After last year's release of "The Berline Concert", Cologne-based saxophonist Angelika Niescier returns to New York to record in the studio with the quartet of bassist Christopher Tordini, with whom she's recorded before, plus trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and drummer Gerald Cleaver, the excitement of their playing unmistakable in 8 Niescier compositions.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2019 Country: Switzerland Packaging: Jewel Case Recorded at Douglas Recording, in Brooklyn, New York, on January 16th, 2018, by Peter Karl.
"During the current decade Cologne-based saxophonist Angelika Niescier has made her connection to New York's elite improvisational jazz community readily clear. Her trio album The Berlin Concert, was voted one of the most important releases of 2018 by Downbeat. This stunning new recording suggests that only the Atlantic Ocean separates her from the agile collaborators heard here.
Once again her music is anchored by the bass playing of Chris Tordini, the saxophonist's longest-running stateside partner. The album includes the first recorded evidence of her simpatico ties with drummer Gerald Cleaver and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson. On numerous pieces Niescier has experimented with various Cagean compositional devices to propel, complicate, and energize improvisational endeavors. She's long been stimulated by the ideas of John Cage, but this recording marks the first time she's chosen to apply them to her own work, albeit in a highly personalized fashion. Peter Margasak writes in the liner notes: "This fresh direction only suggests a blossoming of Niescier's creativity, as she complements the enlargement of her New York circle with an expansion of compositional models."-Intakt
"Last year, saxophonist Angelika Niescier released The Berlin Concert, a raucous and unfettered trio session with bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. This semi-sequel features Tordini again, but Gerald Cleaver's behind the kit this time, and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson has been added to the lineup. Niescier and Finlayson lock in side by side for tightly configured melodies, but their solos are exploratory and fanfare-like at once, and the rhythm section is every bit as explosive as that on The Berlin Concert; Cleaver's snare and tom work can be as avalanche-like as Elvin Jones', but he can also be as crisp and precise as Max Roach at times. On the opening "The Surge," the staccato blasts of the horns are matched in speed and deftness by the drums, every step of the way. It's a ridiculously high-energy, intricate performance that sets the tone for a rocket ride of an album."-Phil Freeman, Stereogum