/biography/)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Wilbert de Joode (1955) is a veritable research scientist of bass pizzicato and bowing techniques. A self-taught musician, he has been playing the double-bass since 1982. He began working in groups that improvised within a jazz framework. Other musicians were soon drawn to his idiosyncratic style, and in the mid 80s he played in groups led by Vera Vingerhoeds, Armando Cairo and Ig Henneman where he further developed his improvisation skills. He came into contact with such musicians as J.C.Tans, Rinus Groeneveld, Michiel Braam, Han Bennink, Han Buhrs (Schismatics) and Ab Baars.

De Joode is currently one of the most active bass players on the European improvised music circuit. His individual style and musicality transforms the double bass into an equal partner in the most varied ensembles. A personal tone colour, exploration of the outer registers, quirky improvisations and the use of gut strings contribute to an instantly recognizable and intriguing sound.

The seventeen improvised pieces on his first solo cd Olo (distributed by ToonDist) show how rich and complex his sound on the double bass is."

-DOEK Festival Website (http://www.doek.org/project/wilbert-de-joode/)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Trash Kites 17:12

2. Unaccounted For And Inward 6:00

3. Anything Wooden Or Oblong 13:02

4. Of Time In Pieces 16:21

5. No Doubt The Beginning 3:37

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
European Improvisation and Experimental Forms
Free Improvisation
Trio Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Leo Records.


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