Trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer Franz Koglmans track record is impressive, with its long discography and collaborations with many post-modern jazz greats like Lee Konitz, Paul Bley, Bill Dixon, Steve Lacy and Enrico Rava, to name but a few. On this release Koglmanns instrumental style as well as his compositional achievements are on display, with 10 pieces made up of recent compositions and recasting of older ones.
The drummer-less seven-piece ensemble makes for an intriguing textural experience. Drums are central to stateside jazz, deriving, as is does from African traditions. The lack of a pulse keeper and rhythmic punctuator makes for a chamber-jazz-like experience, but that has its own challenges and charms, not the least of which is to groove without the skins. While groove is not the first impression that one gets from this ensemble of flugelhorn, violin, clarinet, saxophone, trombone, tuba and piano, there is a bit of a West-coast contrapuntal aesthetic at work that is quite pleasant, as in Chets CATS Heels. Many passages also deploy spare duo exchanges contrasted with full ensemble threads of musical discourse, as in April in Vienna, that is also a kind of reference to April in Paris and other big band charts, here rendered in a stripped down septette.
An arrangers sensibility is audibly at work here, as the groups colors are carefully orchestrated and blended in astute ways that make much of a minimalist palette. Also noteworthy is the CDs offering of the ten compositions in a stereo mix option and a Binaural mix (for headphones) option, a quirky aspect of this release that audiophiles out there may find of interest.
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