Record Reviews

WINDISCH TRIO ~ PROS & CONS CHALLENGE 71389 (Barcode: 608917138924) ~ GERMANY ~ Jazz Recorded: 2020 Released: 2021 This is the debut album by the Windisch TrioFind albums by this artist led by young German pianist / composer Julius WindischFind albums by this artist and also including Italian bassist Igor SpallatiFind albums by this artist and Argentinean drummer Fermin MerloFind albums by this artist. The album presents nine original compositions, all by the leader. The music is brilliant modern Jazz, which takes the classic piano trio format to completely contemporary and even innovative platform, producing a sophisticated amalgam of melodic themes with highly individual soloing by the trio members. In contrast to the established piano trio concept of piano / rhythm section balance, but trio offers a unity of three individuals improvising concurrently, with no obvious leader, each of the instruments playing at times as if it existed only in its own world, but amazingly sounding overall as a perfectly synchronized ensemble. The result is pretty stunning, especially to conventional Jazz listeners, who might, at least during the initial listening, experience a slight dizziness / confusion, which hopefully should transform into pure amazement and aesthetic joy. Despite the external appearance of being mostly Freely improvised, the music does have a perfectly coherent structure and modus operandi, which perhaps needs some time to get used to, but the initial effort leads to a most rewarding satisfaction. The concept works only thanks to the perfectly combined talents of these instrumentalists, which for the entire duration of the album stand shoulder to shoulder with their partners. There is intentionally no leader as such in this music, despite the fact that the piano is able to play vivid notes, as this music would lose its meaning without any of the instrumental ingredient missing in any given time. I must admit that this album made a much stronger impression on me than expected and so far it definitely is the most exciting new album that landed on my desk this year. I have yet to hear the quartet album Windisch recorded a while back, but if it is as good as this one, he is certainly one of the bright young European musicians worth following closely. He certainly is a proud representative of the burgeoning Berlin Jazz scene, that returned to its former glory of decades ago, now in the hands of the new generation. Anybody interested in contemporary European Jazz at its best should grab a copy of this gem immediately and don’t forget who told you about it :) Kudos to these young Lions! And no, there are co Cons whatsoever herein…

Updated: 11/08/2021Posted: 11/08/2021

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