Leszek Mozdzer - Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic I (Live) '2013

Tracks list

In 1944, the notorious American jazz impresario Norman Grantz (1918 –
2001) had a vision: He wanted to anchor the uniqueness and virtuosity of
improvised music deep in society, enable the musicians to garner the rank and
recognition that they deserved, and create something entirely new by
spontaneously combining different styles and approaches in unexpected ensembles.
There could only be one place to make this plan a reality – a classical
concert hall: Jazz at the Philharmonic was born. Grantz concerts, which later
also went on tour, enjoyed fantastic success for 20 years. He presented the most
famous jazz musicians of the era, including the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy
Gillespie, Oscar Peterson and Lester Young. Jazz got sophisticated.

Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic: The new concert series in the Chamber Music Hall of
the Berlin Philharmonic picks up on Norman Grantz ground-breaking idea. The
Berlin Philharmonic Foundation was of the opinion that jazz deserved more
attention, and when ACT-owner Siggi Loch remembered the Jazz at the Philharmonic
concert series, he proposed such a concept for Berlin. It became immediately
apparent on 11 December 2012, at the opening night of Jazz at Berlin
Philharmonic, that jazz is a welcome guest. For the first time in its 25-year
history, the Kammermusiksaal was completely sold out for a jazz concert, with an
audience of 1200. 3 pianists - Iiro Rantala, Leszek Mo¿d¿er and Michael
Wollny proved – as soloists, in duos and as a trio – that jazz can
break down the rigid old borders between serious and entertaining music. They
showed an audience of largely classical fans that, in no uncertain terms,
classical and jazz are anything but opposites. The Tagesspiegel newspaper wrote
that it was an event with rarity value for Berlin and the public broadcaster ZDF
said: That was fantastic, if not to say world class.

The live recording Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic I provides the proof of what can
happen when musicians that have never played together before join forces in
unusual situations. Rantala, Wollny and Mo¿d¿er succeed in creating a
defining moment in music, in which jazz and classical meet as equals
(Tagesspiegel), little wonder really, with all three of them being such
crossover fans. Michael Wollny, the still only 34 year-old flagship of young
German jazz, gets his inspiration just as much from Schubert or Mahler as from
Björk or Kraftwerk, which culminates into powerful masterpieces like
Hexentanz, Wollnys solo title on the album of the same name, a chromatically
undulating, harmonically sparkling and rhythmically rousing cornucopia of his
unrivalled personal expressiveness.

The Pole Leszek Mo¿d¿er enjoyed a classical music education. An exchange
between the main musical directions is entirely natural for him, as his
impressionist solo Incognitor shows. The Finn Iiro Rantala is a kindred spirit
in this respect, as can be heard in the duet Suffering.

Iiro Rantala, the recent Echo Jazz award winner in the field of international
piano stands at the peak of the innovative eclectics aligning themselves with
the old jazz tradition to study and revere great inventors of piano music and
use them for their own ideas. It only makes sense then that the recording begins
with him. Rantalas version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Aria and the
Goldberg Variations, the starting and endpoint of all swinging and improvised
music, here transported with exemplary care into the present. Nor is it any more
a coincidence that he and Wollny follow it up with Tears For Esbjörn, the
poignant homage to one of the most influential jazz pianists of the last 20
years: Esbjörn Svensson, who died in 2008. Indeed, it is the overwhelming
duets that make it clear that all three musicians have the same quality playing
together as they do as soloists. After all, they all started their careers in
bands: Wollny with his trio [em], Rantala with the trio Töykeät and
Mo¿d¿er in various groups, for example with Lars Danielsson. Then, when
they all join together for Chick Coreas Armandos Rumba at the end of Jazz At
Berlin Philharmonic, it is the expected highlight that casts a spell on the
listener. And all the while, even beneath this raging, masterly Latin party,
there is a classical foundation to be heard.

At the latest after the powerful start (Tagesspiegel) of the first Jazz At
Berlin Philharmonic edition there was no doubt that more had to follow. On 25
March, the pianists Joachim Kühn and Yaron Herman meet with Michel Portal on
the bass clarinet and violinist Adam Baldych to go on an adventure of free
improvisation; a musical dialogue without a net. Norman Grantz would have loved
it.

Iiro Rantala, piano
Michael Wollny, piano
Leszek Mozdzer, piano

Tracklist:
01. Iiro Rantala - Aria and Goldberg Variation (Live) (7:11)
02. Iiro Rantala - Tears for Esbjörn (Live) (6:54)
03. Michael Wollny - Hexentanz (Live) (10:22)
04. Leszek Mozdzer - No Message (Live) (5:28)
05. Leszek Mozdzer - Incognitor (Live) (5:34)
06. Leszek Mozdzer - Svantetic (Live) (6:34)
07. Iiro Rantala - Suffering (Live) (8:08)
08. Iiro Rantala - Armandos Rumba (Live) (6:17)

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