Lehman / Crump / Lehman - Kaleidoscope Collage - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Always curious and always looking for new challenges, Alex Riel has been an important innovator of modern drumming in Europe. He was among the very first to record a InchfreeInch solo on his debut album in 1965 and he was a founding member of the beat-group Savage Rose, while also playing with Bill Evans, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon and being a member of Monica Zetterlund's quartet. From the last 20 years we know him for his work with Enrico Pieranunzi, Kenny Werner, Mads Vinding and many others. On InchOur SongsInch, Alex Riel brings together two musical InchplaymatesInch The legendary bassist Bo Stief, who like Riel, belongs to the generation of Danish musicians who started their professional careers at Montmartre in the 60s, and Carsten Dahl, one of Europe's most innovative piano players. The trio plays in balance with themselves and each other, and simply let's the music flow unhindered. So where, then, does the music flow? Basically, this is classic piano-trio jazz, and while Carsten Dahl is Inchin chargeInch, he never overshadows the trio's creative affinity. Quite appropriately, the mood is established with, InchMy SongInch a classic Keith Jarrett number. In many ways Riel's playing is discreet, often poetic, so it's fitting that Dahl has dedicated his composition for the album, InchThe PoetInch to Alex. We are also treated to a couple of melancholic Swedish folk songs reminiscent of legendary pianist Jan Johansson, plus the trio's own folklore-inspired InchHøstdansenInch (InchHarvest DanceInch). Along the way there are also four freshly interpreted American jazz standards, including John Coltrane's InchGiant StepsInch as a lyrical ballad - in direct contrast to the high-powered original version. The personal and musical friendship of the three musicians is obvious. It's playful, creative and beautiful when Alex Riel, Bo Stief and Carsten Dahl play their songs.

Various Artists - Kaleidoscope / Various [COMPACT DISCS] date 08/01/2005

The Danish composer Martin Lohse (b. 1971) writes contemporary music drawing on musical history. The sensitive elegance of Baroque and Romanticism meet the rigorous certainty of Minimalism - a simplicity of expression approaching the insisting and touching which is evident in all three works on this album. They are thus written with the featured artists in mind, fronted by the pianist David Lau Magnussen with the Danish Chamber Players (Ensemble Storstrøm) and an exclusive team of instrumentalists. Martin Lohse is not only a composer; he is also a visual artist and poet. These forms of artistic expression as such need not have anything to do with one another, although the man behind them is the same; but Lohse engages in what appears to be a consistent, fruitful dialogue between expressiveness and a structural, theoretical approach to this urge to express himself. The music by Lohse hangs in front of the listener as independent figures- mobiles- and although they constantly show new sides of themselves one recognizes them easily. The music provides references to the dance suites of the Baroque through the elegance of the Rococo and the emotional outbursts of Romanticism to the rhythmic swing and motif repetitions of Minimalism.